Surprise/J80/J70 (SU) Test

Eligibility

Any active YCC member who:

• holds an Yngling key and another key, and
• has sailed at least 4 times on a YCC Surprise/J80/J70 (at least once on each class), and
• has done 3 helper's sessions since the beginning of the season (the sessions can be done after taking the test, in which case the key will be validated after the last session has been performed).

Procedure

• Anyone wishing to use the YCC Surprises/J80/J70 as skipper must pass a YCC Surprise test, even when holding a Swiss D permit.
• The Surprise test usually takes several outings, as a set of different skills will be tested thouroughly (see below), therefore plan ahead.
• We have established high standards for the SU test, which are appreciated by the harbour users, the police and overall have the goal of increasing the safety of sailing for all the YCC members involved and their sailing partners. Therefore we are happy to take candidates for the test who feel motivated and up-to-speed with their sailing skills.

Practical Test

For the practical part, the candidate

• contacts the test coordinator responsible for the SU courses.
• receives the SU Test Card from the test coordinator, listing the pre-requisites and the exercises to perform.
• fills in page 1 and page 4 and sends a scan of these pages back to the test coordinator.
• does a get-to-know outing (aka entry check) with the test coordinator
• only after receiving the go-ahead from the test coordinator, sails the SU/J70/J80 with authorised skippers and performs the test items from the SU Test Card, which are then validated by the various skippers.

A subset of the SU Test Card items has to be passed with the test coordinator. These are the MOB, the reefing, the U-turn.

Outings by the test coordinator are organised exclusively via a dedicated WhatsApp Group. Make sure to communicate your WhatsApp number to be included.

Sailing Permit

Surprises have a sail surface exceeding 15m². This implies that one must hold a Swiss D permit to sail them as skipper. (For sailors living abroad exemption may apply.) This permit can be obtained by taking the Swiss official test or by exchanging their national license for a Swiss one. The exchange is compulsory after twelve months of residence in Switzerland (see circulaire 54).

The Swiss D permit can be obtained either after (preferred) or before (discouraged) the YCC test is passed. YCC Surprises may be used for the police test provided at least one person on board holds the YCC Surprise licence and the YCC test has been passed. The police will further require one person on board to hold a Swiss D permit.

The outboard engines of the Surprises have a motor power of 3.3 kW. A Swiss A permit is therefore not required.

Practical tests can take place provided:

• there is more than a light breeze (2 Bf)
• the boat is fully operational, engine included

Frequently Asked Questions

• Note that an outing with the test coordinator is part of the pre-requisites. Testing can only start after this "ice-breaker" outing.
• Do not start any test activities before you have the green light of the test coordinator.
• Helper tasks can be done during or after the actual test procedure.
• The official lake license should actually only be passed after passing the SU test. Our requirements are much higher than the "police test", so you will hit the water swimming. We do not want to spoil our perfect record in those tests.
• The main purpose of the test card is to make you less dependent on the test coordinator availability: If you feel things are not moving for you, you can take things into your own hands and get items tested by other, usually senior, SU skippers, who are expected to apply the same conditions as the test coordinator would.
• there is no official list of eligible skippers, because the point of this approach is that you independently get things sorted, as an active sailor you will also no the SU skipper community to a certain extent, or will get to know them by looking at the member list, etc. It is all part of club life.
• Make sure to also mark clearly who signed which item, note the dates correctly and mark the boat type of the outings — the clearer the card is filled in, the faster it will be to produce the test report
• You cannot get items tested during a course or during a race
• Participating in Thursday practice is still considered helpful
• Do not worry about the 4 Bf item or any other items which require particular conditions — they are not mandatory, but if you have done that, it is a good thing to have documented
• Note that not all items can be done on all boats (on J/70, e.g., reefing and head-sail change are not easily possible)
• Make sure that you are familiar with all four boats and that you document outing(s) on every one of them
• At the end, there is a certain list of items the test coordinator is usually double-checking: reefing without the white kicker, U-turn under engine and object over board
• We do all the “fuss” because it helps us in various aspects, which have been empirically proven over the past 20+ years: less accidents, better reputation in the harbour, flawless results in the official police tests, pride among those who made it, and excellent preparation for the Dynamic 3000.

Contents

The test includes of the following items (non-exhaustive list, the SU Test Card is the binding norm):

• knots (bowline, reefing knot, figure of eight, turning a cleat)
• rigging and unrigging the boat
• choosing sails appropriate for the conditions and point of sailing
• leaving and returning to the moorings
• manoeuvring by engine (e.g. stop at the crane or at a jetty)
• sailing in all directions, going-about (tacking), gybe (well controlled, with and without spinnaker)
• conditions permitting, hoisting a spinnaker, gybing and lowering the spinnaker
• taking a reef in the main and changing the foresail while sailing
• making a 360° turn in restricted space such as a harbour (using sails to accelerate the rotation)
• stopping at a buoy
• man-overboard.

The candidate is invited to delegate tasks to crew members, examiner included, by giving orders explaining accurately and concisely what the crew is expected to do.

Norms

No person should be put into danger because of errors of the candidate. Priority rules must be respected. There should be no collisions with other boats as a result of errors of the candidate, nor interventions by the examiner to avoid collisions.

Inside the Harbour:

• clear briefing of the crew before executing any harbour manoeuvre
• manoeuvres by sail or by engine, at the choice of the candidate
• courtesy towards other harbour users
• the candidate checks the fastening of the mooring lines and verifies that all fenders are in place before leaving the boat
• the candidate checks the fastening and also otherwise correct installation of the headsail cover

Buoy circling:

• distance shall be 2 boat lengths
• it is buoy circling, not buoy elipsing
• comments about point-of-sail and succinct commands are expected
• during the gybe, the boat must always remain under control, on a downwind course, in particular there shall be no immediate luffing on the new tack (use the rudder to counter the angular momentum)

Buoy Stop:

• boat starts to drift backwards with the tip within 1 m from the buoy; also overshooting my not more than 1 m is fine
• arrival should be nose into the wind
• moving the boom by hand is permitted
• the choice of sails for the manoeuvre is free
• 2 tries with at least 1 success.

Change of Head-sail:

• Best done during a tack

Reefing:

• The boom must never touch the boat, or the crew, and vice versa

Man-overboard:

• person remains for at least 15 sec within 50 cm from the boat, anywhere between leeward shrouds and stern
• person is not hit by the boat and is not at any time underneath the boat
• technique as desired (going-about or gybe, heave-to very much preferred to demonstrate mastering the boat)
• slowing down by pushing the boom across is allowed briefly
• tries with at least 2 successes.

Crane:

• steaming into a (fore) spring is the preferred technique
• boat to attached by one mooring line only, with the engine running at a fixed angle

U-turn:

• to be done in a narrow channel
• stern to stay very close to the line of buoys on one side of the channel
• the boat must do at least one forward-backward-forward change

Spinnaker:

• the spinnaker may be hoisted from the cabin or from the bow
• the spinnaker has to be rigged correctly
• correct choice of sail: gauge spinnaker or mast-head spinnaker, depending on the conditions
• appropriate actions must be taken in case of an imminent broach
• gybing does not have to be fast, but must be done keeping control over the boat at all times.

The remaining items have to be correct on the first try.