A couple of months ago, I took an RYA yachtmaster exam on a 40 ft yacht and failed. It was a marginal fail but a failure nevertheless and it hurt. Reasons given were that I did not use a preventer on a broad reach in changeable conditions, which was considered dangerous; and I forgot to maintain the log on the second day, which was just dumb. One or the other in isolation might have been ignored but taken together were too much for a pass.
I consider myself a good sailor on small boats and enjoy getting the most out of my BR20. Small boat sailing is extremely useful in learning how to sail and trim larger boats but I would say that it does not work the other way around. The yachtmaster exam is exclusively about how competent and safe you are in a big boat. Admittedly, you learn useful things like weather patterns, Colregs and non-electronic navigation but you can do that without taking exams.
Will I take the exam again? Probably, because I want to prove that I can do it. However, I will do it differently, with lessons learned. These include:
1. Make sure that you have confidence in your fellow examinee, for example by doing it with a competent friend. My fellow examinee was a complete numpty who failed in spectacular fashion. Amongst many transgressions, he gave up on the MOB retrieval under sail test because he had forgotten what to do. He also did an accidental gybe during his exam (instant failure) and during my part of the exam could not be trusted at the helm for any period of time without doing something stupid, which was distracting to put it mildly.
2. Find out as much as possible about your examiner. Mine was not an inherently unfair person but I learned afterwards that there had recently been some harrumphing among the suits at RYA HQ about his letting standards slip, so he was probably reacting by being harsher than average. He also used his mobile a lot during the exam and was garrulous, which was another distraction.
3. Go into the exam with open eyes. Some sailing schools claim 100% pass rates. Call me cynical, but this must surely be on the basis of one lucky candidate, as an examiner I know has failed over 75% of his yachtmaster candidates. I may have been looking in the wrong place but I have been unable to discover the RYA average pass rate as they don't seem to publish it. Why not? Standards are undoubtedly very much higher than they used to be and if you are going to spend a large amount on preparing for and taking an exam, you are entitled to know what your chances are.
4. Have loads of big boat experience. If you are only used to small boats, you will be unprepared for the additional stresses of not being able to sail something by yourself and may be overwhelmed by the bureaucracy involved in every passage. For example, did you know that you are required by the MCA and Annex 25 of SOLAS V, to formally assess your crew's competence for every passage and show that you have done so? I didn't but if I had, my assessment would have been unprintable.
5. Get yourself a device that jabs you in the ribs every half hour to remind you to update the log.
You may have bought your Swallow Boat because you could not afford something bigger, or you may have bought it because you think small boats are more fun. If in the former category, do not look enviously at bigger boats. You probably sail to forget the stresses of the day job and with a bigger boat you are swapping one set of stresses for another. The heads have blocked again, an important piece of the rigging has parted company 20 ft up and the alternator has packed in. The freshwater tank is leaking into the bilges, the fridge smells funny and the engine gear lever cable is threatening to jam in reverse. Enjoy the view as you ghost by in light airs in your Swallow Boat, ballast tank empty, and the bigger boat recedes aft, wallowing miserably in the swell.
As for the yachtmaster exam, only do it if you are chartering, if you insist on trading up to a bottomless money pit or you enjoy pointless challenges. Otherwise, buy the book and forget about the T-shirt.