Is Yachtmaster a five-day course?

No, and this is the single most misleading thing said about sailing qualifications. Yachtmaster is not a course you attend and pass. It is an examination conducted by an independent examiner against a published standard, and you become eligible for it by accumulating qualifying sea time — miles, days, night hours and passages — over years rather than weeks.

What you can book in five days is a preparation course. These are genuinely useful: they run you through the exam format, expose weaknesses and get you used to being assessed. But a preparation course is not the certificate, and a school advertising "Yachtmaster in five days" is describing the prep, not the outcome.

There are three levels — Coastal, Offshore and Ocean — with different sea-time and passage requirements, and the requirements change from time to time. Verify the current ones with the awarding body before planning your mile building around them, because not every mile you sail counts toward every certificate.

The right time to sit it is when your experience is genuinely ready, not when the title starts to sound appealing. Examiners are experienced sailors and the standard is real.