Advanced Boating Courses
These courses build your general knowledge of boating and navigation and are best taken in the order: Boat Handling, Piloting, Advanced Piloting, Junior Navigation, Navigation
Scroll down for information on these courses
Boat Handling
The Boat Handling course is intended for recreational boaters who have completed a basic boating class (like America’s Boating Course) and want to gain more knowledge, skill, and confidence to boat safely and have more fun in a variety of situations.
Build boating confidence and competence for safe and fun on-the-water adventures. Boat Handling provides a foundation of knowledge and skills in boat handling and maneuvering, boat operation, skipper’s responsibilities, and boating techniques that will advance your boating enjoyment.
What’s Included:
Rules of the Road: A Practical Approach
Confidence in Docking and Undocking: Slow-Speed Maneuvering
Boating with Confidence: Handling Your Boat Under Way
Anchoring with Assurance: Don’t Get Carried Away
Emergencies on Board: Preparation for Handling Common Problems
Know and Line Handling: the Knots You Need to Know
Each topic is presented as a stand-alone seminar. Our instructor will enrich the course with local knowledge, experience, and discussion that will help you expand your boating horizons.
This course usually goes for 7 weeks, one night/week
Location of classes:
Palm Beach Sail & Power Squadron Headquarters
1125 Old Dixie Hwy Unit 1, Lake Park, Florida
Course fee:
$75 USPS Members, $115 for 2 USPS Members sharing materials
$150 non-USPS Members
Next Course:
November 8, 2023 (Wednesday), 7 - 9:30PM.
Piloting
Learn the essentials of safe coastal and inland navigation using basic GPS in conjunction with charts and other marine data. The Piloting course teaches you how to use the GPS along with traditional dead reckoning techniques for planning and laying out safe routes, as well as ensuring that you are on-course while underway.
What’s Included:
Charts and their interpretation
Landmarks and navigation aids (buoys, daymarks, lights, etc.)
Plotting courses and determining direction and distance
The mariner's compass and converting between True and Magnetic
Use of GPS - typical GPS displays and information they provide, setting up waypoints and routes, staying on a GPS course
Pre-planning courses and entering them into the GPS
Monitoring progress and determining position by both GPS and traditional techniques such as bearings and dead reckoning
The "Seaman's Eye" - simple skills for checking that one is on course
This course usually goes for 8 weeks, one night/week
Location of classes:
Palm Beach Sail & Power Squadron Headquarters
1125 Old Dixie Hwy Unit 1, Lake Park, Florida
Course fee:
$125 USPS Members, $188 for 2 USPS Members sharing materials
$250 non-USPS Members
Next course:
March 29, 2023 (Wednesday), 7 - 9:30PM.
Advanced Piloting
This is the second in the USPS courses on navigation. It continues to build coastal and inland navigation skill, allowing the student to take on more challenging conditions—unfamiliar waters, limited visibility, and extended cruises. GPS is embraced as a primary navigation tool while adding radar, chartplotters, and other electronic navigation tools. As with Piloting (Marine Navigation), the course includes many in-class exercises, advancing the student’s skill through hands-on practice and learning.
What’s Included:
Review of skills learned in Piloting (Marine Navigation)
Advanced positioning techniques such as advancing a line of position
Other electronics: radar, depth sounders, autopilots, chart plotters, laptop computer software, etc.
Hazard avoidance techniques using electronics (e.g. “keep out” zones in GPS)
Collision avoidance using radar and GPS.
Working with tides: clearances, depth, effects of current
Piloting with wind and currents
The “Seaman’s Eye” - simple skills for checking that one is on course
This course usually goes for 8 weeks, one night/week
Location of classes:
Palm Beach Sail & Power Squadron Headquarters
1125 Old Dixie Hwy Unit 1, Lake Park, Florida
Course fee:
$90 USPS Members, $135 for 2 USPS Members sharing materials
$180 non-USPS Members
Next Class:
This course is not currently scheduled
Junior Navigation
What happens when your GPS fails? Have fun and satisfy your curiosity about boating in the days before electronics in the Junior Navigation course. Learn to use a marine sextant to take sights on celestial objects such as the sun. Even if you are not traveling long distances off shore, remember that GPS is not infallible, nor always available. Be confident when no aids to navigation or land objects are in sight.
In Junior Navigation, you will continue to use GPS as the primary position sensor as you learned in Piloting and Advanced Piloting, but with celestial navigation as your backup technique. Because terrestrial landmarks are no longer visible to the offshore navigator, you will learn to use a marine sextant and the sun as your reference point, derive a line of position, and develop a running fix. You will also learn to calculate your latitude from a noon sight on the sun.
What's Included:
Determining precise time
Using the Nautical Almanac
Taking sextant sights of the sun
Reducing sights to establish lines of position
Determining latitude from a noon sight
Using special charts and plotting sheets for offshore navigation
Setting offshore navigational routines for recreational craft
This interesting and challenging course emphasizes the practical aspects of daytime celestial navigation. You will also learn to prepare a sight folder that documents your positioning skills using sights taken on the sun.
This course usually goes for 12 weeks, one night/week
Location of classes:
Palm Beach Sail & Power Squadron Headquarters
1125 Old Dixie Hwy Unit 1, Lake Park, Florida
Course fee:
$120 USPS Members, $180 for 2 USPS Members sharing materials
$240 non-USPS Members
This course is scheduled on an as-needed basis. Please contact the instructor for more information.
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