|
Advanced Course Descriptions:
Seamanship:
Building on the basics learned in Boating, the Seamanship course is an important foundation for other "advanced grade" courses. The student learns -
- Basic marlinespike seamanship
- Hull design
- Navigation rules
- Operation under normal and adverse conditions
- Responsibilities of the skipper
- Fire prevention and control
- Basic first aid
- Common courtesies on the water
- Boat care
- Nautical customs and flag etiquette
Piloting:
This course is the first of a two-part program studying inland and coastal navigation. Its focus is on the fundamentals of piloting - keeping track of a boat's movements, determining one's position at any time and laying out courses to a planned destination. Included are subjects such as -
- Charts and their use
- Aids to navigation
- The mariner's compass
- Variation and deviation of the compass
- Plotting and steering courses
- Dead reckoning. Plotting and labeling charts
Advanced Piloting:
Advanced Piloting builds on the knowledge gained in Piloting to teach you how to navigate safely in coastal waters -- predict tides and tidal currents and their impact on your position, advanced positioning techniques, and the use of electronic navigation systems for positioning and course planning.
Junior Navigator:
Junior Navigator begins your study of offshore (open-ocean) navigation -- integrated electronic positioning systems, sight taking with a mariner's sextant on the sun, moon, planets, and stars, how to reduce sights using the nautical almanac to determine your position, and passage planning with special open-ocean charts.
Navigator:
Navigation further develops your understanding of celestial navigation theory and your skills in sight taking and reduction additional sight reduction techniques and the orderly methods of carrying on the day's work of a navigator at sea. Of particular interest and importance is the study of offshore navigation using minimal data and/or equipment, such as when on a disable vessel or lifeboat.
|