I'm looking into navigation courses on-line. BoaterEd has one and so does BoatSafe. Other than "home team prejudice", can anyone speak to comparative effectiveness of those courses or any others. I mentioned those because they are each $50-$60 and I really don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on one course if I don't have to. Whoknowswhat?
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Navigation Courses
- Thread starter LuBell
- Start date
LuBell, I bought the Boat Safe Nav course (before I was a member here!!) for the wife and me and we both thought it great! Very good info in understandable terms. We then applied that knowledge when we chartered a 55' trawler in the San Juans last summer. A very good investment.
ND
ND
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2008
- RO Number
- 30649
- Messages
- 172
I can't speak for any of the on-line coures, but the Coast Guard Aux and US Power Squadrons have excellent programs.
With USPS, I have taken the Basic Squadron Boating Course. Seamanship, Piloting, Advanced Piloting, and the GPS & Weather seminars. For piloting, you start with chart, dividers, plotter, calculator and learn how to do it the old fashioned way (i.e.,how you would have to do it when (not if) your gps, etc., crap out or get hit by lightining.
If you are truly adventurous, you can continue with Junior Navigation and Navigation. The is based on using a sextant and the star chart tables and is intended for offshore blue water cruising.
A good companion book to the Advanced Piloting course is the Weekend Navigator by Bob Sweet. This book also includes (or did when I got it) Maptech software which is easy to use but not on my 64 bit laptop.
Hope this is helpful.
Kim Boyer
USPS AP
With USPS, I have taken the Basic Squadron Boating Course. Seamanship, Piloting, Advanced Piloting, and the GPS & Weather seminars. For piloting, you start with chart, dividers, plotter, calculator and learn how to do it the old fashioned way (i.e.,how you would have to do it when (not if) your gps, etc., crap out or get hit by lightining.
If you are truly adventurous, you can continue with Junior Navigation and Navigation. The is based on using a sextant and the star chart tables and is intended for offshore blue water cruising.
A good companion book to the Advanced Piloting course is the Weekend Navigator by Bob Sweet. This book also includes (or did when I got it) Maptech software which is easy to use but not on my 64 bit laptop.
Hope this is helpful.
Kim Boyer
USPS AP
Thanks to everybody who has responded to my interest in navigation. It is extremely helpful. I'm sure, too, that there are many other navigational neophytes reading this forum that are also getting a lot out of the suggestions that you've made, so please keep them coming. To your advise about courses, books, and study aids, I have added Wikipedia.com. Whenever the information gets too garbly (or the wine gets too good), Wikipedia breaks it down real nice. A very helpful supplement ...........the Wiki and the wine.