Our Navigation and Coastal Piloting course teaches students to navigate coastal areas and nearby islands in a fraction of the time, effort, and confusion of longer, better-known courses. This course covers reading and finding your position on a chart and planning a cruise. Most important, this course covers the use of GPS (Global Positioning System), which has revolutionized navigation in the last five years, and sent the sextant the way of the slide rule. Students also learn the ancient but still-useful art of "dead reckoning," or figuring out where you are with just a compass and a watch. The course includes identifying navigational aids, finding a position with a compass and two landmarks, and how to navigate in reduced visibility.

If you've seen friends take eight-week-long navigation courses with books piled a foot high, and found they still couldn't get to the mouth of the harbor, you will find our Navigation and Coastal Piloting course, with three sessions of two hours each, a satisfying choice.

Topics:

Reading a chart and finding your position on it
Using GPS and plotting its output on a chart
Plotting a course to a known point
Dead Reckoning
Navigational Aids (Lights, Buoys, etc.)
Running Fixes
Current: Set and Drift

Cost:

$100 Members
$125 Non-members

Naviagation Certification Required for Multiple Day Charters