Boating School Information

Boating School - Seamanship

Seamanship is an art and is, specifically, defined as the art of operating a boat. A sailor has to be qualified in many different fields before he can progress in seamanship and these range from subjects like navigation and international maritime law to fire fighting and how to deal with dangerous cargoes.

Fortunately, today, instead of spending many years being apprenticed at sea, sailors can attend boating school and qualify in seamanship in a relatively short time. As the field of seamanship is extremely broad, the available training programs have been grouped into several areas of specificity, which would include such seemingly unrelated areas like Fundamentals of Damage and Claims Survey, and Government and Corporate Contracts.

A typical course in seamanship is the Yacht and Small Craft Surveying program in terms of which the student would learn how to prepare appraisals of seagoing vessels, place a value on a vessel for insurance purposes and draft and complete insurance ‘to-do’ lists. This is the ideal qualification in maritime surveying and should be strongly considered by anyone wanting to get ahead in this field.

The Career Development and International Maritime Organization (IMO) Compliance program is a great way to propel a career forward. Registering for this course at your boating school will ultimately qualify you to become a deck officer and will give you a firm grounding in areas such as bridge resource management, basic safety training, able seaman training and marine radio operators permit training. The Professional Mariner Training program, on the other hand, is aimed at qualifying you for career opportunities in the pleasure and commercial yacht industry and can be taken by beginners and experienced seamen.

Another option would be the USCG (United States Coast Guard) License Training course, which is specifically aimed at those mariners who have had plenty of experience at sea but who have not yet received any certifications. Once a student has completed this course, he or she will be ready to seek licensing in the Operating of an Uninspected Passenger Vessel (OUPV). Finally, the Fundamentals of Damage and Claims Survey program teaches one how to assess and report on yacht damage while the Government and Corporate Contracts course teaches the basics of maritime contracts on a local, state and federal level.

If you want to get ahead in boating, one obvious way would be to go to boating school and obtain a seamanship qualification.

It doesn’t seem like it should be possible to learn how to sail or drive a powerboat when you don’t have access to the sea, but it is and online boating school will teach you everything you need to know. These courses must, however, be supplemented by later hands-on training before you can become a certified sailor.

Online boating schools usually divide their courses between those relevant to sailing and those relevant to powerboating, and there are also those schools who offer online courses in windsurfing. Sailing courses would be further categorized into introductory courses, small boat courses, cruising courses and keelboat courses.

Introductory boating courses cover things that a person would have to know about boating before they ever set foot on a boat and are usually aimed at absolute beginners. Small boat courses are designed to teach the basics about handling sailing boats under 20 feet long and will consist of classes in such subjects as terms and boat parts, points of a sail and turning the boat. The Keelboat courses should always be taken before the cruising courses and they teach the basics about keel sailing by emphasizing specific subjects like boats and rigging, sail trim and shape, and wind and reefing. Once the keelboat courses have been completed then it’s on to the cruising courses where a student will learn all about things like how to charter, how to tie advanced knots and docking and navigation.

Powerboat courses also come on an introductory level and there are also advanced courses on offer on powerboat handling. Subjects covered in the beginners’ courses include USCG rules of the road, aids to navigation and anchoring.

The usual course offered by an online boating school is structured so that students complete online lesson plans that feature tools such as online and downloadable videos, PDFs, charts and lectures. Once they have completed the course they then take a test online, which is graded by the course instructor, who reports back by advising what areas should be looked at again. Further useful tools that are offered to students include the online sailing calculators, which are online worksheets showing students how to calculate the formulas needed for navigation and sailing. Available online sailing calculators include those for current deviation, sail area/displacement, capsize formula and motion comfort.

Online boating school may not get you wet but it will definitely get you interested in boating.

A typical boating school will offer students classes in many different subjects and it will also usually group these classes into different courses so that students become adept in specific areas like small boat sailing, cruising and sailing keelboats. Powerboating offers a whole different series of challenges and also has its own set of extremely specific subjects that a student has to learn about. And then there are the sailing calculations, which comprise all the formulas that sailors and navigators have to know so as to be able to handle a boat correctly.

If you decide to take a class in small boat sailing, you will most likely learn about the following:

• Knots and lines: learn all about the different type of Nylon, Kevlar and Dacron lines (ropes), their strength and the knots that you can tie with them, including the fishermen’s bend and the clove hitch;
• Weather: no one can sail without understanding how weather conditions affect sailing and where to locate information of prevailing conditions.

Next come the keelboat courses, which include in-depth tutorials covering subjects like:

• Design and stability: this course covers concepts like ballast displacement, motion comfort and load waterline length and is essential if you want to have an understanding of how a boat handles in the water;
• Boats and rigging: find out about the different types of sailboats, hulls and boat parts (including rigging and sails).

Cruising is another specialist sailing course, and here you will learn about:

• Navigation: course content contains information on latitude and longitude, current, planning a landfall and related matters;
• Docking: you will learn how to move a boat in a marina and also how to dock (pier and slip) and how to anchor.

Powerboating is regulated by an entirely different set of rules to sailing and here you will be taught about:

• USCG Rules of the Road: including detail on inland navigation lights, inland sound signals and inland lights and shapes;
• Powerboat handling skills: learn the difference between interesting manuevers like hawse turns, pivot turns, axis turns and barrel turns.

Sailing Calculators are among the most difficult concepts that a boating school can teach and include formulas for:

• Speed/time/distance;
• Landfall fix;
• Maximum hull speed;
• Angle of vanishing stability; and
• Sail wind load.

And once you have a firm grip on all of the above theoretical subjects, your boating school can begin teaching you all the practical aspects of sailing.

After years of running a boating school I can confidently say that the most stressful part of the day for most new boaters is returning to the slip and putting the vessel safely away. This important task that inevitably comes at the end of a very relaxing and fulfilling day on the water can actually ruin the day with levels of stress, anxiety and frustration that should not be associated with boating.

How can you avoid these uncomfortable situations? Make sure the company that trains you offers a docking school as a part of their curriculum. Practicing docking a boat in a safe environment with the supervision and guidance of an experienced professional can greatly increase your skills and experience in approaching a dock and make the next time you come in on your own a more relaxing a rewarding experience.

You will hear talk of the “egg shell landing”, well it is not a myth, it is something you can certainly do with a little practice. What is an egg shell landing? It is an expression used to describe how well you maneuver a vessel into a slip, in an egg shell landing you would not have broken the theoretical egg shells surrounding your hull by touching any surface of the dock or another vessel. With a little practice and instruction at a good boating school you will be able to perform egg shell landings the majority of the time.

There are many things to consider when approaching a dock. One of the most important items is the type of boat you are operating and its maneuvering capabilities. A twin engine power boat with bow and stern thrusters will be much easier to bring into a slip then a full displacement sailboat with a folding prop and small rudder. Whatever type of vessel you are operating be sure that you are familiar with its low speed maneuvering capabilities before you approach a fixed object like a dock. What happens when you engage reverse? In most single engine boats the stern will “walk” sideways in the same direction each time. If you can anticipate which way and how far the stern will walk you can use this to your advantage when approaching the dock.

Some other things to consider that a good boating school will teach you: winds, currents, tides, other vessels, line selection and placement, fenders,  low speed maneuvering, etc. Having a plan when approaching a dock is important, having the flexibility and skills to change that plan based on the current situation and conditions can make or break a good day on the water.

And always remember the old adage taught at the WindPath Boat Club docking school: “Never approach the dock faster than you want to hit it.”

Think about when you were getting your driver’s license, who did you practice driving with? Now imagine starting to drive without any of that on-the-road practice, having only studied your states required textbook and never getting the “feel” of a car. In my mental picture I cause an accident involving an eighteen wheeler loaded with chickens. The importance of spending time in a boating school classroom to learn about boating cannot be underestimated, however the skills, experience, and knowledge that make up what we call good seamanship can only be obtained on the water.

Good seamanship in many ways can be directly related to good common sense. Now I know you are probably thinking how does common sense teach me to tie a bowline, something any seaman worth his salt should be able to do? The answer is it does not, but there are many aspects of good seamanship taught at boating schools that directly relate to good common sense.

Most people attending a boating school are looking for the tools needed to go out on the water and have a good time, however as a skipper of any vessel you must always remember that being on the water is a dangerous place and you are responsible for the safety of your crew and guests. The old adages “discretion is the better part of valor”, “always err on the side of cautiousness”,  “A danger foreseen is half avoided”, “Better to tie off than to fly off” and a million others like them all come back to good seamanship and common sense.

In any difficult or dangerous situation that arises on a boat (and after a while of boating you will begin to realize that these situations inevitably arise at 3am, in the dark, just after it starts raining) you must first turn to common sense, and then your training. In fact, if you use common sense you may be able to avoid the situation all together.

One story that comes to mind is when a fellow boater (who will remain nameless) anchored his boat for the evening near a lee shore. A lee shore is when the wind is blowing from the land out over the water. He pulled in nice and close to the beach, dropped his anchor and allowed the wind to blow him back away from the shore while paying out the anchor line. When he felt he was a safe distance from shore, and had an appropriate scope (the ratio of the length of the anchor line to the depth of the water) he cleated the anchor line, had a lovely BBQ dinner with his family on board, checked to make sure his anchor had not dragged, and turned in for the night confident that he would have a good night’s rest.

Needless to say, the wind shifted in the night and blew his boat, with his family sleeping aboard in to the rocky shore. With the wind shift the strength of the wind increased and the waves quickly built to very uncomfortable heights putting himself, his family, and his boat in real danger. My friend in the story escaped unscathed with his family, but his boat had some major damage and was expensive to repair. The moral of the story? If he had used good seamanship skills (and a little common sense) he would have realized the potential for the wind to shift and anchored farther from shore.

Learn good seamanship at any of the WindPath Boat Club’s nationally accredited boating schools.

Boating schools offer varying curriculums for those of different experience levels or those looking to accomplish different things.  For the purposes of this article we will assume that you are looking to learn some basic boating skills that will enable you to safely pilot a sail or motor boat in the 30-50 foot range. While most of these types of classes last from a few days to a week it is important to remember that boating skills and good seamanship are the accumulation of skills and experience over time. If you do not get out on the water and actively practice the skills you learn in a boating school you will not receive the full benefit of the training.

A good boating school will teach you a set of skills, as well as a system for applying them in the real world. Most programs will begin with some classroom time where you review items like weather, rules of the road, basic navigation, crew operations and skills, preparing to depart, emergency procedures and safety best practices. Some boating schools also cover some of theory involved like sailing theory, leaving a dock or mooring, anchoring, boat control in confined waters, boat control in open waters, dead reckoning skills, man overboard recovery methods and others in the classroom.

While all this classroom time is a valuable part of the learning experience there is no substitute for actually getting out on the water in a real boat and practicing. Some new companies have recently begun to offer “online” boating schools, while these types of programs are a great supplement to an on the water class, an online program alone is no substitute for real experience on the water.

After a few hours in the class room most good boat schools will get you out on the water for some real firsthand experience. You may wish to consider the type and size of vessel the school has available and request one that matches or comes close to what you think you will be piloting when you complete you training. Some instructors will even provide training on your own boat.

We recommend trying a boat club that offers a good training program because it will give you the opportunity to participate in an accredited school, and then get out on the water to practice those skills on a shared boat without the time and financial commitments of boat ownership. Visit our sponsor WindPath Fractional Yachting for more information.

Choosing the right boating school can often mean the difference between finding a new passion in life and having an awful experience. One of my favorite stories an old boat dealer buddy of mine used to tell was when a client of his bought a big new power boat. In his excitement and desire to use it he grabbed his wife and headed out into the ocean for a short ride, the words “three hour tour” come to mind here.

In his haste to get his wife out on their new toy he did not bother to check the weather forecast. Needless to say the weather turned ugly, the inexperienced skipper panicked, his wife was absolutely terrified, and after receiving assistance to get back to the dock from local marine authorities he promptly called the broker and listed the boat for sale. Now while this may seem like a great way for a broker to earn a two-for-one commission on a boat, it is obviously not an ideal situation for anyone.

A little time spent in the classroom of any decent boating school would have given the poor individual in our story the simple knowledge that you don’t leave the dock without first checking the weather. Now this may seem like common sense to most people, but trust me, when the excitement of boating is on the horizon, plans are being made, lunches packed, calls placed, engines warmed up, etcetera… it is easy to forget something as simple as this.

This is really where choosing the right boating school comes into play. Think about what you want out of the program. Here are some examples of different focused programs some boating schools offer:

• Basic Seamanship
• Learn to sail
• Understanding Aids to Navigation
• Reading a Nautical Chart
• Safety at Sea
• Marine Weather
• Docking and Anchoring
• Radar
• Celestial navigation

The list could go on and on, in fact no experienced mariner would ever claim to have learned everything about boating there is to know. One of my favorite maritime quotes is this: Good seamanship is defined as having sufficient intelligence, experience, and foresight to avoid desperate circumstances demanding same.

The bottom line is when looking for a good boating school it is best to keep your options open, that is why we recommend programs like WindPath’s boat training courses. These types of boat club programs allow you to really experience all boating has to offer without the significant upfront investment like the one made from our story above.