USPS Advanced Grades Program

Seamanship

Building on the basics taught in the USPS America's Boating Course^®, Seamanship is the recommended first course for new members, both powerboaters and sailors. The course emphasizes safe operation of recreational boats and provide the basis for completion of the USCG licensing examination.

The student learns practical marlinespike, navigation rules, hull design and performance, responsibilities of the skipper, boat care, operating a boat under normal and abnormal conditions, what to do in various weather conditions and in emergencies, nautical customs and common courtesy on the water. This course provides an introduction to the USPS educational program and is a strong foundation for the member going on to take the other Advanced Grades courses or the Elective Courses Cruise Planning or Sail.

The Piloting course is the first in the sequence of USPS courses on navigation, covering the basics of coastal and inland navigation. This all-new course focuses on navigation as it is done on recreational boats today and covers GPS as a primary navigation tool while covering enough of traditional techniques so the student will be able to find their way even if their GPS fails. The course includes many in-class exercises, developing the student’s skills through hands-on practice and learning. Topics covered include:

• Charts and their interpretation
• Navigation aids and how they point to safe water
• Plotting courses and determining direction and distance
• The mariner’s compass and converting between True and Magnetic directions
• Use of GPS - typical GPS displays, the information they provide, setting up waypoints and routes, and staying on a GPS route.
• Pre-planning safe 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 all-new course continues to build coastal and inland navigation skills, allowing the student to take on more challenging conditions - unfamiliar waters, limited visibility, and extended cruises. GPS is covered as a primary navigation tool while adding radar, chartplotters, and other electronic navigation tools. As with Piloting, the course includes many in-class exercises, advancing the student’s skills through hands-on practice and learning. Topics covered include:

• Review of skills learned in Piloting
• Advanced positioning techniques such as advancing a line of position
• Other electronics: radar, depth sounders, autopilots, chartplotters, 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

Junior Navigation is the first of a two-course program of offshore (open ocean) navigation for the recreational boater. Students learn about modern offshore navigation electronic tools and software as well as conventional route planning techniques. They also learn traditional celestial navigational skills to determine position, using these techniques to check their electronics and as the backup navigation method in the event electronics fail.

In the offshore environment, accurate determination of position is just as important as when one is navigating in coastal waters. While offshore, visible terrestrial landmarks are no longer available to the navigator as reference points. In the Junior Navigation course, the student will learn to substitute celestial objects such as the sun as reference points. The course begins with the study of celestial navigation, teaching the student to take sights on the sun with a marine sextant and derive lines of position from those observations. The sun represents but a single reference point, so the student will apply the principles of the running fix learned in Advanced Piloting, and be able to plot a running fix of one’s position from the sun sights. Once the student has learned the basics of celestial sight reduction, the course continues with planning, positioning, and checking one’s position in the offshore environment, using both electronic and celestial tools.

Junior Navigation is designed as a practical "how to" course. Subject matter includes:

• Precise time determination
• Use of the Nautical Almanac
• Taking sextant sights of the sun
• Reducing sights to establish lines of position
• Special charts and plotting sheets for offshore navigation
• Offshore navigational routines for recreational craft

Navigation is the second part of the study of offshore navigation, further developing the student's understanding of celestial navigation theory. The Navigation course deals with learning celestial positioning using other bodies - the stars and planets, in addition to deriving position using the sun (covered in the Junior Navigation course).

You will learn to reduce these sights (convert them to lines of position) by the Law of Cosines method. Later in the course, you will learn an additional method of sight reduction, the Nautical Almanac Sight Reduction (NASR) method. You will also learn about sight planning techniques. With that knowledge, you will have the tools to take sights and complete your Navigation Sight Folder.

This course also deals with electronic software tools that can be used to plan and execute an offshore voyage. The course includes a chapter on using a software-based voyage planning tool and a navigation program. The final chapter of the course contains a practice cruise that ties the separate elements of the course together.

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The information presented here does not represent the official view of the USPS.  It is information from and for use by members of the DuPage Sail & Power Squadron and other USPS squadrons.

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This page was updated on February 24, 2010