America's Boating Course - 3rd Edition

America's Boating Course - 3rd Edition is our primary civic effort toward public instruction in the fundamentals of safe boating.  Both short (8-hour) and long (12-hour) formats are designed to familiarize the student with the fundamentals of safe boating and qualify for certification in most states that require boating education before operating a watercraft.

The short (8-hour) version covers the basics needed to operate a boat safely, and is a replacement for previous short USPS courses such as Boat Smart and the 8-hour version of The Squadron Boating Course.

The long (12-hour) course covers all that's included in the 8-hour course and adds basic information on both paper and digital charts and basic piloting techniques, equivalent to the full version of The Squadron Boating Course.

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News

• Spanish Translations of ABC3 Exams

  The ABC3 Exam #1 and Exam #2 exams have been translated into Spanish. The catalogue numbers are 02-73-121 for the ABC3 Spanish Final Exam 1 and 02-73-122 for the ABC3 Spanish Final Exam 2. The old Form A exam is already available in Spanish. The Spanish translations are available in the on-line Materials Catalog right after the English exams. (28 Oct 09)

• America's Boating Course, 3rd Edition, Computer Settings (Revised)

  Recent security enhancements by Adobe and Microsoft require that the default computer settings be changed to permit the ABC3 Courseware CD to run. If you experience difficulties, you should download this file (PDF, 399KB) and follow it carefully. IBM PC computers must use Windows Internet Explorer and change the default values as outlined in the download. Macintosh computer users must run in "IBM PC Compatibility" mode and also use Internet Explorer with its default values changed. (01 Sep 09)
  

• ABC 3 Slide Correction. In Section 17 of ABC 3, slide number 23 has a spelling error. The corrected slide is available in the Downloadable Material section. (21 Jul 09)
  
  
• "This is USPS" Presentation

  On the ABC 3 Instructor CD is a presentation called “This is USPS”. There are three slides #’s 19, 20 and 21 that state that a member can receive discounted software from Tech Soup. That is not correct. The software donation program is only for Squadron use.

  Please inform your SEO and those who do the membership presentation at your classes to delete these three slides. This was mentioned at the DEO meeting in Anaheim but still seems to cause problems. (03 Jun 09)
  

• Changes Needed to Instructors PowerPoint CD for Americas Boating Course 3rd Edition
  

  The first change is to replace Slide 26 in Section 12 – VHF Radio (PPT, 6793KB), if you are using Windows Vista as your operating system. The codec used to record this slide is no longer recognized by computers running Windows Vista. There is no problem with machines running Windows XP.

  The second change is in the ABC3 menu slides for Chapter 4. There is an embedded hyperlink between Trailering and PWC operation that should not be there. You can simply remove it and delete the box. If it does not bother you or your instructors, just be aware that it is there and that you do not click on it. (03 Apr 09)

• ABC 3rd Edition Posters. Two sizes of posters are available at no charge to advertise your ABC 3rd Edition courses. They come in 8.5" x 11" and 11" x 14" sizes. Order them using the Free Brochures Order Form. (24 Feb 09)
  

• Reporting Boating Classes

  With the release of America’s Boating Course - 3rd Edition, some changes need to be made in how classes are reported on the ED-27 form. There is no change in the way The Squadron Boating Course or Boat Smart is reported on the ED-27 form.

  For ABC 3 the following should be done:

  For those students who take the 8 hour version of ABC 3 it should be reported as ABC. For those who take the 12 hour, navigation portion, report the class as The Squadron Boating Course. The old ABC course should also be reported as ABC.

  We are doing this so as to be able to track the boating course statistics from year to year. It will take about a year before there is no more reporting for Boat Smart courses and about two years before there are no more The Squadron Boating Course reports. We'll revise the reporting when all that reporting is done.

  Questions should be directed to the Chairman of the Basic Public Education Committee, R/C Gene Molteni, SN. (03 Feb 09)

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Downloads

• ABC 3 Slide Correction. In Section 17 of ABC 3, slide number 23 has a spelling error. The corrected slide can be downloaded here (PPT, 1125KB). (21 Jul 09)
  
  
• America's Boating Course—3rd Edition (ABC3) Chapter Review Answers. The homework answers (PDF, 13 KB) with references were inadvertently left out of the Instructor's Manual (IM) for ABC3. They are on the student disk for those who do home study of the course. Please get this information to all who need it as soon as possible. We will be adding a separate sheet to the IM for future deliveries. (09 Jan 09)
  
  
• Basic Boating Skills CD. There is a problem with the Basic Boating Skills CD 6.2 and earlier with Chapter 3 VHF Radio audio slides when run on Windows Vista based machines. The slides for Call Demonstration, Mayday, Pan-Pan and Securite do not play. Vista does not recognize the compression technology used in these slides. There are no problems with XP machines. If you are using Chapter 3 PowerPoint on a Vista based machine, please substitute these 4 PowerPoint slides (4818KB) for those on the Basic Boating Skills CD Chapter 3. (03 Jan 09)
  
  
• America’s Boating Course 3rd Edition. ABC 3 has two exams, ABC 3 Exam 1 and Exam 2. Exam 1 is the primary exam and exam 2 is to be given to a student who fails the first exam. The answer keys remain the same. Please remember to order the exams and the answer sheets with your course material. All the brochures that you normally hand out in class are now on a “Free Brochure Order Form” located on the Educational Department home page under “Order Course Materials”.
  
  

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