Piloting

This course is open to the general public.

Course Description

This course is the first of a two-part program studying inland and coastal navigation.   Its focus is on the fundamentals of piloting - keeping track of a boat's movements, determining one's position at any time and laying out courses to a planned destination. 

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 embraces GPS as a primary navigation tool while covering enough of traditional techniques so the student will be able to find his/her way even if their GPS fails. The course includes many in-class exercises, developing the student's skills through handson 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
  
• Use of GPS - typical GPS displays and information they provide, setting up waypoints and routes, 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