For
registration or information,
call
Graham Hunter at 360-332-5526 or email Graham.
Join us and take these
interesting courses!
Advanced
Piloting 1/17 - 3/06
Tuesdays 6:30pm, $60 members.
Seamanship 2/8 - 3/14
Wednesdays 7pm, $52 members.
Engine Maintenance 3/27 - 5/15
Tuesdays 7 pm, $50 members.
Cruise Planning 3/28 - 5/15
Wednesdays 7 pm, $50 members.
These courses are described below and meet at the Port's Conference
Center 921 Cornwall St., Bellingham.
Seminars
2-hour evening seminars - open to everyone. See USPS Seminars for more information. Fees shown below are "members/non-members" - less for members, so find out about membership. BYC is Bellingham Yacht Club and SMS is Semiahmoo Marina Store. BWM is Blaine West Marine.How to Use a Chart: 30 Jan, SMS, 6pm, Tom Dalgliesh. Learn how to best use your paper charts. A look at the detail in Chart No 1. Offered again on 02 Apr, BYC, 7pm, Jim West. $30/35
Anchoring: 06 Feb, BYC, 7pm, Chris Backus. Types of anchors, their application, selecting an anchorage, procedures for anchoring, best practices. Offered again on 13 Mar, BWM, 6pm, Peter Werner. $20/35
Basic Weather and Forecasting: 14 Feb, BWM, 6pm, Bob Jacobson. A great overview of global and local weather systems and a look at basic forecasting. Also on 05 Mar, BWM, 6pm, Bob Jacobson. $30/40
Marine Radar: 20 Feb, SMS, 7pm, instructor tba. Features of Marine RADAR and how to use your radar to navigate and to avoid vessel traffic. Offered again on 26 Mar, SMS, 6pm, Tom Dalgliesh. $30/35
Mastering Rules of the Road: 27 Feb, SMS, 6pm, Tom Dalgliesh. Master the intricacies of sharing the water with other vessels. $20/35
VHF/DSC Radio: 19 Mar, BYC, 7pm, David Wright. Features of the new DSC marine VHF radio, with 'simulator' CD. Offered again on 10 Apr, BWM, 6pm, Peter Werner. $25/35
Traditions
and
Boating Etiquette:
16
Apr,
BYC,
7pm,
Randy
Olson.
A
close
look
at
Flag
Etiquette
and
other
boating
traditions.
$20/30
More Advanced Nautical Courses One of the main goals of Bellingham Sail & Power Squadron is “boating safety through education” – we believe that an educated boater is a safer boater. In addition to the basic boating course, we teach a series of outstanding courses that cover advanced seamanship, navigational techniques, boat handling, boat maintenance, and more. Complete course descriptions are below.
Advanced Grade Courses
Five Advanced Grade courses are offered by USPS. They are designed to be taken in sequence because each builds on skills taught in the previous course.
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Seamanship extends the knowledge and skills of the boater in handling and maneuvering a vessel, either sail or power. The course provides a better understanding of how boats behave under various conditions including close quarters and open water operations. Knowledge and skills are increased in the areas of anchoring, emergencies, rules of the road, and marlinspike/basic knots. Appendices include information to safe operation in waters of our neighbors to the north and south, Canada and Mexico. An On-The-Water component enhances the learning experience.
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Piloting is the first course in the sequence of USPS courses on navigation, covering the basics of coastal and inland navigation. This 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 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
- 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.
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Advanced Piloting
covers more advanced coastal navigation techniques, navigation in tides and currents, and more advanced GPS usage. -
Junior Navigation teaches the basics of offshore navigation, including basic celestial navigation using the sun and offshore course planning.
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Navigation is the most advanced navigation course taught by USPS, covering more advanced celestial navigation techniques, emergency navigation, and additional sight reduction techniques.
Elective
Courses
Six Elective Courses are offered by USPS. They cover separate and independent topics and therefore may be taken in any order according to a student’s interests and time.
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Engine Maintenance covers the operating principles and basic care and maintenance of outboard and inboard engines, including diesels.
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Marine Electronics (updated) is taught in three parts, offered as three standalone "systems" courses: Marine Electrical Systems, Marine Communications Systems, and Marine Navigation Systems. The first of these three courses, Marine Electrical Systems, covers wiring your boat, including boat electrical wiring practices and diagrams, direct and alternating current power, galvanic and stray current corrosion, and lightning protection. Troubleshooting is emphasized throughout, so students should feel comfortable performing even tricky wiring tasks after passing this course.
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Cruise Planning covers topics of interest for someone planning a cruise – whether for just a weekend or for a year – including preparation and planning, anchoring, security, chartering, and cruising outside the US.
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Weather covers weather forecasting and reading weather patterns on-board.
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Sail covers everything from the basic elements of how a sailboat works to sail trim, rig tuning, and sailboat racing. These is taught in two parts.
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Instructor Development teaches effective communication skills for not only USPS instructors but everyone, covering various methods of presenting information to others, effective use of audiovisual aids (including PowerPoint), etc.
View or print an Adobe PDF copy of our course descriptions. For more information, please call Graham Hunter at 360-332-5526 or email Graham
If one or more of these courses interest you, we hope to see you soon!
