The Boating Course provides in depth boat operation and safety training. As well, you will experience the challenge of plotting and navigation. Best of all, you will interact and make new friends with fellow recreational boaters while taking part in Canada’s premier boating course. Successful completion of the accredited examination (midterm) will allow you to receive your Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC).

Most materials are included. Instruction is given on charts, plotting, navigation, compass, buoys, beacons, knots, safety and much more.

Topics
• Characteristics of boats, Licensing, registration, and other requirements
• Mandatory equipment
• Optional equipment
• Ropes, lines, and knots
• Handling a boat under power
• Handling a boat under sail
• Weather
• Preparing to launch
• Skipper's responsibilities before setting out
• Skipper's responsibilities when under way
• Collision Regulations
• Canadian aids to navigation
• Emergencies
• Canals and locks
• Tides and tidal currents
• Trailering
• Winter lay-up
• Waterskiing
• Auxiliary boats
• Checklist for lay-up
• Pre-launch checklist
• The magnetic compass
• Anchors and anchoring

The Seamanship Course (formerly Piloting) extends the navigation and vessel-handling techniques introduced in the Boating Course. The course presents the three aspects of piloting. 1. Navigation and Plotting Skills: interpretation of charts and chart symbols; the DR plot; bearings; Fixes and running Fixes; determination of course to steer in a current, and determining distance off. 2. Seamanship Skills: understanding the hazards of weather, wind, waves, currents, tides and tidal currents, and how to deal with them. 3. Boat Capabilities and Performance: hull speed, stability, rudders and propellers

Prerequisite: Boating Course

A graduate of the Seamanship Course will have the theoretical knowledge to be able to handle a boat in rough weather, and to deal with emergency situations.

Course Content:
Boating Course subjects are expanded to include Relative Bearings and the Running Fix; effects of current and leeway, and new skills in marlinspike and coastal navigation are learned. Duration: 13 weeks. Course kit includes: Student Notes, Homework Folder, Training Chart "A".

•  Dead Reckoning and the Log
•  Marlinespike Seamanship
•  The Magnetic Compass
•  Fixed Aids to Navigation
•  Floating Aids to Navigation
•  Bearings and Fixes
•  Relative Bearings
•  Distance of an Object by Two Relative Bearings
•  Weather
•  Wind, Waves and Current
•  Seamanship Skills for Adverse Weather
•  Anchors and Anchoring
•  Tides
•  Tidal Currents
•  Navigating in a Current
•  Buoyancy and Stability
•  Hull Construction and Shape
•  Hull Performance
•  Propellers and Propeller Action
•  Rudders and Steering
•  Mechanisms
•  Emergencies
•  Preparedness and Enjoyment
•  Introduction to Electronic
•  Navigation
•  Manners and Customs

Prerequisite: Piloting or Seamanship

The “Advanced Piloting” course expands on elements of “The Boating Course” and “Piloting”. It demands greater accuracy in positioning and plotting exercises as well as adherence to standardized labeling. Your chart work skills will be developed to standards recognized in the maritime industry.

Course content:

•  Charts
•  Compass
•  Courses, Bearings and Positions
•  Electronic Navigation
•  Effects of Current and Leeway
•  Running Fixes
•  Tides and Tidal Currents

Meteorology (the study of weather) is quite technical in nature. In contrast, “Fundamentals of Weather” is presented in a straightforward manner eliminating much of the jargon.
With practice, it will become possible for you to make short term forecasts. Challenge the professionals as to who better predicts the weather in your local area

Prerequisite: Advanced Piloting

It This is the first of a two-course program of Offshore Navigation for the recreational boater in which students learn about current offshore navigation electronic tools and software as well as conventional route planning techniques.  Students also learn traditional celestial navigational skills to determine position, using these techniques to check their electronics and as the backup navigation technique in the event electronics fail. 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

After Junior Navigation, this course is the second part of the study of offshore navigation, further developing the student's understanding of celestial navigation theory. This Navigation 2009 course deals with learning celestial positioning using other bodies, in addition to positioning using the sun (covered in the Junior Navigation course). This course also deals with electronic software tools that can be used to plan and execute an offshore voyage. You will first learn to reduce these sights 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. 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.