Advanced Courses

We teach a series of five courses that incrementally provide a thorough education on boat operation & navigation in coastal and open waters. These courses (sometimes referred to as Sequential Courses) are designed to be taken in a specified sequence where each course builds upon the knowledge gained in the previous classes.

• Seamanship covers basic deck seamanship, marlinspike (knots and ropes), anchoring and rafting, basic boat care and maintenance, and nautical and USPS customs and etiquette.
• Piloting is the first and most basic navigation course, covering chart reading, course plotting, and basic coastal or inland navigation, including basic GPS usage. This course goes into more detail than the charting information covered in the public courses.
• 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.
• Navigation is the most advanced navigation course taught by USPS, covering more advanced celestial navigation techniques, emergency navigation, and additional sight reduction techniques.