Training
SFPS offers classes, workshops and certification in various aspects of Boating safety for both sailboats and powerboats.
Courses Available
Advanced Courses
Five Sequential Courses in Seamanship and Navigation
- Seamanship
- Piloting
- Advanced Piloting
- Junior Navigation
- Navigation
Elective Courses
Six non-sequential courses in marine-oriented topics
- Cruise Planning
- Engine Maintenance
- Marine Electronics
- Instructor Development
- Sail
- Weather
Self-Study Guides
These are a collection of short self-study guides on special subjects and are available to non-members
| Program | Non-Member’s Cost |
|---|---|
| Boat Insurance | $ 9.00 |
| Compass Adjusting | 9.00 |
| GMDSS and Marine Radio | 20.00 |
| GPS | 10.00 |
| How to Fly Flags | 9.00 |
| Introduction to Sailing | 20.00 |
| Intro to Navigational Astronomy | 9.00 |
| Knots, Bends & Hitches | 15.00 |
| Marine Amateur Radio | 15.00 |
| Plotting & Labeling Standard | 9.00 |
| RADAR | 9.00 |
| Sight Reduction Methods | 20.00 |
| Skipper Saver | 10.00 |
| Nautical Terms | 9.00 |
| Water Sports | 9.00 |
Elective Courses
No prerequisite is required for any elective courses
Cruise Planning
- Planning a cruise, whether a day or many months long
- Planning the voyage
- The boat and how it is equipped
- Crew Selection
- Provisioning
- Navigation planning
- Weather
- Communications
- Entering and clearing foreign ports
- Anchors and anchoring
- Voyage management
- Emergencies afloat
- Medical emergencies
- Security
Engine Maintenance
- General construction of engines
- Operating principles of engines
- Maintenance and repair of marine engines
- Cooling, electrical, fuel, and lubricating systems
- Engine trouble diagnosis and temporary remedies
- Safety measures
Marine Electronics
- Your boat’s electrical and electronic systems
- Wiring
- Grounding
- Electrolysis control
- Batteries and their maintenance
- Depth finders
- Marine radio telephones
- Radar
- GPS
- Loran
- Omega
- FCC requirements for station operator licensing
Instructor Development
- Effective communications for speakers and teachers.
- Practical skills for preparing for meetings and teaching.
- Preparing outlines for presentations Practice in presentations.
- Use of audio-visual and other aids.
Sail
- Terminology of sailing
- Types of hulls
- Rigs and sail plans
- Running and standing rigging
- Adjustment gear for rigging
- Hull and water forces caused by wind and waves
- Forces versus balance
- Points of sail
- Sail handling
- Sailing under all different wind conditions
- Tuning the sailboat
- Sailboat instrumentation
- Boat operation
- Sailboat marlinespike techniques
- Emergency techniques unique to sailboats
Weather
- Awareness of weather phenomena
- How to read the weather map and sky
- Understanding and anticipating weather development
- Characteristics and structure of the atmosphere
- What weather is and its basic causes
- Normal development and movement of weather systems
- Factors that enter into weather forecasting
- Instrumental and visual observations made afloat
- Cloud sequences and the weather they predict
- Air masses
- Fronts
- Storms
- Fog
- Taking Observations and making predictions
Advanced Grades
Seamanship
- Marlinspike
- Hull design and performance
- Boat handling under normal conditions
- Emergencies
- Marine Environment
- Living aboard a boat
- How to care for a boat
- Nautical etiquette and customs
Piloting
- Finding your way
- Charts and publications
- Aids to navigation
- The Mariner’s compass
- Determining deviation
- Bearings
- Piloting and labeling
- The art of positioning
- Weekend cruise
Advanced Piloting
Suggested prerequisites: Seamanship, Piloting
- Review of basic piloting
- Electronic coastal n avigation
- Advanced positioning techniques
- Positioning with current effects
- Tides and tidal currents
- Predicting height of tide and tidal currents
- Practice cruise
Junior Navigation
Suggested prerequisite: Advanced Piloting
- Principles of celestial navigation
- Methods of finding positions at sea
- Electronic navigation principles
- Identification of stars and planets
- Use of the sextant
- The Nautical Almanac
- Offshore charts and the Sailings
Navigation
Suggested prerequisite: Junior Navigation
- Techniques of celestial navigation
- Fundamental principles of celestial navigation
- Extensive work with chronometers
- Extensive work with sextants
- The equator system of coordinates
- The horizon system of coordinates
- The navigator’s day’s work at sea
The SF Sail & Power Squadron is a unit of the United States Power Squadrons (USPS)