Take our complete Boat Handling course or unitized topical seminars
Take our new Boat Handling course or choose seminar units drawn from the course.
Share knowledge with your fellow skippers. Fill critical gaps in your boating knowledge. Gain confidence to embark on new adventures on the water. Above all, be a safer skipper.
USPS offers a newly written course and seminar series that picks up where America’s Boating Course left off. Take it, and you will learn how to handle your boat in a variety of situations and become the skipper you want to be. Gain confidence in docking, boat handling underway, anchoring, and other seamanship skills.
Boat Handling covers these topics:
- Rules of the Road: A Practical Approach
- Confidence in Docking and Undocking: Slow-Speed Maneuvering
- Boating with Confidence: Handling Your Boat Under Way
- Anchoring with Assurance: Don’t Get Carried Away
- Emergencies on Board: Preparation for Handling Common Problems
- Knots and Line Handling: The Knots You Need to Know
Units from the Boat Handing course comprise stand-alone seminars as well.
Each topic in the course is also available as a free-standing Squadron-taught seminar. Our instructors will enrich the course with local knowledge, experience, on-the-water coaching, and discussion that will help you expand your boating horizons.
The course also includes an optional online test, which covers material contained in both the Student Guide and the six modules. Members of Lake Hartwell Boating Club who take this course and pass the exam will qualify for the grade of Seaman.
Talk it up among your Squadron friends, and let’s assemble a group to take in some seminars or even the complete Boat Handling course. Show your interest using the lake-hartwell.org Contact form.
Seminar Units And Details
Learn how to anchor safely and securely. (BoatUS)
The following are seminar units drawn from the course:
Learn locking through skills for new adventures on inland waterways. (BoatUS)
Anchoring helps improve your understanding of the conditions and situations involved in anchoring a boat and the need for a proper anchor choice.
Boating on Rivers. Locks, and Lakes prepares you to pilot confidently in fickle rivers, develop the special skills you need to deal with currents and shallows, know how to maneuver through locks, and learn the correct ways to maneuver in the presence of commercial vessels when you are boating on major inland waterways.
Boating With Confidence: Handling Your Boat Under Way will help you learn about basic operations; trimming your boat; operating on plane; handling seas and waves; dealing with bars, rivers, rivers, and bends; and other situations you will encounter along your cruise.
Learn how to choose the right knot for the job and get it right fast the first time. (BoatUS)
Confidence in Docking and Undocking: Slow-Speed Maneuvering will train you to look like a pro while protecting your boat, your passengers, and yourself with the docking/undocking skills you need. You will learn how to control your boat at slow speed in close proximity to other boats and fixed objects.
Emergencies On Board will prepare you to handle common emergencies that can happen when you are on your boat and away from the dock, whether you venture out for the day or are leaving on a longer cruise. You will learn how to deal with them as they occur and especially when the skipper is unable to respond. You will learn how to handle onboard fires, how to recognize and prepare for medical emergencies and how to communicate with crew, other boats, and first responders.
Knots And Line Handling will train you to secure your boat to docks, piers, and other boats; handle rescue and repair situations; manage running rigging; anchor securely; and tow other vessels or people. You’ll receive hands-on experience selecting the appropriate line and tying the 10 most useful knots, bends, and hitches.
Rules Of The Road: A Practical Approach prepares you understand the basic rules encountered by recreational boaters during almost every boating outing and the rules most likely to apply in the local waters where you boat. It covers skipper responsibilities, general rules, and definitions, rules to avoid a collision, lights and shapes, and sound and light signals.
