Coastal Navigation Basics: Terminology, Safety and Instructor Certification

Offshore Sailing School Tip: With Offshore Sailing School’s Coastal Navigation course you can learn to navigate in a classroom setting or on board a catamaran during an Advanced Live Aboard course. In this sailing and coastal navigation course, you gain the skills that ensure safe and successful navigation in coastal waters. You will graduate from sailing and coastal navigation training with the confidence to safely navigate through challenging conditions, shallow waters, changing tides, currents and low visibility.

There are coastal navigation standards for different types of boats. These standards are developed and put into law to protect everyone who uses waterways. They are written primarily to assist boaters and avoid collisions. Navigational rules exist for almost every imaginable sequence of events that could lead to such a collision. If you want to learn to sail and skipper a boat, you need to know not only the terminology, but assume responsibility if something unforeseen should happen on the water.

One way to make sure you are ready to sail is to choose a coastal navigation course that has rigorous standards. The US SAILING Certification system requires very high standards for the instructor who will teach you, including two and a half days of grueling qualifications. Though not everyone passes the first time, Offshore Sailing School has one of the highest graduate success rates in the industry. These coastal navigation standards are applied through a third-party system, which ensures they are accurate and thorough.