Canadian Power & Sail Squadron Courses in Charlottetown, PEI
Our boating courses are a great way to spend the off- season hanging out with boaters when the boat is tucked away. And besides...
"You don't takes what you want from the sea, you sneaks up on it and wiggles it away" (wise old Newfie fisherman).
"You can't never know enough about the water" (Coast Guard bosun).
To register for Blue Heron Squadron courses:
Visit What's New for current course announcements.
Register for most courses each November, or contact the Training Officer.
Cash or cheque only, please, no debit or credit cards.
Tell us what courses you are interested in taking: Click Here
Registering for courses
Blue Heron Squadron Courses
Tell us what courses you are interested in taking: Click Here.
The Best Basic Boating Course For all Recreational Boaters:
Boating (open to all, 15 weeks). Best all-around course for beginning boaters. Includes basics of seamanship and navigation. Bonus: Includes the Pleasure Craft Operator's Card (PCOC). This course is required for full CPS membership.
Courses for Members:
Seamanship (was "Piloting") Prerequisite: Boating. About 4 months. Additional training in seamanship and coastal navigation. This course gets you out of the harbour.
Advanced Piloting Prerequisite: Piloting. About 5 months. More advanced seamanship and coastal navigation. This course gets you down the coast.
Junior Navigator Prerequisite: Advanced Piloting. Winter. Basic concepts of celestial navigation; use of the mariner's sextant to take sights of the sun; importance and techniques of accurate time determination; use of the Nautical Almanac: sight reduction to establish lines of position (LOPs). Use of GPS, special charts, plotting sheets and other navigational data for offshore positioning and passage planning.This course gets you offshore.
Navigator Prerequisite: Junior Navigator. Full winter. Part 2 of celestial navigation. Sight reducation techniques for bodies other than the sun.Greater skill and precision in sight taking, positioning and the orderly methods of carrying on the day's work of a navigator at sea. Correlating GPS and sextant positioning. Use of navigation software used for planning and navigating in the offshore environment (access to computer running Windows required in order to complete the homework and exam). Offshore emergency navigation using minimal data and equipment. This course gets you offshore and all the way across.
*Seamanship (was Piloting), Advanced Piloting, Junior Navigator and Navigator are the "core" CPS programs. They are intended to be taken in that sequence, and normally are offered only to members. We can make exceptions. See below for more information about these four core courses.
Public Courses for Members and Non-Members:
BoatPro Two evenings. The barest minimum. Successful candidates receive the Pleasure Craft Operator's Card, and can join Canadian Power & Sail Squadrdons as an Associate Member. (See also the Boating course above). Contact Quartermaster Marine in Winsloe to register.
Marine Maintenance (several weeks, open to all). Seasonal maintenance and repairs to wooden, fibreglass and metal hulls, maintenance of electrical and mechanical systems; spars, rigging and ground tackle; fire and safety protection; moorings and berths; trailers; tools and fittings.
Marine Electronics (several weeks, open to all). Electricity; DC and AC systems; wiring; galvanic and stray-current corrosion, electrical interference, lightning protection and the marine radiotelephone.
Marine Radio One evening and one Saturday. Open to all. Certification in marine radio is mandatory for users of VHF, HF (SSB), DSC and GMDSS radio systems on recreational boats. Successful candidates receive a Restricted Canadian Radio Operator's Certificate (Maritime). We accommodate existing certificants who only need the new GMDSS endorsement. Click Here for details.
Seamanship Sail (several weeks, open to all). Spars and rigging; sails and theory of sail action; sailboat handling; pilot and cruising under sail (day sailors and keelboats); fire safety and sailboat racing.
Distress Signaling. One day seminar on the use of flares and other distress signaling methods. A must for your whole crew.
Extended Cruising. (several weeks, open to all). Comprehensive course covering long-range coastal and open ocean offshore cruising. Useful course for people planning to make a summer coastal cruise, or bareboat charter in international waters.
Fundamentals of Weather (8 weeks, open to all). Basics of meteorology.
Global Weather (8 weeks, open to all). Designed for those who wish to make ocean crossings, or for the student who would just like to gain a more in depth knowledge of meteorology. Wise to take Fundamentals of Weather first.
Navigating with GPS (Three evenings and a Saturday, open to all). Click Here for details.
Electronic Charting. Takes over where Navigating with GPS leaves off. Includes software for practicing techniques.
Radar for Pleasure Craft. Teaches the use and capabilities of marine radar. Includes basic computer simulator software and course manual.
Depth Sounders. Introduces the recreational boater to various types of echo-location devices common on smaller recreational vessels; information often missing from manuals and glossy brochures.
Instructional Techniques. Guide to adult classroom instruction, designed for CPS-ECP instructors and proctors.
Watch "What's New?" for our registration evening date. It is usually a Tuesday at the end of October or beginning of November.
Duration and Prices: Longer courses usually are one evening a week from November and cost about $95-$165. Short courses usually are on a weekend and maybe a couple of evenings and cost about $25-$75.
Member Discount: Members receive a discount for all courses that can amount to the annual membership fee (see Membership).
Unpaid Volunteers: Blue Heron Power and Sail Squadron's volunteer, unpaid instructors offer some of these courses each winter. The Squadron also hosts occasional seminars on boating safety. Home study courses are available from the Canadian Power & Sail Squadrons national office at http://www.cps-ecp.ca/.
French Language Training
Our Squadron has not had sufficient volunteer resources competent in the French language to offer courses in French. French-language training materials are available from the national Escadrilles canadiennes de plaisance/Canadian Power & Sail Squadrons (CPS-ECP) website at http://www.cps-ecp.ca/public_fr/. We would welcome French language volunteers interested in organizing instructors and providing French-language infrastructure for our Squadron.
Seamanship*, Advanced Piloting, Junior Navigator** and Navigator**
These are the "core" CPS programs. They are about much more than just navigation, because they teach many important aspects of coastal and offshore seamanship. The Celestial Navigation course is about much more than the sextant, because it teaches the principles necessary to understand navigation on a global scale, including the types of calculations performed by GPS receivers and electronic chartplotters.
*Seamanship was formerly called Piloting.
**Junior Navigator and Navigator were formally one course called Celestial Navigation, although further back there were two courses like this too.
These 4 advanced core courses are intended to be taken in the S->AP->JN->N sequence, which is highly recommended. They can be taken individually, or in any sequence, and they can be taken by non-members, however: (1) Successful candidates who are CPS members will not receive formal certification until they have completed the prerequisite courses; and (2) They are open to non-members, however successful candidates who are non-members will only receive a note to that effect, and will not receive complete certification until they have joined CPS and taken the prerequisite courses.
For a full list of CPS courses visit http://www.cps-ecp.ca/. Some courses will be offered in Prince Edward Island each winter depending on local interest and resources.
Reasons why courses are a good idea:
You can't never know enough about the sea.
You don't takes what you wants from the sea, you sneaks up on it and wiggles it away.
You Need a VHF Radio Operator's Certificate: See This.
