Course catalogue

This course will cover the Collision Regulations as per the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (COLREGs).

 

In this course, you will watch videos where the instructor tackles all the rules and explains them in detail. Rule 1 to Rule 37 will be covered. This is designed to present the Rules of the Road information in a practical, no-nonsense way to aid students in studying for their exams.

This course will cover all of the aspects of a radar operator course. Radar construction and theories of propagation are covered as well as operation techniques including manual target plotting and the use of radars during collision avoidance and navigation.

In this course, you will watch videos where the instructor tackles Part A of the COLREGS Rule 1 to Rule 3. This is designed to present the Rules of the Road information in a practical, no-nonsense way to aid students in studying for their exams.

After completion of this course, you'll learn how to use the sextant, how to bring the sun down to the horizon, how to calculate the latitude at noon, and other fundamentals. If you go no further than that, you're going to have a pretty solid foundation in basic celestial navigation.

In this course, you will watch videos where the instructor tackles Part B of the COLREGS Rule 4 to Rule 19. This is designed to present the Rules of the Road information in a practical, no-nonsense way to aid students in studying for their exams.

In this course, you will watch videos where the instructor tackles Part C of the COLREGS Rule 20 to Rule 31. This is designed to present the Rules of the Road information in a practical, no-nonsense way to aid students in studying for their exams.

In this course, you will watch videos where the instructor tackles Part D of the COLREGS Rule 32 to Rule 37. This is designed to present the Rules of the Road information in a practical, no-nonsense way to aid students in studying for their exams.

This course is all about the sun. We're going to do morning and afternoon sun lines by hand in all hemispheres of the ocean the Northern, Southern and the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, and eventually, it's going to culminate with the voyage from Grenada to the Virgin Islands where we calculate our position just based on the sun and running fixes.

This course rounds up your understanding of the stars, planets and the moon. Three videos to help you figure out how to use any object in the sky to navigate by.

In this course, you will watch videos where the instructor tackles all the rules and explains them in detail. Rule 1 to Rule 37 will be covered. This is designed to present the Rules of the Road information in a practical, no-nonsense way to aid students in studying for their exams.

This course describes the concepts of LHA (local hour angle), and the process of calculating latitude by Polaris in the northern hemisphere using the Nautical Almanac.

In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of visual signalling, including the basics of flag hoist, flashing light, and other types of signalling. Then, we will dive deeper into flashing light signalling, including memorising Morse Code and interpreting flashing light codes for single-letter, two-letter, and three-letter codes. We will interpret code signals using the International Code of Signals. This course uses USA maritime publications but is applicable to all STCW mariners. For an additional charge, you can also take the final online exam in an approved USA maritime training facility leading to a US Coast Guard-approved certificate. Contact the instructor for more details at chris@practicalnavigator.org.

After completing this course, you will have a better appreciation for paper nautical charts. This understanding is extremely important as we transition to electronic charting to ensure that critical skills are not lost. You will be able to use dividers and rulers to determine a position, plot a fix, and calculate speed/distance/time relationships. All of these are critical skills for RFPNW and OICNW candidates.