Hi Bill,
I know there was some idea in the past of starting some sort of training school, or at least providing the engine room so that a school could give training on our engine in our engine room. Has that gone anywhere yet, and/or what do other Duckees think?

Hello Ducks, Dorothy and I (DD462-02) have rented an apartment in Seattle for 3 months -- January thru March to take advantage of Seattle Maritime Academy's diesel & electrical for recreational boaters classes. They are offered winter quarter only and we are in class 4 nights per week. We're 3 weeks into it and the classes are everything we'd hoped for. We're finding that Seattle is full of training opportunities -- Pacific Maritime Institute offering weekend weather and radar courses, as well as allowing recreation boaters to attend CG-certified courses; 100T licensing course (for Dorothy, I already have my license) at Crawford School of Navigation, home & online Celestial Navigation through Starpath. There are so many boating-knowledgable folks here, making it all very worthwhile.

I looked at some of the websites for training in the Seattle area and they look pretty good. Can anyone recommend any other training facilities? For example, in the Florida or Gulf area? Thanks.

Joseph

Look at this web site. It's located in Stewart Fl. and I am thinking of taking the two month class that starts March 27th.
http://www.chapman.org/training-programs/mariner_2006.html

Randal Johnson

Randal,

That looks like a good course. It may not cover enough electrical and engine stuff but you can add that afterwards if needed. Which is the right time to do it.

Hugh

Randal,

The classes in Stewart look good too. How did you decide to take these particular classes? From your other postings, it sounds like I am where you were at 2 or 3 years ago. Would you have any tips to shortcut my learning process?

Dave & Dorothy,

The course "Seattle Maritime Academy's diesel & electrical for recreational boaters" looks like a great opportunity. I have Canadian Power Squadron courses and ISP courses but these do not offer hands on experience as one would need, for example, for diesel or electrical.

I asked the Canadian Coast Guard for courses for recreational boaters and was given this reply:"...most of our courses are for fleet personnel and not for the general public."

As I am from Toronto, Ontario which is a high density population area located on the Great Lakes I checked out our many community colleges. The only thing available here that I can find is a course in maintenance of a small sailboat auxilliary diesel engine. We also have a Maritime Institute but again this is not open to non-commercial interests.

I sure wish I too could find advanced boat related courses!! Florida and Seattle are a bit too far, and with the need of accomodation for a month or two, prohibitively expensive. Help, anyone?

drassel

Drassel, I spent several years looking, on the web, for the technical courses. I've taken many seminars and a couple of 1-2 day short courses on marine diesel, but SMA was the only program of this type I found in the US (didn't look in Canada, but if something had shown up in my internet searches, that would've been fine too). Being retired, Dorothy and I have the luxury, at this point, of going where the program is, though I wish I'd taken this type of training long ago.

An earlier post on this topic asked about a proposed training program for Ducks. When I was in Subic Bay (Philippines) aboard 462-01 last year, I spoke with the folks at a Wärtsilä training facility, for marine engineers, located in Subic. They liked the idea of a several week long, all day, technical program for recreation boaters (they're already offering a coastal nav class for rec boats). The primary considerations are have some equipment to work on, other than large commercial engines, electrical systems and having enough people in Subic simultaneously to make putting it on cover costs.

I spent several months last year, Mar, Apr, parts of July, Aug in Subic, and it would be very reasonable, dollar-wise, to combine a trip to the Seahorse boatyard with a stop at Subic for the training.

Ray Wolfe, the Lloyds surveyor several of us are using for inspections is based there. Dave

United States Power Squadrons have free training classes for members. A nominal annual due is required. They have Engine Maintenance and Cruise planning but they are short courses of about 10 weeks. I have Sea-Tech Marine Services here in Niagara Falls, New York, but it is a class for obtaining your Captain’s License, with emphasis on Navigation, not docking or cruising.
They teach courses in Upstate New York, Western Pennsylvania and Parts of Ohio. Owner is a good friend of mine. His main office is located in Niagara Falls, NY. Visit: http://www.seatechmarinetraining.com/index.html

Capt. Dennis Daniels is the owner and course instructor. Dennis is also a Past Commander of the Buffalo Power Squadron.

Hope this helps.