[Jenny]

Hi Phaedra! Fortunately, a lot of the courses are listed sequentially for good reason… they go in order with increasing complexity. Here are courses meant to be taken in order, and then I’ll list courses that are great additions after you take at least 101 and get some sailing time in.

101 Keelboat Sailing 1

102 Keelboat Sailing 2 (not required, but it fits here nicely)

103 Coastal Cruising

104 Bareboat Cruising

105 Coastal Navigation (often no water time — just a lot of navigation)

106 Advanced Coastal Cruising

(108 is rarely taken since it’s so advanced — Offshore Passagemaking)

Now for the “extra” courses that are oftentimes more specialized and not general sailing knowledge:

107 Celestial Navigation

110 Small Boat Sailing

114 Catamaran Cruising

116 Dinghy & Outboard Endorsement

118 Docking & Maneuvering Endorsement

119 Marine Weather Endorsement

120 Radar Endorsement

[Patrick]

I’m not sure I agree that the course numbers reflect order of difficulty. For example: from my experience, a typical 101-trained student is not likely have the sailing experience (or situational awareness) necessary to effectively implement what they may be able to retain from the 102 sail trim training. Very valuable knowledge to be sure, but IMO it would probably be more useful after students graduate the 103 level and (more importantly) get some non-training sail time in varying conditions and on different boats.

• This reply was modified 3 months ago by  Patrick.

[Jenny]

Great points! Any kind of experience between, before, after a course is valuable. The new 102 course is a good challenge and doesn’t need to come before 103, I agree. And depending on your background experience, 101 could be the most challenging course where you feel like you’ve been pushed off the dock and into the water. It really does come down to your experience, whether one course or another is more challenging. However, you can’t go wrong taking these courses in sequence and getting some sail time between each of them. Slow down to make the learning stick!

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by  Jenny.

[CYNTHIA]

Easy – Basic Keelboat

Hardest – Coastal Navigation

[deepwaterhappy]

For many, 101 might be the most difficult for someone who has not sailed before the class since there is such a high volume of new information to assimilate; terms, knots, maneuvers, and methods.