The Sailing Club, Inc.

Training

NJ Boating Certification

New Jersey Safe Boating Certificate Offered

For those of you who plan on boating in the tidal affected waters of New Jersey - Now hear this!
Depending upon your age, you must ultimately possess a New Jersey Safe Boating Certificate by June 1, 2008. Don't even think of touching a tiller or the helm if you have not acquired this certificate. Licenses or certificates obtained priior to this certificate may or may not be valid. You need to check for yourself. If the sailboat is powered, you must have this certificate. Dates by birthdate are as follows:

• If you were born in 1969 or later you must possess the certificate NOW.
  
• If you were born in 1959 or later you must have the certificate by June 1, 2007.
  
• If you were born in 1949 or later you must have the certificate by June 1, 2008.

So, what to do?
In 2007 through an exclusive arrangement with New Jersey Sailing School and The Sailing Club, Inc. participants either tested-out (TO) or took an 8 hour class to obtain this certificate. TBD,(To be determined),if we will offer this class again.

Training and Advancement

The Sailing Club is very proud of its long record of safety and successful trips.  This record is due, in large measure, to the process by which we identify, train, and promote skippers and first mates and the methods employed to keep their skills sharp and current.  The responsibility for these processes falls to the Training Coordinator, who reports to the Vice Commodore.  All procedures and advancements are subject to approval by the Board of Trustees.  There may be a committee of volunteers to help with training activities as needed.

We are very pleased to announce that The Sailing Club has recently received permission to certify our skippers without and independently of any national entity such as US Sailing. This milestone decision was awarded based on our long, demonstrable record of safety and documented proof of the high quality that exists throughout our corps of captains and first mates. We insure that high quality with the well-developed evaluation processes listed below. Congratulations to past-Commodore Steward and past-Vice-Commodore Stufflebeem for successfully presenting our case for self-certification.

The Training Coordinator has three specific roles assigned.  They are:

• Identify candidates who might qualify to serve as First Mates, Skippers, and Senior Skippers.
• Administer the processes by which club members qualify for one or more of the above roles.
• Provide or arrange guidance and training  for anyone in these roles as well as anyone else who might be interested in such training.

There are well-defined procedures to follow if one wishes to earn advancement to one of the command positions (i.e., Skipper, Senior Skipper, or First Mate).  There are separate documents describing the procedures to become a First Mate, Skipper or a Senior Skipper.  Anyone interested should read these documents and/or contact the Training Coordinator.  For an itemized job description for each rank, contact the Training Coordinator or any club officer. Please be aware that the Sailing Club requires anyone interested in being a club Skipper to have served as a club First Mate before seeking evaluation as a skipper.

Our annual On-Water Training session is now included as part of a triple play of learning opportunities organized and coordinated by the Commodore and the Training Coordinator.   We call this the Tri-Event Forum.  First we will conduct a classroom session on the basics of seamanship.  The topics will include basic marlinspike seamanship, navigation, and Rules of the Road.  That will be followed by On-Water Training (OWT) where members can learn and practice infrequently used skills like man overboard recovery, reefing, and primarily, boathandling under power, especially docking situations.  The concluding event will be a Sailing and Navigation Rally held later in the season.  This 2-1/2 day event will challenge the participants to effectively combine all these skills based on the efficient coordinated execution of all these basic skills. Details of these training opportunities may be found on the Current Trips page and/or the online club calendar.

Seamanship and Navigation Resources

Except for a small number of safety and comfort rules, which your skipper will review with you at the beginning of each trip, you can pretty much sail with the Club without knowing much about sailing at all. Of course your pleasure and ability to usefully participate in the sail are increased as you learn more about our sport. The best way to learn is to indicate you want to learn more, ask how to do something, and then do it! Our Skippers and First Mates are all excellent sailors and teachers. There are many, many sites on the web and equally many books that provide instruction on sailing.  The Training and Advancement Committee of The Sailing Club, Inc. has included in this section of our website some information that we have found useful. No need to stress over any of this material.  Remember, we do this because it's fun.

• Some terms used in measuring things onboard.
• Some useful knots.
• Links to external web seamanship resources

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Last modified on:  3/29/2008 6:08:48 AM Eastern Time