Need insurance when you put to sea? Of course, you do and to ensure that boat owners and handlers are better educated prior to taking their larger vessels offshore and on extended journeys, insurance companies are doing their due diligence by requesting educational evidence of their boat handling and navigation skills from potential clients.
Karla Herbert-Evans from Nautical Training and Marine Services conducts courses, which satisfy the needs of both the insurance companies and the boat operators and owners, and students receive a Certificate of Completion which details all activities successfully completed.
Prospective boat owners, Paul Platt and Nick Evans are two such successful students.
Business Partners, Paul and Nick, were looking to purchase a boat to enjoy during their semi-retirement from the workforce. Being organised and responsible the two men decided to make the effort to learn all they could to keep themselves safe on the water.
Having already attained their Recreational Boat Licence and Marine Radio Licence, it seemed that the natural progression was to undertake a course of study in navigation. Nick, having extensive aviation piloting experience already, was keen to learn more detailed differences between aviation navigation and marine navigation, predominantly tidal influence.
Seeing that Karla offered such a course: “Navigation Courses 1 & 2 Chart Plotting and Positioning”, they decided to engage her services.
Karla conducted the class at the Australian Volunteer Coastguard facility in Marine Parade, Southport Qld. Paul said that the classroom was well laid out, and that Karla supplied all the tools needed to complete the course exercises. Additionally, she provided numerous helpful resources, that class members were encouraged to take home and keep. She also gave recommendations for software that have proved very helpful. “The course content was well planned out,” said Paul. “Karla brought her many years of boating and navigation experience to the classroom and introduced the class to the basics of marine navigation, using a variety of learning styles, in a fashion that was both informative and practical.”
Paul was initially challenged with the problem of ‘getting his head around’ converting compass bearings to true bearings, and vice versa, on the navigational charts. With support and advice from Karla, Paul was able to overcome the troublesome conversions!
Paul believes that, for Nick and him, the highlight of the course was the successful manual plotting of a course around the Whitsunday Islands, then checking their bearings and measurements for time, distance, and fuel against the Navionics software calculations – and finding a very close match.
Paul and Nick believe that they achieved their learning objectives – and have a certificate to prove it! They are now confident that they can plan a boating trip by reading marine charts and traditional methods of plotting a course, using compass and true bearings, and accounting for hazards, tides, currents, fuel and distance, estimating time on water and basic weather forecasting.
Nautical Training’s increasingly popular Navigation Courses, highly regarded for insurance purposes, are offered as:
- ‘Navigation Basics’ – which covers Iala Buoyage System; Chart Features; Latitude and Longitude; Compass True and Magnetic; Compass Bearings; Compass Conversions; Distance Speed Time; Tide Calculations; and Passage Planning
- ‘Navigational Positioning’ – featuring Chart Plotting Shaping a Course; Calculating Set and Drift; and Dead Reckoning Position Fixing, and
- ‘Night Navigation’ -helping sailors to master Night Navigation; Radar Positioning; Radar Plotting; Onboard Practical; and Navigating Broadwater.
To book these courses, or boat licence and jet ski licence training and assessment, as well as AMSA Coxswain Grade 3 practical, contact Karla directly at karla@nauticaltraining.com.au Ph: 0412 550 570
Published in print October-December 2023
