One of the main goals of USPS is “boating safety through education” – we believe that an educated boater is a safer boater. In addition to its public education program, USPS teaches a series of outstanding members-only courses that cover advanced seamanship, navigational techniques, and boat handling, maintenance, and enhancement topics. Learn how to become a member of USPS and take any or all of these courses.

Advanced Grade Courses

Five Advanced Grade courses are offered by USPS.  They are designed to be taken in sequence because each builds on skills taught in the previous course.

• Seamanship covers basic deck seamanship, marlinspike (knots and ropes), anchoring and rafting, basic boat care and maintenance, and nautical and USPS customs and etiquette.
• Piloting is the first and most basic navigation course, covering chart reading, course plotting, and basic coastal or inland navigation, including basic GPS usage. This course goes into more detail than the charting information covered in the public courses.
• Advanced Piloting covers more advanced coastal navigation techniques, navigation in tides and currents, and more advanced GPS usage.
• Junior Navigation teaches the basics of offshore navigation, including basic celestial navigation using the sun and offshore course planning.
• Navigation is the most advanced navigation course taught by USPS, covering more advanced celestial navigation techniques, emergency navigation, and additional sight reduction techniques.

Elective Courses

Six Elective Courses are offered by USPS.  They cover separate and independent topics and therefore may be taken in any order according to a member’s interests and time.

• Engine Maintenance covers the operating principles and basic care and maintenance of outboard and inboard engines, including diesels.
• Marine Electronics covers installation and maintenance of both boat electrical systems (AC and DC) and marine electronics (VHF radio, radar, GPS, etc).
• Cruise Planning covers topics of interest for someone planning a cruise – whether for just a weekend or for a year – including preparation and planning, anchoring, security, chartering, and cruising outside the US.
• Weather covers weather forecasting and reading weather patterns on-board.
• Sail covers everything from the basic elements of how a sailboat works to sail trim, rig tuning, and sailboat racing.
• Instructor Development teaches effective communication skills for not only USPS instructors but everyone, covering various methods of presenting information to others, effective use of audiovisual aids (including PowerPoint), etc.

View or print an Adobe PDF copy of our member courses.

If one or more of these member's courses interest you, this page will tell you how to become a member. We hope to see you soon!