Division 7 - District 7 

Basic & Advanced Coastal Navigation

We are understaffed and currently not teaching this.
Find this and other instructive programs at another flotilla in the Tampa Bay area.

Lost? Confused?? Wonder where you are???

You'll know the answer after completing
our Coastal Navigation Program!!

Note: If you do not live in or near Brandon, Florida,
locate the courses nearest you anywhere in the US
or in District 7 (FL, SC, GA, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands)

To find out when we start offering programs in Brandon again,
sign up for the Channel 24 Public News e-mailing list.

The U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary's Coastal Navigation program is a comprehensive set of lessons that can prepare you to use navigational methods of safely piloting a boat.

Topics include:

• INTRODUCTION TO COASTAL NAVIGATION -- course overview; names and definitions of various types of navigation; steps of voyage planning and underway navigation; earth's coordinate system and its use to specify location; how direction can be measured on the surface; conversion of direction (true, magnetic, compass and relative) to another.

• THE MARINE MAGNETIC COMPASS -- parts and principle of operation of the marine magnetic compass; concept of deviation and distinctions between compass north, magnetic north, and true north; "swinging ship" and deviation table preparation; rapidly and reliably solving TVMDC and/or CDMVT computations.

• THE NAUTICAL CHART -- characteristics of nautical charts, particularly Mercator and polyconic projections; plotting positions in terms of latitude and longitude; various chart types/scales and their appropriate uses; basic knowledge of chart symbols; rapid and reliable measurement of direction, distance, and location on Mercator and polyconic nautical charts.

• THE NAVIGATOR'S TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS -- navigator tools used in everyday practice; basic skills and familiarity with the use of plotting instruments; use of other instruments and equipment used in the practice of navigation.

• DEAD RECKONING -- working knowledge of dead reckoning methods including plotting, labeling, measuring, and determining DR positions; speed, time, distance formulas and problem solving; speed estimation, tachometers and speed curves.

• PILOTING -- Line of Position (LOP) concepts; bearing use in LOPs; running fix by advancing or retiring an LOP; danger bearings; estimated positions when the data are lacking for a FIX.

Note: If you do not live in or near Brandon, Florida,
locate the courses nearest you anywhere in the US
or in District 7 (FL, SC, GA, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands)

To find out when we start offering programs in Brandon again,
sign up for the Channel 24 Public News e-mailing list.