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America’s Boating Course®
Starting April 1, 2026, Massachusetts law begins a phased-in requirement for recreational power boaters to complete an approved boat safety course and hold a Boating Safety Certificate from the Massachusetts Environmental Police (MEP).
America’s Boating Course meets the state requirement, and we will submit your application to the MEP.
This is the most comprehensive in-person boating course available, giving you the knowledge you need to enjoy your time on the water and boat with confidence.
Taking a boating class reduces your risk and saves you money on boat insurance.
The course is also available on-line.
Our new Boat Handling course is intended for newer recreational boaters who have completed a basic boating class (like America’s Boating Course) and want to gain more knowledge, skill, and confidence to boat safely and have more fun in a variety of situations.
Details available on the national site here.
Marine Navigation
Marine Navigation (aka MN1) is the first of the coastal navigational classes focusing on reading and using coastal and inland conditions. The course emphasizes plotting and checking your progress along with the use of GPS for determining position, and introduces digital charting along with traditional charting, compass and dead reckoning navigation skills. Plotting, labeling, use of the compass, aids to navigation and a host of related topics are included.
Advanced Marine Navigation
Coming soon, the follow-on course to Marine Navigation! Do you want to navigate unfamiliar waters in limited visibility or take an extended cruise with confidence? Learn to use manual navigation, radar, chart plotters, AIS, and other electronic tools in a variety of coastal tide, current and wind conditions. Learn course planning, extended cruise navigation, hazard and collision avoidance, and navigational aids.
Offshore Navigation
Offshore Navigation is the first in a two-part program of study, to be followed by a new Celestial Navigation course. In Offshore Navigation, the student will continue to use GPS as the primary position sensor, as learned in Marine Navigation or Piloting and Advanced Piloting. However, the offshore environment poses many different elements for consideration by the navigator. Ocean currents, wind, and sea state all affect a vessel’s performance over the longer passages.
Offshore Navigation is designed as a practical “how to” course designed to be completed in nine weeks of classroom work, plus an additional week to review the Practice Cruise.
Celestial Navigation
Celestial Navigation is the companion course to Offshore Navigation to obtain the grade of Navigator (N). It complements the other navigation courses using the ages-old method of using the altitude of celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, planets, and stars to navigate at sea. The student uses a sextant to measure the altitudes of celestial bodies, and with data from the Nautical Almanac, develops lines of position and fixes used in offshore navigation.
Chapter 1. A View of our Solar System. A simple overview of how the celestial bodies in the sky appear to us on earth.
Chapter 2. Sunrise…Sunset. Finding local mean time of solar and lunar phenomena and converting the time of these events to zone time.
Chapter 3. Taking Sights and Finding Ho, LHA, and Dec. Taking sights on the moon, navigational planets and stars; applying proper altitude corrections to these sights to obtain Ho; applying corrections for low altitude sights; and computing the LHA and declination of these bodies.
Chapter 4. Sight Reduction and Plotting by the Law of Cosines. Reducing sights of the moon, stars, and planets by the Law of Cosines method; and plotting lines of position (LOPs) for these sights to obtain an estimated position, a running fix, and a true fix.
Chapter 5. Sight Reduction and Plotting by the NASR method. Reducing sights on the sun, moon, stars, and planets by the Nautical Almanac Sight Reduction (NASR) method; and plotting the lines of position (LOPs) for these sights to obtain an estimated position, a running fix, and a true fix.
Chapter 6. Sight Planning. Planning your sights to achieve good 2- and 3-body fixes, using both traditional and electronic tools.
Chapter 7. Emergency Navigation. Provisioning an emergency navigation kit and constructing emergency plotting sheets; and determining destination coordinates mathematically from course and distance traveled.
Chapter 8. Electronics and Software for Offshore Navigation. Using a software-based voyage planning tool to plan an offshore voyage (Visual Passage Planner 2); and using a navigation program in executing the voyage (OpenCPN).
Chapter 9. Underway. A review of the Navigator’s duties and USPS Plotting and Labeling Standards; and setting up and using a 900 series plotting sheet. The student will execute a leg of an offshore voyage using both electronic and traditional tools, including celestial positioning. This Practice Cruise is an excellent preparation for the open book exam.
Exam
There are two exam elements for the N2015 course, the Sight Folder and an Open Book Exam. Both are graded by the Offshore Navigation Committee. Sight Folders must be submitted with an ED33 Exam Order (electronic fill in or paper fill in) to be graded. There is no set order for completion of the Sight Folder and Exam.
To sign up for any of these courses, please check the main education page for registration information.