Sailing and Powerboat Courses, Instruction, Certification, and Charters

Sailing & Powerboat Courses

Over 30 multimedia online and mobile device sailing and powerboat courses for beginners through advanced training. All surpassing international standards.
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Sailing & Powerboat Instructors

A global network of sailing and powerboating instructors integrating your knowledge learned online with practical on-the-water training and certification by American National Standards.
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Show me the ropes - I'm just getting started

Actually, there are four ropes on a boat: the bell rope, the bucket rope, the life ring rope, and the bolt rope. Just saying, because there are a lot of crusty ol’ sailors that say there are no ropes on a boat. Anyway …

To become a confident and competent sailor, you need theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Makes sense, right?

While NauticEd teaches all courses to international sailing standards, we are nationally approved by the United States Coast Guard and our SLC sailing license is accepted internationally including all countries in the Mediterranean. Thus, NauticEd guides you through it all: online multimedia courses and testing, professional practical training schools, and a free electronic logbook that tracks your on-the-water experience. All the while, our software simultaneously and automatically builds you a globally accepted sailing resume. It’s the 21st century way of becoming a sailor!

We recommend that you start with Introduction to Sailing which is just $27. However, if you want to see how we roll first before your investment, take our fun FREE Basic Sail Trim course. In this course, you’ll learn about the wind and its forces on the sails through a series of interactive animations. It's a wee bit more advanced than totally basic, but you'll get to see how awesome our course material is. After we have built your confidence in yourself and us, we have three easy choices to continue.

Introduction to Sailing: This course is for those who are just getting started and includes for free both the Basic Sail Trim course and the Navigation Rules Course. It's a great way to get started
Skipper Small Keelboat: This course, when combined with on-the-water training is approved as meeting the American National Standard for sailing training and assessment. It is for those who want to competently skipper their own smaller keelboat up to about 25 feet (8m); or
Skipper Bundle (Skipper course and Maneuvering Under Power course): These courses build further on the American National Standard and are for those starting out on a bigger boat 26 feet to 60 feet (8m to 20m).

When you complete the courses and the requisite amount of logged on-the-water experience, you will receive the associated certificate Rank. Read on ...

For practical on-the-water experience, we strongly encourage you to gain professional instruction from one of our affiliated sailing training schools who we recognize as meeting the American National Standards. Our instructors are highly qualified and socially rated by previous students; this information is viewable on the school's NauticEd page. This allows you to be confident that you are receiving the best instruction and direction as you begin your sailing journey. Gaining more experience can be as simple as sailing with friends, with the local yacht club, a shared boat club, a paid sharing arrangement with a friend's boat, or on your own boat.

As you gain confidence and competence at one level, we encourage you to go back to the sailing school and gain further practical knowledge to raise to the next level. You enter all this experience (and any past experiences) into your FREE electronic Logbook. Plus, your instructors digitally sign your logbook at your competence levels. It's the world's most technologically advanced and simply structured sailing education program.

Our proprietary algorithm analyzes the courses you have passed and your practical sailing experience and then issues Rank and Level based on your accomplishments. Simultaneously, our badge program directs and guides you to perform micro tasks which educate you about proper boating habits and knowledge like checking your EPIRB or side-stay turnbuckles. And don’t worry, by the time you finish our courses you’ll be eating sailing terms for breakfast.

At every step of the way, we are in the background building your globally recognized sailing resume and guiding you as to what to do next.

There is so much more to NauticEd that you will learn about on your guided journey to becoming a confident and competent sailor. The best thing for now however, is that you can start for FREE with 2 free sailing courses and a FREE sailing logbook. Just sign up. It is that easy.

Click here to get started with the FREE Basic Sail Trim Course

Or if you're ready to jump in feet first, click here to review the Introduction to Sailing course

Click here to view our specialized Sailing Courses

To us, you’re already the smartest sailor out there. Too many times we all hear “I got it, you don’t need to teach me anything”. Yet these are the folks shown in the YouTube video collages of greatest boating bungles. The smartest sailor is the one who says “You can never be guilty of learning too much”.

To become a confident and competent sailor, you need theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Makes sense, right?

While NauticEd teaches all courses to international sailing standards, we are nationally approved by the United States Coast Guard and our SLC sailing license is accepted internationally including all countries in the Mediterranean. Thus, Nauticed guides you through it all: online multimedia courses and testing, professional practical training schools, and a free electronic logbook that tracks your on-the-water experience. All the while, our software simultaneously and automatically builds you a globally accepted sailing resume. It’s the 21st century way of becoming a sailor!

For you, we have some great multimedia courses that are going to up your game, keep you off YouTube, and make your crew follow your leadership because you know what you’re doing with certainty and confidence.

Skipper courses: we offer a Skipper Small Keelboat course for boats up to 25 ft (8m) or a Skipper Course for larger boats. These courses are similar in depth and knowledge but specifically cover the differences in mastering either size of boat.
Maneuvering Under Power course: This is our most popular course and for good reason. No further explanation is required other than to ask: Can you confidently back a large boat around in a marina in a 30 knot crosswind?
Coastal Navigation, Electronic Navigation, and Anchoring courses: For when you want to start venturing away from home base.

But as you know, just passing an online course is not going to make you a competent sailor. You must have practical experience as well. This is why we provide you with a FREE electronic logbook into which you enter past and present practical on-the-water experience. Entries can be as simple as days sailing with friends, the local yacht club, a shared boat club, on your own boat, or you can formalize it with any of our affiliated professional schools. Read on ...

As you continue to grow your theoretical knowledge and practical on-the-water experience, NauticEd is keeping track for you. Every time you pass a course, make an entry into your electronic logbook or perform a badge task, our algorithm automatically calculates and builds your sailing resume for you. So while we issue Sailing Certifications that are globally accepted, we focus more on ensuring you become worthy of having the helm in your hands. Thus the resume!

Get started now with either the Skipper Small Keelboat Course or the Skipper Bundle of courses (Skipper course and Maneuvering Under Power course) for sailboats larger than 25 feet (7.6 m) and start logging your previous on-the-water sailing experience into your FREE online logbook.

Skipper Small Keelboat Rank requires the Skipper Small Keelboat course. When this course in combined with NauticEd practical training, you are recognized as having met the American National Standards for sailing training. No other American sailing training association or body can boast as such.

The Skipper Rank is for larger boats (larger than 25 ft – 7.6 m). It builds further beyond the American National Standards and requires: Skipper bundle of courses which consists of:

Skipper Course
Maneuvering Under Power Course

You can access these courses in individually or in a bundle.

We always say there is nothing better than taking a sailing vacation, and if you can think of something better, well … you can do it on a sailing vacation anyway.

To become a confident and competent Bareboat Charter Master, you need theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Makes sense, right?

But don’t fall into the “certification” trap. In order to safely charter a ½ million dollar boat and guide friends and family through ocean waters, a shiny bareboat charter certification sticker earned in a two-weekend cram will never suffice. We have interviewed dozens of the world’s top yacht charter companies and they all have one requirement in common in order to let you charter one of their boats: it is a sailing RESUME demonstrating you are truly worthy to sail. It must display sufficient theoretical knowledge as well as an acceptable amount of practical experience.

Plus, in the Mediterranean and the Seychelles, you need a Sailing License. NauticEd's SLC is the perfect and legally accepted answer. If you are an already experienced sailor, the SLC is easy and simple to gain. For newer sailors, we have an easy path.

NauticEd guides you through becoming properly licensed and recognized for bareboat chartering competence: online multimedia courses and testing, professional practical training schools, and a free electronic logbook that tracks your on-the-water experience. All the while, our software simultaneously and automatically builds you a globally accepted sailing resume. It’s the 21st century way of becoming a sailor!

First, we start you out with our Bareboat Charter Master Bundle of multimedia interactive courses and tests. They contain all the theoretical knowledge you need to know including: coastal and electronic navigation, anchoring, maneuvering a large sailboat in a marina, leadership skills, living aboard, dinghy skills and much more.

Then you enter your past and present practical on-the-water experience into your FREE electronic logbook. Entries can be as simple as days sailing with friends, the local yacht club, a shared boat club, on your own boat, and/or if you need more formalized training or a refresher, you can learn with any of our affiliated professional practical training schools.

All the while, NauticEd is keeping track for you. Every time you pass a course, make an entry into your electronic logbook or perform a badge task, our algorithm automatically calculates and builds your international accepted sailing resume demonstrating your Rank of Bareboat Charter Master. This is what all yacht charter companies require. Read on ...

Skipper
Maneuvering Under Power
Bareboat Chartering
Anchoring
Coastal Navigation
Electronic Navigation

You can access these courses individually or as one bundle.

To gain the NauticEd SLC international sailing license valid for European waters, you must complete the Bareboat Charter Master Rank and do a 1 day assessment of your skills. But don't mistake the simplicity of the process for ease of good knowledge and proper skills. The SLC has high standards, standards that keep people off youtube's best sailing bungles videos and keep their friends and family safe on the water.

So, here is a big bold audacious challenge for you: achieve your internationally accepted NauticEd Bareboat Charter Master Rank and an SLC or ICC, then go skipper the most amazing sailing vacation of your life.

Get started with the Bareboat Charter Master Bundle of Courses here

Visit the SLC international sailing license page here

Religious or not, they say that you will meet God on the ocean at some time. The ocean demands that you be prepared and able to handle what it will throw at you. It has a way of teaching you what you don’t know.

That said, maximum preparedness is the key. But you already know that; that is why you are here now. You know that to be safe, you need theoretical knowledge and significant practical experience. But how much knowledge and how much experience?

NauticEd guides you through it all: online multimedia courses and testing, professional practical training schools both near shore and offshore, a free electronic logbook that tracks your on-the-water experience, and badges that teach you proper and safe boating behavior. All the while, our software simultaneously and automatically builds you a globally accepted sailing resume and sailing license (the SLC). It’s the 21st century way of becoming a sailor!

We recommend you start out with the Captain’s bundle of online multimedia courses. These ready you for the deep blue and beyond: understanding global weather systems, storm tactics, and safety at sea knowledge such as how to ditch into a life raft, what should already be stored in your ditch bag, global communication systems, what to do if you lose your rudder or hit a container, and how to repair shredded sails. We also focus on life aboard and simple tips and tricks to make life easier. If you are serious about sailing, then this is the bundle of courses for you.

But as you know, just passing an online course is not going to make you a competent blue water sailor. You must have practical experience as well. This is why we provide you with a FREE electronic logbook into which you enter past and present practical on-the-water experience. Entries can be as simple as days sailing with friends, the local yacht club, a shared boat club, on your own boat. We also introduce you to specialized training schools that focus on offshore training. You’ll have an opportunity to join their passages and see for yourself the wonder and, truth-be-told, sometimes hardship of an ocean passage. Read on ...

Skipper
Maneuvering Under Power
Bareboat Chartering
Anchoring
Coastal Navigation
Electronic Navigation
Storm Tactics
Global Weather Systems
Advanced Sail Trim
Safety at Sea

Access individually or as one bundle.

Start now by signing up for the NauticEd Captain’s Bundle of Courses and begin filling out your FREE NauticEd practical logbook.

View the Captain Bundle of Courses here

Sign up for free now and get two free sailing courses

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Why Learn the Theory?

Online, at home, in your own time multimedia theory learning integrates perfectly with on-the-water practical teaching to make you a confident and competent sailor.

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“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Socrates

To be a confident and competent sailor, you have to have theory knowledge. Even if you are an experienced sailor, there is always more to learn. Theory covers broad topics like the rules of the nautical road, understanding tides, and coastal navigation as well as minute tips and tricks.

For example: How do you lift a heavy man back on board? Should you let out the main sheet or the traveler, why? Can you convert true to magnetic in an instant? What is the best anchor to use for a rock bottom? What is a cardinal mark? What does an isolated danger mark look like?

A solid theoretical sailing education will enable you to apply this knowledge to your on the water experiences.

Easy & Immediate Access: Learn at your own pace, at home, on an airplane, in a coffee shop or waiting in the doctor’s office. Mobile or laptop. With in seconds of signing up, you are learning.
Instant Results & Resume: Online, real-time grading of tests and other tools allow you to evaluate your learning. Completed courses show instantly on your resume.
Retention: Multimedia format with interactive animations, videos, and colorful graphics hold your attention and aid retention.
Social Learning Environment: With NauticEd’s nano forums, students can collaborate with fellow students and instructors.
Better Use of On-The-Water Training: Maximize your practical training time by showing up already knowledgeable and tested.

Try us out right now with a FREE interactive multimedia class. Guarantee you will learn something fun - Basic Sail Trim

Sailing Resume vs Sailing Certification

Ask any yacht charter company and they all will tell you that they require a complete sailing resume; not a certification. NauticEd helps build and store your sailing resume in the cloud - for FREE.

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Think about a job application. A person with solid educational credentials as well as real world experience gets the best job. Same with sailing. Sailing theory plus hands on experience makes the best sailor.

NauticEd’s proprietary software combines your theoretical sailing courses with your logged practical on-the-water experience and all your other sailing accomplishments and international licenses such as the SLC into a resume demonstrating your sea-worthiness.

At certain milestones along the way, we’ll issue you a ‘certification”, but only after you have passed the theoretical courses and logged the requisite experience. Your certification will list your rank and level: Rank relates to the courses you have taken and Level corresponds to your practical experience. But you can’t get one without the other. That’s because education and experience go hand in hand.

If you need a sailing license for European waters, our software will issue it instantly the moment you acheive all the practical and theory requirements.

Additionally, when you are assessed by an instructor according to American National Standards rubrics or International Standards rubrics, your Rank and Level becomes Verified. When your experience is affirmed by your CrewMates ™ your experience is Authenticated.

All this takes place in the background by our software. Your resume simply grows automatically as you sail and learn. And that’s why yacht charter companies worldwide LOVE our Resume/Certification program. And why countries who require a proper legal sailing license, accept the NauticEd SLC. You will LOVE what we do for you.

Sign up now, get two free courses and watch your resume grow – automatically.

Get a Free Sailor's Logbook

When you sign up for free, we give you a free sailor’s logbook. Why?

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Bareboat Charter Sailing License

Looking to bareboat charter a yacht on a sailing vacation? Need a license to qualify? NauticEd has a plan and customized steps to ensure you succeed.

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So here is the truth of the matter, you only need a Bareboat Charter License in Europe and the Seychelles. In every other location, you do not need a license or certification to sail a recreational vessel. Some states in the USA legally require residents to have a State Boater License Card, but that is it. So what then is all the hoohaa from certain sailing associations? Some people call them certification factories!

What is absolutely required of a skipper from every yacht charter company worldwide is a worthy resume. Why? Because some “license” or “certification” associations issue you a license/certification after a one or two weekend sailing course and a paper test. But, five or even ten days of sailing experience is simply not enough. These certifictions can not necessarily be trusted across the board. So yacht charter companies require an extensive resume demonstrating your sailing education, your practical logbook of experience as master of the vessel, and any achievements and competence sign-offs by practical sailing instructors (instructor sign-offs are recommended but not necessarily required).

So how does NauticEd help its students meet this need?

The NauticEd resume system and software simply and cleverly follows yacht charter requirements. Thus, when your resume reflects sufficient theory and practical experience to actually be competent in the eyes of yacht charter companies, the NauticEd software issues you a Bareboat Charter Master Rank. Every yacht charter company in the world accepts this Rank because it demonstrates your real bareboat charter worthiness.

And if the country you are vacationing in requires an actual sailing license, then NauticEd can facilitate this. We partner with RYA schools worldwide to issue you an ICC (International Certificate of Competence (created by United Nations)) or we can issue you an SLC which requires, in addition to the Bareboat Charter Master Rank, a one day assessment of your practical skills and knowledge. Note: be aware of sailing associations claiming that their "IPC" is aka the ICC. It is just not true!

Simply stated, if you don't have a proper sailing resume (regardless of the certification/license issued to you) you will be hiring a skipper. And that is not a bad thing. A hired skipper can usually show you places you never would have found, tell stories, teach you some tricks, and keep you safe.

First, we start you out with our Bareboat Charter Master Bundle of multimedia interactive courses and tests. Then you enter your past and present practical on-the-water experience into your FREE electronic logbook. For the ICC or SLC license you must have a sailing skills assessment. If you pass, your instructor logs in and clicks to verify your competence and the license is issued automatically - instantly. All of this is stored automatically in your resume; in the cloud. When you are ready to go chartering, simply click a button and the charter company is sent your credentials.

Start with the Bareboat Charter Master Bundle of courses NOW

Check out the SLC international sailing license here

SLC & ICC International Sailing License

The International Certificate of Competence (ICC) and the Sailing License and Credentials (SLC) are internationally accepted licenses for skippers wanting to charter recreational yachts in European waters.

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Gain the ICC or SLC through NauticEd

The ICC, issued under United Nations Resolution 40, created a universally agreed upon standard of competence for skippers of recreational boats.

Recently, the SLC has become recognized as a more readily accessible and acceptable license because more schools are able to adminsiter the practical sailing competence assessment - especially in North America.

Because the ICC was created by the United Nations, a country that has adopted Resolution 40 must approve and assign a company or association to issue an ICC License. The United Kingdom has adopted Resolution 40; it has approved the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) to issue the ICC license to sailors after a skills assessment. But because neither the USA nor Canada have adopted Resolution 40, no USA or Canadian appointed company or association can issue a true ICC. To solve this, NauticEd has teamed up with the Royal Yachting Association to help our students obtain the ICC through available RYA schools.

Additionally, NauticEd is able to issue the SLC which is equally accepted by those countries whose port authorites require a sailing license. Read on ...

To receive an ICC or an SLC, students must pass a one-day assessment that tests their international sailing knowledge as well as their on-the-water boating skills. The NauticEd Bareboat Charter Master Bundle of courses serves to gain enough theoretical knowledge to pass the theory portion of the assessment. The practical on-the-water portion of the assessment requires demonstration of skills associated with bareboat chartering. The full skills list is downloadable for free under the student's curriculum tab when they sign-in to NauticEd. Significant past sailing experience is also required to be logged in the student's free online logbook. All this ensures that not only is the student legally licensed to charter a yacht, but also the student has a sufficient resume to be accepted by the charter company.

If you are going on a sailing vacation, contact us. Not only are we experts and agents for all the yacht charter companies, we can advise if you need a license and if your resume is adequate.

Learn more about the ICC and the SLC

Go to the SLC page

Set up a FREE account now. Get two free sailing courses and a free logbook and resume building tool

Complete Beginner?

“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”
Helen Hays, the first lady of American Theater.

Global 21st centurySailing and powerboating educationWith international bareboat certification and licensing

Launching, trimming, docking, & navigation - step-by-step trainingCore powerboating skillsAmerican national standards curriculum

Basic to ultra advanced trainingPractical on-water instructorsGlobal network - north america and worldwide

Docking, charter preparation for modern cruising catsCatamaran training & certificationRecognized by charter companies and international port authorities

Build confidence for docking, navigation, weather, and systems essentialsAdvanced large power and sailboat trainingCompetency-based curriculum for chartering and ownership

The most modern up-to-dateInternational boating education platformApproved by the us coast guard under edu-1 and edu-3

Sailing & Powerboat Courses

Sailing & Powerboat Instructors

Virtual Reality Training

Courses by rank or specialized skill courses

Introduction to Sailing

Skipper Small Keelboat Rank

Skipper Large Keelboat Rank

Bareboat Charter Master Rank

Captain Rank

Show me the ropes - I'm just getting started

Be a better local sailor

Skipper a yacht on a sailing vacation

The deep blue and beyond

Sea talk testimonials

Trusted by the world's leading sailing companies

Why Learn the Theory?

Sailing Resume vs Sailing Certification

Get a Free Sailor's Logbook

Bareboat Charter Sailing License

SLC & ICC International Sailing License

Gain the ICC or SLC through NauticEd

Complete Beginner?

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