Maria Langer | 📝🛥️💎

@kboyd @sailing The company I teach for (which is the company that my boat charters with) offers really great multi day “learn and cruise” classes. It’s how they certify future charter guests. I think it would be especially fun if you could manage to get a group of three (their minimum) in a class together. Their sailing instructors are really good. (I’m not too impressed with most of their powerboat instructors, who seemed to be sailors first.)

@bhhaskin @kboyd @sailing It’s the bareboat company’s insurance company that requires it. If you knew what charter guests got into, you’d understand why. Even after “certification,” they still do damage to the boats.

I went from a 17 foot jet boat to a 32 foot trawler and really thought I was going to have trouble getting insurance. But no, I had no trouble getting it. And nowadays I think my USCG captains license would be enough “certification” to charter a boat.

@kboyd @sailing The charter company my boat is placed with was using American Sailing (and American Boating) to certify future charter guests. They had to dump American Boating because their new courses and course materials are so bad. Instead, they created their own classes for powerboats and that’s what we teach. Honestly, I think they make nearly as much money training as they do charting boats.

@kboyd @sailing My experience with boating certifications is that they are money grab. Companies create certifications. They charge instructors to get certified to teach them. They charge students to get certified. The source company makes and sells training material of average quality and doesn’t make sure that their testing materials have just one correct answer per question. This has been my experience with the power boat division of American Sailing, American Boating.