Start Navigating (Coastal Nav/ASA 105)

“Live 105” on Zoom!  Real, interactive course with an instructor and other students.  An NYSC exclusive!  Plus, in-person classes in Manhattan and Brooklyn.  More below.

Next 2 schedules:  

IN-PERSON! 2 Sundays, March 3 & 10  Location: Manhattan, on UWS.  Full days with coffee and lunch breaks.  CONTACT US with questions about course or schedule, or just sign up and be ready to roll (and there are rolling course plotters on the market which we’ll show you in class)!  Tuition: $475.  This includes top-tier plotting tools, a real & updated chart (not a cheap, inaccurate training version), and a superior textbook authored by our Director, Captain Stephen Glenn Card!

“LIVE 105” on ZOOM:  3 Monday evenings, March 18, 25 April 1 & 8.   All  the same high-Q materials sent to you in advance (or can pick up in Manhattan if preferable or very last-minute).  This is NOT a home study course – it’s live and interactive with our Director, Captain Card, and other students. Tuition: $395.

The ASA 105 exam is taken later – not during the course time.  You’ll do more practice plotting and review and take it when you’re ready.


As well as our (apparently) exclusive Zoom schedules for 105, live with an instructor and other students, we resumed in-person classes last winter in Manhattan.  This winter?  Brooklyn!  In-person is on weekends, while Zoom tends to be weeknights.  

Many Coastal Nav schedules are custom, meaning students approach us and we set up schedules that accommodate them.  That can be weekdays, weeknights, “fat” weekend mornings, or spontaneously when the weather says stay home!  Or… play hooky right from your office!

Questions? Want to discuss schedules? Talk to us!

Ready to book?   Navigate to here

Because running aground sucks…”


Over 50 Years of our family giving you more of what you go to sailing school for!SM

Already learned how to sail? Or, didn’t, but want to do something sailing related now? Take our Start Navigating SM  course and learn Coastal Navigation! Live, online, with an instructor and other students.  No experience necessary!  Fun, easier than you think – and we minimize the math!  Learn ASA 105 certification and be better prepared to rent a sailing yacht here or abroad. Just need a tune-up? We do that too.


Start Navigating SM  is our coastal navigation course (ASA 105).  You’ll learn the traditional art and science of piloting and near-shore coastal navigation, from chart basics to taking bearings & fixes, plotting courses, “dead” reckoning, correcting for current, etc.  Columbus relied heavily on dead reckoning on his famous voyages, and it’s still the basis for navigation today!  But don’t worry – to modernize things somewhat, we’ll also introduce you to GPS (Global Positioning System), the standard for electronic navigation.  We just won’t let you over-rely on it.

Who’s this for? Anyone interested in it.  You don’t have to be strong in math – we like to “plot the path without the math” ourselves!  No sailing or navigation experience necessary.

Tuition: $395 for socially-distant live, almost-in-person courses with an instructor and small group of students on Zoom!  For truly in-person courses, tuition is $445.

This is like a normal in-person class: you’re with an instructor and other students, learning from their questions as well as yours, and with us watching you do your plotting after we show you how.  Except… you don’t have to travel to get to it!  It’s not a home study course, or interactive with software.  But, it is an NYSC exclusive: no one else is offering this.  It’s truly live – not Memorex.  Just another way we give you MORE.

Sessions are short; no more than a few hours at a time and always with a break.  Most schedules are weekday evenings; we sometimes do a weekend morning.

Just need a tune-up?  No problem.  Ask us about this and we’ll advise what works based on your situation and needs, which could be just one relevant session for a smaller tuition.

Quick stats…

  • soup-to-nuts: from reading a chart to finding your way in pea soup fog
  • real course (not just self help) with lots of realistic practice problems
  • one-weekend or 4-weeknight schedules in person or on Zoom
  • no sailing experience necessary
  • highest quality charts and tools supplied by us and kept by you
  • text book authored by our Director, Captain Stephen Glenn Card
  • leads to ASA 105 Coastal Navigation certification
asa cert circle small

Start NavigatingSM  is fun, challenging and rewarding.  We mostly schedule it in the ‘off’ season of November through March so as not to compete with your sailing time, but still offer some boating season schedules.  The exam is lengthy and a bit difficult, but don’t worry – our students usually score close to 90 or even higher.  Instructors need to score 90 or higher to become certified to teach it.  Just another way we give you MORE…

Ready to do this?  See our scheduling/enrolling page to just check schedules, or pull the trigger and sign up securely right there.

Questions first?  Contact us.

Need to just ‘test out’ to get your piece of paper?   You can do a ‘challenge’ of the ASA 105 standard for a fraction of the time and price of the whole course.  Contact us to discuss whether this makes sense for you.