Any CDers have their Captains License?

[BobB]

After the years at the hundred ton level, just had to settle for quality over quantity. Love the CD25D. I have had a 27 and have a typhoon but the 25D is a simple but great sailing boat. Sometimes bigger is not better, it is just bigger...

Bob




Bundyr@aol.com

[Bob B.]

Will,
Home study is a good possibility. I passed my upgrade on studying at home. I ordered the study guides from a place in Florida, Florida Maritime Institute, out of the back of one of the magazines. It has separate sets on rules, navigation, sailing, and such.

The lists of questions were the best parts in that it gave you numerous examples of the test questions. They are tricky so having alot of them helped. The problem is that they are right in that you need a 90 on the rules of the road questions. That means that you could miss two but not three questions on the test that I took. The navigation questions aren't that hard if your skills in DR navigation are already good. If not, then you are going to really need to work the sample problems and practice. That was the best thing that the class did for people was iron out their navigation weaknesses. I did take the class through Sea School to get my six pack, 7 days and the 100 ton upgrade an additional 3 days. Then, did the rest on my own.
It can be done and you have three tries to pass.

I teach sailing now and it is illegal to take paying passengers without a license so if you are ever contemplating taking it up as a business or just for a little extra, go for it. It is fun to see others enjoy sailing and to share your knowledge with them.

Bob B.



BundyR@aol.com

[Bob Loewenstein]

unless you are color blind (but then you would not be taking this test would you?)

Does anyone know what happens if you are color blind (like me)? I mean can you get a captain's license at all?

Incidentally, aside from having some else on deck at night to help distinguish red from green lights, I've used red and green filters, one on each eye, and blink alternating each eye. I can easily distinguish red and green lights at night, but it is a bother.

FMI, Since the average colorblindness incidence in males is about 8% of the population, there must be alot of CDers who are in the same boat as me (not literally). What do others so inflicted do?

Bob

[W Sonntag]

When I was after my 6 passenger license in the 1970's I was required to have a year of "signed" sea time as either skipper, mate or watch captain etc. I had folks fill out a form each time I did yacht deliveries etc. Is this still a requirement?

WAS



wsonntags@earthlink.net

[Ken Coit]

The Pamlico County Community College here in NC offers the OUPV course for less than $100. Check it out at the link below.

Ken

Hi all,
Thinking about taking a Cap't course to get my OUPV 6 pac, wondering if it is worth it? Do you have yours?


thanks,

jed

par(deletethis)fait@nc.rr.com

[Ken Coit]

When I was after my 6 passenger license in the 1970's I was required to have a year of "signed" sea time as either skipper, mate or watch captain etc. I had folks fill out a form each time I did yacht deliveries etc. Is this still a requirement?

WAS

Yes it is.

Ken



par(deletethis)fait@nc.rr.com

[Chip]

Hi Jed,

Why not? In fact,if you have the time, go for the 100T Masters. You will learn a lot. I went the “seaschool” route, and thought it was well worth it. As stated before, the test is broken into 3 parts; Rules, navigation, and deck general. For both the 6 pack, and the masters, the rules and the navigation tests are the same. Masters deck general has 10 more questions on the test. In our class the 6 packers finished with 70 hours of class, the masters go on for about 20 more hours. Even the sea time requirement is the same although inland vs. near coastal requirements do differ

Have fun


Chip



chip88673@yahoo.com

[Larry DeMers]

I am also about 30% red-green color blind, and have a hard time with white vs. green lights, and red is hard to pick out too, as it is dull when pure. For navigation, a red nun buoy looks like light black to me, so Jan comes up and reads the colors out when needed. I get used to the shade of grey that red represents to me, and go with that..about 50% effective.
The 6-Pack license will be issued to a color blind person, but with the retriction from nighttime operations.

You should try being in electrical engineering and be red-green color blind! Resistor color codes, wiring color codes etc are everywhere. I lost my first job at Univac becasue I was colorblind..didn't even know it until then. So I have developed coping strategies to compensate..and never ever mention it on the job interview.

Cheers,

Larry DeMers
s/v DeLaMer
Cape Dory 30 #1 on Lake Superior

unless you are color blind (but then you would not be taking this test would you?)

Does anyone know what happens if you are color blind (like me)? I mean can you get a captain's license at all?

Incidentally, aside from having some else on deck at night to help distinguish red from green lights, I've used red and green filters, one on each eye, and blink alternating each eye. I can easily distinguish red and green lights at night, but it is a bother.

FMI, Since the average colorblindness incidence in males is about 8% of the population, there must be alot of CDers who are in the same boat as me (not literally). What do others so inflicted do?

Bob

demers@sgi.com

[Don Carr]

Larry;
The good news is that nuns (pointy like a nuns hat) and cans (like a can) are shape differentiated. The real problem would be MoA buoys where color and light frequency differentiate. It must be hell for you at night in heavy traffic areas trying to differentiate running lights. Sail on.

Don



carrds@us.ibm.com

[Larry DeMers]

Don,

Oh I am **Really** familiar with their shapes..no problem seeing that, but at night, relfective tape equipped buoys are hard to see for me..I do see the light reflecting off of them, but the color is impossible to determine. Lights are hard to determine too..you cannot see the shapes at all until close enough to see with glasses. I try to have Jan alongside when we gain an entrance that is buoyed and not familiar, which does not happen at night all that often. Usually we are in our familiar sailing area, where I know every rock..literally, by heart. (I better..been here 25 years with our boat and prior chartering). But you are right..in several larger commercial ports, night arrivals are confusing as heck, and I really dislike doing that. I do not have a good fix for this situation either. The idea of using different colored plastic filters on each eye is interesting, but a bit unwieldy..but heck if it works, who cares how odd it looks?


Cheers,

Larry DeMers

Larry;
The good news is that nuns (pointy like a nuns hat) and cans (like a can) are shape differentiated. The real problem would be MoA buoys where color and light frequency differentiate. It must be hell for you at night in heavy traffic areas trying to differentiate running lights. Sail on.

Don

demers@sgi.com

[Mario]

I just purchased Wing's study book "Get Your Captain's License," not because I believe I will ever actually go for the license, but because I wanted something to study to increase my knowledge, especially during these winter months. It comes with a CD-ROM that has hundreds of questions on it. You can create exams with it--I think it randomly selects a certain number of questions from each section and prints them out. Since repitition and recognition are helpful learning tools, this looks like a good way to go. On the other hand, I haven't actually taken one of the exams yet. I'm afraid of the results.

West has it for $60.

Mario
s/v Rhapsody
CD30 #252

Stuart
I'm interested in home studying for this. I like to learn but hate classes. Can you tell me what books I should cover and where i might find a list of requirements of knowledge to pass the "captian 6 pack" test. Oh wait, thats the "6 pack captain" test. I already passed the first one. Thanks

Will Wheatley
Suzi Q
CD25

capedory252@aol.com

[Stuart]

Will,

I have used Gonder's book for home study, along with the CG Rules of the Road book. I actually have two capt's licenses...I got my first license with Sea School (which was I wasn't inpressed with) and received my second with a local company in Key West-they used their own book...When I go for my 100ton Masters, I plan on attending Maritime Professional Training in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. (1-954-1014 or www.mptusa.com). I spoke with their rep at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show and was very impressed with their operation.

From what I have heard, the CG would prefer people to take the class/exams with private companies versus the days of studying at home and taking the exams at the local REC center.

Stuart
S/V Yankee Cowboy

Stuart
I'm interested in home studying for this. I like to learn but hate classes. Can you tell me what books I should cover and where i might find a list of requirements of knowledge to pass the "captian 6 pack" test. Oh wait, thats the "6 pack captain" test. I already passed the first one. Thanks

Will Wheatley
Suzi Q
CD25

Jed,

I have my OUPV license and recommend it if you are in the boating industry. I also teach SCUBA diving, so it also applies to that field too.

In the way of getting certified, I home studied and then took a course from a company in Key West (where I was living at the time..).

Remeber, keep track of your sea time.

Good Luck!

Stuart

Hi all,
Thinking about taking a Cap't course to get my OUPV 6 pac, wondering if it is worth it? Do you have yours?


thanks,

jed

st1975@yahoo.com

[Walt Bilofsky]

I got my Master's license five years ago, when I realized that I had enough sea time on my own boat (360 days in the previous five years) to qualify. At the time, I decided that the difference between the OUPV and Master's requirements wasn't that much, and a Master's sounds more impressive.

I studied up from a guide I got at West Marine - I think it was Gonder's book.

I also used a program called NavRules to drill myself on the Rules of the Road - this was the toughest part of the exam as there are many arcane details and you need to score 90%. (The rest of the exam is open book and 70% is passing.) There's a link to the program below (but it didn't work for me just now).

I was lucky - I passed the exams the first try. Got exactly 90% on the Rules of the Road part. I finished at 11:30 am, so instead of going for an early lunch I asked for the towing endorsement exam and passed that too. But then, I enjoy taking tests and have something of a knack for it. I also have a commercial FCC Radiotelegraph Operator's License. Don't know if anyone uses them any more but I keep it renewed.

Good luck.

Walt Bilofsky
Master, Inland Waters, 50 Tons



bilofsky@toolworks.com

[Bob Loewenstein]

You should try being in electrical engineering and be red-green color blind! Resistor color codes, wiring color codes etc

Well, I'm a physicist who builds instruments (and other things). In graduate school I dropped an entire assortment of resistors and wound up spending an entire day resorting them...had to use an ohm meter to do it. red/green/even brown were difficult.

Do experiment with the filters. It allows my wife to stay asleep, although if it is a confusing area, or lots of traffic, I'd have her up in the cockpit.

It is almost impossible for me to distinguish the color of a red or green point source. A non-point source is sometimes possible to figure out.

[Larry DeMers]

Luckily for us with R-G color blindness, green traffic control lights mix in a tad of blue too, just for this purpose, as R_G blind people usually have good blue color vision (mine exceeds my wifes blue vision). Otherwise, I seem to be as you are too..I need tons of bright light to read color codes at all, and when nav lights are mixed into a background it is awfully confusing.

Cheers,

Larry DeMers

You should try being in electrical engineering and be red-green color blind! Resistor color codes, wiring color codes etc

Well, I'm a physicist who builds instruments (and other things). In graduate school I dropped an entire assortment of resistors and wound up spending an entire day resorting them...had to use an ohm meter to do it. red/green/even brown were difficult.

Do experiment with the filters. It allows my wife to stay asleep, although if it is a confusing area, or lots of traffic, I'd have her up in the cockpit.

It is almost impossible for me to distinguish the color of a red or green point source. A non-point source is sometimes possible to figure out.

demers@sgi.com