Seminars 2012

Program Description: Our USCG Licensed Captains regularly present informative sailing seminars, and we make these available to the public by the following methods:

1. Live online, two-hour webinars are presented on Saturday mornings in the winter months and scheduled seminars for 2012 are listed below. Also, we presented a series of seven webinars in 2011, which are available for review in our webinar archive.

2. We record these webinars for later replay for private showings online for a period of one month per seminar at $40 per seminar. During this month-long period, a viewer may watch the recorded webinar as may times as desired.

3. People who attended a live webinar in 2011 or 2012 at a fee of $40, may later re-watch that same webinar during the month that it is replayed online as a private showing.

4. Seminar handout materials are usually available for each webinar and are included in the webinar fee when available.

Small Vessel Radar Online Webinar (2012)

Radar is such a vital tool for preventing collisions at sea, it is the only electronic navigation device specifically referenced in the Rules of the Road. But using one takes time and effort. Even the simplest Radar unit can provide so much information that an inexperienced operator can become overwhelmed. This seminar will review the basics of how a Radar operates and how it can be used for piloting, collision avoidance and position determination. We'll also look at some of the limitations of Radar and why those limitations can affect the information available to the user. Finally, we'll look at the new digital Radars to see what improvements are on the horizon.

This seminar will cover the basic weather system knowledge essential to small yacht crews using the limited information available at sea. The basic structure, movement and interactions of cold and warm air masses, cold fronts, low pressure systems, and tropical systems will be discussed, plus some of the more common radio and satellite weather sources. This seminar is primarily about weather and not about onboard electronics.

You do not need to purchase any special software to join these seminars, however your computer does need to meet the system requirements listed below.

We'll conduct this online seminar using a Go-To-Meeting Webinar format with on-screen and audio interaction between Instructor and Students very much like occurs in an actual classroom setting. After you register for this course and prior to the first course date, you can receive assistance, if needed, from our office staff in setting up the Go-To-Meeting software on your computer.

On a PC

Internet Explorer^® 7.0 or newer, Mozilla^® Firefox^® 3.0 or newer or Google^™ Chrome^™ 5.0 or newer (JavaScript^™ and Java^™ enabled)
Windows^® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Cable modem, DSL or better Internet connection
Minimum of Pentium^® class 1GHz CPU with 512 MB of RAM (recommended) (2 GB of RAM for Windows^® Vista)
Audio will be via a regular phone, or participants wishing to connect to audio using VoIP will need a fast Internet connection, a microphone and speakers. (A USB headset is recommended.)

On a Mac^®

Safari^™ 3.0 or newer, Firefox^® 3.0 or newer or Google^™ Chrome^™ 5.0 or newer (JavaScript^™ and Java^™ enabled)
Mac OS^® X 10.4.11 – Tiger^® or newer
PowerPC G4/G5 or Intel processor (512 MB of RAM or better recommended)
Cable modem, DSL, or better Internet connection
Audio will be via a regular phone, or participants wishing to connect to audio using VoIP will need a fast Internet connection, a microphone and speakers. (A USB headset is recommended.)