Duration
Estimated to be about 30 hours of your time, depending on how much optional material you wish to cover. You work at your own pace on your own schedule. You can work at your own pace on your own schedule.
Dates
You can start at any time, and submit quizzes and discussion any time of day or night. The lesson quizzes must be submitted sequentially. You have one year to complete the course or request an extension.
Course description
This course covers all aspects of practical marine weather, starting from the very basics and ending with all you need to plan your voyages — or weekend outings — safely and efficiently taking into account the weather. This is intended to be a practical course that will indeed affect your decision making when planning and underway. We only cover those aspects of the "theory" that will help us with this goal. This online version is a combination of our Weather Trainer CD Course and our Classroom Course.
Typical questions answered by the course can be read here: Typical marine weather questions. The training standards are listed in detail in the online demo tour of the Weather Trainer program. We cover all of the Basic and much of the Advanced in this course.
This course uses live weather data accessed through custom Internet links to illustrate many of the topics it covers. We will also monitor a hypothetical coastal or ocean passage at the time of the course to see how the real world evolved and what decisions might be best at the time.
Instructors
How the course works
Please read the general description of How the Courses work. Those notes apply to all courses. You can sign up for a course anytime the enrollment is open. If the course has already begun, you can still join, but will need to submit the quizzes sequentially.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for the Weather Course. It is important to follow through on the assignments and work some of the practice problems in each lesson, because some terminology is presumed understood once it has been introduced and explained.
Student Objectives
- Understand the relationship between shipboard forecasting and use of official sources
- Know how to read the natural signs of weather observable from the vessel
- Know the official sources of marine weather underway and how to use them
- Understand the use and value of a barometer
- Know how to read a weather map for tactical route planning purposes
- Have an overview of global weather patterns
- Know how terrain affects the wind
- Learn the answers to many practical questions in marine weather
- ...here are few more reasons to take the weather course
Certification
This course will prepare you for marine weather aspects of any certification test, including professional licensing exams. We do not know of organizations other than Starpath that offers training certification specifically in marine weather, but you can add our certification stickers to your US Sailing or ASA logbooks as "Extra training." Our own certification exams are carried out within the Weather Trainer program, which is required for the course. The Starpath certification is recognized internationally through the the International Association of Sailing Schools. If interested in certification of your learning, please see our Notes on Certification.
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