The Berea Sail and Power Squadron offers classroom and online courses from the national organization. 

Education classes

America’s Boating Course also known as the ABC class is open to anyone over the age of 12.   The course is a comprehensive basic boating knowledge and safety for anyone who is interested in boating including power and sail boats, kayak, canoeing, paddleboarding and other vessels.    Successful completion of this course will earn a Boat License from the State of Ohio which authorizes the user to drive a boat on the waters in Ohio. 

Advanced classes offered by USPS include the following:

Boat Handling – Learn how to handle your boat in a variety of situations. Gain confidence in docking, underway, anchoring, and other seamanship skills.

Marine Navigation  – covering the basics of coastal and inland navigation using paper and electronic methods.

Advanced Marine Navigation –  teaches how to use electronic navigation tools, including chart plotters with vector charts, plan routes and navigate in more challenging conditions, using OpenCPN, a free charting program. 

Off-shore Navigation – demonstrates how to use GPS as the primary position sensor, with offshore environment poses many different elements for consideration such as ocean currents, wind, and sea state all affect a vessel’s performance over the longer passages.

Celestial Navigation – complements the other navigation courses using the age-old method of using the altitude of celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, planets, and stars to navigate at sea.  Using a sextant to measure the altitudes of celestial bodies, and with data from the Nautical Almanac, the student will develop lines of position and fixes used in offshore navigation.