I taught just one coastal piloting class and then got promoted at my
day job and gave up being a sailing instructor on the side.

This was before even Loran was common on smaller cruisers so use of
electronics was not an issue. I had the people for about five
sessions followed by a short day trip to get them ready for sailing
around Boston Harbor and the adjoining coast so it had to be pretty
basic.

I started by saying, "I'm going to teach you to do about six simple
things. It doesn't sound like much but I want you to be able to do
them when you are tired, when you are seasick, when you are confused,
and when you are scared. I want you to practice and do them all the
time in good weather. If you wait until you need this knowledge and
haven't practiced, it isn't going to do you much good. There is no
such thing as finding out where you are, there is only keeping track
of where you are."

In all the sailing I did in New England, including long runs in fog,
I never really used much more than I taught in that class. I'm a
great believer in keeping it simple.

--

Roger Long