- What You’ll Be Able to Do Confidently
📍 How to plot your GPS position on a paper chart
🧭 How to draw a course to your destination
📏 How to measure distance & estimate trip time
🚧 What to do if the GPS dies (Dead Reckoning)
Chart Confidence for New Skippers
Know where you are — even when technology fails
Master the 4 chart skills every new skipper needs
to stay safe and on course in less than 10 minutes
Instant access to printable chart to start practicing today
📦 What’s Included (Simple and Practical)
Everything here is designed to give you a reliable fallback — without overwhelm
🎥 4 bite-sized training videos
📘 Printable Flip Card (your cockpit reference)
📕 Practice chart to download
🔐 Instant, lifetime access
⭐ What Students Say
“Jackie turns a complex subject into something very straightforward.” Tracy S
“Fantastic training!” Melonie P
“Great information, well structured and easy to understand.” Steve M
❓ FAQs
Chart Confidence for New Skippers is a short, focused course designed to teach the essential chart skills every skipper (and crew!) needs to know.
It concentrates on the fundamentals: plotting your position on a paper chart, understanding latitude and longitude, and measuring direction and distance accurately. These skills are taught on paper charts so they make complete sense whether you are using paper or electronic charts, and they also provide a reliable backup if electronics fail.
By learning these core skills, you are able to carry out basic dead reckoning, which is an essential safety skill if GPS or onboard equipment stops working.
The full navigation course includes everything taught in Chart Confidence for New Skippers and then goes much deeper. It covers a wider range of navigation techniques and concepts, including variation and deviation, bearings, running fixes, set and drift, leeway, estimated position, deduced reckoning, and more advanced chart work. It is designed for skippers who want a stronger, more complete understanding of navigation and who want to be confident handling a wider range of real-world situations.
Yes. Understanding paper charts gives you the fundamentals behind e-charts — and a reliable fallback if technology fails.
You’ll be plotting a position in under 10 minutes!
Yes we show you different ways to do this – with full ‘the why’ not just ‘how’.
We provide a downloadable chart (print 2 x A3 colour sheets for optimum practice).
All you need to start is a simple pencil compass, that’s enough to get you going.
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🧭 Want to Go Further, at Your Own Pace?
For skippers who like to understand why things work — not just what to do — there are optional printed manuals available.
The course videos focus on the core chart skills every new skipper needs to stay safe and on course, without overwhelm.
If you’d like to go deeper, the optional manuals provide a calm, offline reference with clearer explanations, worked examples, and hands-on practice — designed for quiet study when you have the time and headspace.
They’re completely optional, and not required to complete the course.
No fluff. Lifetime access. Instant confidence.
🧭 Need Help Along the Way?
We offer full trainer support and invite you to our private group: Turning Your Cruising Dreams into Reality FB group where we share advice, answer questions, and celebrate the wins. Click here to join the group.