This week I finished the Sail course through CPS. I spent a lot of time reading through the material (yes, much longer than John took), so I felt pretty confident before taking the exam, and good news – I passed!
This Sail course assumes you have a basic understanding of seamanship and have already completed the boating basics course or PCOC. I found it to be a good level of detail for general knowledge on a range of topics such as identifying sailboats, terms & use of rigging, sails, forces acting on the boat & sails, wind, points of sail, helmsmanship, knots, sailing in bad weather, safety, & navigation rules.
John & I completed a week of sailing in Malta while I was working my way through the course, so it was perfect timing for me. Many of the practical aspects of the course were still fresh in my mind from our days on water.
I like that the Sail course offered a summary at the end of each chapter to re-cap the key points and had a quiz that tested how much of the material you were really absorbing. Throughout each chapter, lots of diagrams helped those of us who are visual learners to retain the material. I also found the quizes to be good preparation for the actual exam.
While we’re living in Italy, it’s great that we are able to participate in a Canadian-content course from such a distance. Overall a good learning experience, well worth the time & effort!
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