Captain Class

[Fishstix]

If anyone here hears of any classes for captain licence please post the info.

Im thinking about getting my licence.

S central NYS area would be best for me but I would travel if I had to.

[fishdude4life]

Fishtix,

I would try World Wide Marine Training, thats the organization that I used and I was able to take it right in Batavia at the Holiday Inn. Captain Larry Walker is a great guy and the price was comparable to any other class. Try this link...oh yeah they also can give the test right on site which works out to be pretty convenient.

http://www.wegivethetest.com/

-Shaun

[motoman]

A class starts here in rochester on oct ,25 goes for two weekends then 5 monday nights followed bye the test on the last tuesday , its put on bye Denis Danials and ive been told he"s really good , contact him @ 716-430-2215 cost is $695 and it at the hampton in in rochester , ill be there , tell him i sent ya and he mite knock off a $100 for ya , i have a group already going , John Ross

[off track]

www.seatechmarinetraining.com

Just to forewarn anybody that will take the class through Sea Tech. When it comes time to send your paperwork to the USCG --- SEND IT YOURSELF. Do not trust sending it to Dennis/Ruth.

I took the training last year Oct.

They teach a great class however their paperwork is not very organized. I took the training last year with 4 other guys that I know and 2 of us just got our license's and 2 have not. Mainly due to lost paperwork at Sea Tech office in Buffalo. One guy that we have stayed in contact with from the class - Dennis lost his paperwork somewhere in the buffalo office. The paperwork includes original Birth Cert., Original Social Security Card - everything you send must be original, no copies or certified copies

[Silver Fox]

I took the class in the spring and the same thing happend to a couple of guys in that class. Lost checks or paperwork. Organization is not the strong point. The coast guard was equally frustrating. Called Buffalo for 3 weeks to try to get a fingerprint appt. I got ahold of an officer in Massena and he called me back and told me they would call me in 1/2 an hour. They did. All of a sudden everyone had appt's to get them done. I think someone got chewed out. I passed the test on april 1st and just received my license in mid july. Headache after headache. My advice would be to make sure you really want to do this because you will get very frustrated at times. Check your sanity at the door when you sign up.

[off track]

I passed the test on april 1st and just received my license in mid july. p.

Wow...we finished in December -- just got my license was issued Aug. 5

Very frustrating...One guy that I took it with the coast gaurd was holding it for a medical reason. They recieved the application in Toledo 3/2008. After he talked to them and got the problem straighted out they said they would review immediately.....this was a little over a month ago and it's status is still under review :roll:

this one was the best - when sending in application's to the USCG sea tech charges the students the application fee and then sends a check/c.c # to the USCG --- they check from Sea Tech bounced and the CC# was declined. i ended up paying the coast gaurd myself

Like I said.....keep track of your own paperwork when that time comes

[Gray Fox]

You may want to check out the Nautical School. They offer many different locations at different times.

[Landshark]

I'm all signed up and paid to take mine starting Jan 17th in Syracuse with sea Tech.

http://www.seatechmarinetraining.com/schedule.html

[Fishstix]

Wow lots of responces.

Just how tuff is the test?

Im 53 and already I cant remember stuff.

Syracuse is closer than Rochester. Binghamton ,Ithaca or Corning area would be best. Just have to see what else pops up here. Thanks for all the replies.

[Missdemeanor]

I took the class with ScottB and he was exactly right...poor organization. I was on top of my license and "cut a couple of corners" to save time, but I didn't even get my License till the first week of July. Are you kidding me?

As far as the class......Good Luck! Its pretty tough....I think I failed every practice test we had before the final. Oh yea did I mention math? You better get your algebra on! The Rules of the road is the most important. Study that because you can only miss 3 out of the 30 questions in this section. The chart plotting is tough too.

They will tell you that you won't be ready for the exam till the night before.They are exactly right. Oh yea the two guys who teach the Rochester class are total Sailboaters.

In our class, Legacy , me, and ScottB sat in the back of class saying " Screw the jibs and tacking...can I just run some downriggers and dipseys?"

[Legacy]

[motoman]

o brother now i"m already starting too sweat !!!!!!!! but now i now too keep my hands on my own paper work !!!!!! thx and i am all ears for anymore info you captian"s have for a deck hand like my self !

[motoman]

( USCG License Prep Quiz ) did any of you captians google this and take any of these prep quiz"s i try too add a hot link too the page with no luck but i think some of if not all the info there mite help out a new guy ?

[off track]

it is very tough....all memorization

They have a book at barnes and nobels with nothing but USCG tests it is probably 1000 pages....or you can look online. Neither will help until you have the material and taken the classes....read some of the questions and you will hardly understand what they are asking

everything is commercial....they do not talk about sailing or operating your 30' vessel. Just about everything pertains to you being on a commercial vessel. if you choose to get your sailing endorsement which requires additional payment to seatech and you have to have 180 days of your sea time on a sailing vessel --- hopefully next year i can apply for the sailing endorsement upgrade

have fun and study a lot

[Fishstix]

Ive got 4 years in the military , never missed a days work in the next 30 years. It seems like I should be elligable for a interpreter.

[Billy V]

If you go through Seatech, you'll want to see if you can get Dennis Daniels as your instructor. He's incredibly funny and is a great teacher. Do exactly what he says and you'll be fine. Most guys get all wound up over the chartplotting stuff cuz it has a lot of math in it, but you really, really need to spend the majority of your time preparing for the rules of the road stuff. You have to get a 90% on that exam and the others you can get a 70% (if I remember correctly) on.

I know that Dennis has had some issues with paperwork, organization, etc. recently, but my experience with getting my license after I passed the exam was that it was the USCG that took almost three months to process my application. Seatech wasn't an issue for me at all. Ruth got things processed pretty quickly, but then again I was calling her every day to check in...the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Definitely don't set yourself up with the expectation that you'll have your license in a week or two after you pass. Plan on two-three months. I know a couple of guys who are renewing their licenses and they're sitting on 4 months waiting for the USCG to process their paperwork.

There is a lot of memorization but if you listen to Dennis he'll get you through it. When he handed us our first practice quiz and said that we should all score a 40% on it he was dead right. When we got closer to exam time he started telling us we should get 60% scores...he was right again. The days right before the exam he was telling us that if we did the work we should be getting 90% scores....right on again.

The first weekend of the class I was sitting there with Yankee Troller thinking "what have I gotten myself into"? It was pretty overwhelming the amount of stuff they threw at us. I've been boating most of my life but this was way more in depth than I had ever gotten. But slowly, week by week it got better and better. And when exam day came I totally smoked it.

It's a lot of work but if you're willing to buckle down and do the work it's not all that hard to pass and its been worth the hassles for me personally. Oh, if you have any sort of health issues like a hearing loss or impaired vision you really need to talk to Dennis before you register. One of the guys YT and I went through class with had a hearing issue keep him from getting his license even though he passed all the exams.

[Silver Fox]

I agree. If you get Dennis your "golden". This spring he tought buffalo only. In my opinion the buffalo guys were ahead of us Rochester and Syracuse classes. I never seen some of the questions on the test and the Buffalo guys said they had. That made for some interesting guessing. I was a little worried to say the least. I think Seatech is trying to have too many classes in different cities at once.

As for the Coast Guard. Overall they were awfull. I couldn't believe some of the problems that we were having. I could write a book. I think I'll stop now, I'm getting flashbacks!

[Legacy]

As for the Coast Guard. Overall they were awfull. I couldn't believe some of the problems that we were having. I could write a book. I think I'll stop now, I'm getting flashbacks!

scottb,

i never notice what did they do so wrong?

[Silver Fox]