This self-paced independent study guide is for those interested in safe, legal boating. It includes navigational and safe operating rules, boat equipment and safety devices, emergency equipment and procedures, personal limitations and responsibilities, boating laws, and regulations and licenses.

John C. Payne is a professional marine electrical engineer with 23 years merchant marine and off-shore oil experience.

For anyone who owns a boat, this is the handbook for you. Included are all of the official government rules and regulations that must be followed by anyone out on the water. This book will prepare you for head?on situations, avoiding collisions, using, distress signals, and will inform you of all the up?to?date water regulations. Whether you?re in a jam or just relaxing at sea, Navigation Rules will teach and prepare you for anything and everything you may encounter while on your boat.

This comprehensive manual shows you how to go places and do things you never thought possible in a small outboard motorboat. A well-designed ruggedly built 17-footer, for instance, can fish offshore, circumnavigate Lake Superior, and crisscross the continent on inland waterways or on a trailer pulled by the family car. Small outboards are among the most versatile boats ever developed and are far more able than you might expect. Covered here are all the popular types--and some exciting alternatives as well as methods that may change your entire boating outlook. Aided by contributions from other experts, veteran outboard skipper David R. Getchell, Sr., offers a wealth of useful facts and special savvy that reveal for the first time in a single book the true potential of these democratic boats 20 feet and under. Here are the means to understand what can be done, and the way to do it safely, including: how to judge a boat's potential and capabilities based on design and construction; how to rebuild an older boat; how to handle a little boat in big seas, surf, or shallow water; how to navigate; how to read the weather; how to head upriver or offshore; how to trailer your boat; how to manage and equip it for camp cruising on a nearby lake or for subarctic exploration; and how to care for the boat and motor.

From docking to surviving storm waves, everything you need to know before you hit the water Using hundreds of illustrations and photos, Powerboat Handling Illustrated shows you step-by-step how to do tasks such as docking, trimming, wave handling, and close-quarters maneuvering. These maneuvers are adapted to different types of boats under various conditions.