ASA 105 Coastal Navigation: Learn Coastal Charting Aboard the Big Red Lightship in Jersey City

On the weathered deck of the Big Red Lightship moored off Jersey City, ASA 105 Coastal Navigation teaches practical seamanship without ever leaving the dock. This four-day, classroom-only course — held over two consecutive weekends in Jersey City, New Jersey — compresses traditional chart work, position fixing, and modern electronic navigation into intensive, hands-on lessons that turn nervous day-sailors into confident coastal pilots.

The course opens with nautical charts and symbols, moving through compass work, plotting courses with dividers and plotters, and learning to correct for variation and deviation. Students practice dead reckoning and position fixing, then add tides, currents, and weather interpretation into voyage planning. In the final sessions, GPS and electronic navigation are tied back to paper charts and the ASA 105 exam assesses the skills you need to plan safe coastal passages. Class runs 9:00 AM–4:00 PM on each of four days and accepts students ages 14 and up.

What makes this course feel like a local institution is the setting: instruction aboard the Big Red Lightship gives every diagram and plotted course a kinetic context. Chart tables, dividers, and a view toward the working waterways make the material immediate and relevant. The curriculum emphasizes aids to navigation — buoys, lights, and daymarks — and practical interpretation of tides and current patterns that govern nearby coastal waters, so you graduate with route-planning skills, not just textbook knowledge.

The class is ideal for new skippers preparing to cruise coastal waters, sailors brushing up before a delivery, or landlubbers curious about the navigation behind safe boating. No prior certification is required; successful students earn ASA 105 Coastal Navigation certification. Group sizes are kept to a level where instructors can review individual plotting and answer route-planning questions.

Practical tips: arrive ready to write and measure—bring pencils and a hard-backed notebook—and expect focused, cognitive work rather than physical exertion. Because the course sits at the intersection of traditional seamanship and modern electronics, students leave able to cross-reference GPS readouts with chart work, interpret tide tables, and choose safer passages under changing weather.

Classes are intentionally limited to 16 students per section to maximize hands-on plotting time and instructor feedback. Check-in takes place aboard the Big Red Lightship, and students receive directions via confirmation email. Beyond personal skill, this course plugs into Jersey City's maritime character: it strengthens local boating safety, supports stewardship of the working waterfront, and connects land-based learners to the seasonal rhythms of tides, currents, and coastal weather that define this shore.