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Bareboat Charter Master Course

Multi-day Sailing | Near Coastal Passagemaking | Bareboat Charter Master Certification | International Licensing

  • Avalon, on Santa Catalina Island
  • Group enjoying a sunny day sailing on a yacht in the ocean, highlighting leisure and boating adventure.
  • Catamaran anchored in turquoise waters near lush island with person relaxing on the swim ladder, enjoying a sunny day.
  • Man standing by a rusty, graffiti-covered tank stranded on a tropical beach with cloudy skies.
  • People exploring rocky shoreline with clear water on a sunny day, perfect for sailing and beach adventures.
  • Catamaran anchored in turquoise Caribbean waters with scenic island background, perfect for sailing and boating adventures.
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Why Bareboat Charter Master?

  1. Gain the credentials and experience required by yacht charter companies.
  2. Improve and refine your sailing and seamanship knowledge and skills.
  3. The experience and confidence you gain apply directly to bareboat charters around the world.

For many sailors, the prime motivation for pursuing sailing is to take a sailing vacation in an exotic location – Tonga, the Seychelles, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Thailand, just to name a few (Mediterranean and Seychelles charters also require the SLC).

With the Bareboat Charter Master Course and Certification, you’ll gain the confidence, competence, and the credentials to do just that.

During a 5-day or 7-day cruise you learn and become a competent Bareboat Charter Master. You will develop the skills of passage planning, coastal and electronic navigation, anchoring, mooring, crew overboard rescue, reefing, heaving-to, and other advanced sailing and boat management skills.

About the Course Register Today
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– Become a Bareboat Charter Master  –

A Bareboat Charter Master is an individual who possesses comprehensive knowledge and competence in sailing. This training and certification enables you to confidently lead your friends and family on sailing vacations along coastal waters for multiple days. Becoming a Bareboat Charter Master requires a combination of practical experience, comprehensive online coursework, on-the-water training, and a demonstration of your sailing skills.

At Santana Sailing, our Bareboat courses cover all the essential aspects of multiday sailing. You will learn navigation rules, buoy systems, various sailing techniques, effective boat management and systems, boat handling skills, coastal navigation, electronic navigation methods, and much more. Our sailing school offers a charter-ready program designed to immerse you in practical on-the-water education. Additionally, you will have access to six in-depth multimedia knowledge courses available online.

By completing the Bareboat Charter Master certification program with Santana Sailing, you will develop the necessary skills and knowledge to confidently navigate and manage a sailboat during extended trips. Our comprehensive training will prepare you for the challenges and responsibilities that come with leading a crew on a bareboat charter vacation.

About Bareboat Charter Master

Practical On-the-Water Training:

Online Coursework:

This course is all about multi-day voyages, the kind you’ll want to do on your own. You’ll learn passage planning and provisioning, navigation, anchoring and mooring, and how to handle systems and maneuvers under sail and power, on a large sailboat, on multi-day voyages. You’ll work on all the skills in the Bareboat Charter Master Rubrics, and you can elect to test through for the SLC Mediterranean Sailing License.

  • Intermediate to advanced sailing skills
  • Intermediate to advanced maneuvering skills
  • Weather and Sea Conditions
  • Bareboat preparation and provisioning
  • Charter processes and tips
  • Vessel management
  • Dinghy tips
  • Boat troubleshooting
  • Managing your crew
  • Quick fixes for an engine
  • How to manage the energy on your boat
  • The Charts and how to use navigation tools
  • Dead reckoning, running fixes and triangulation
  • Tides including apps and online digital data
  • Rate and Direction from wind, tides and current
  • Techniques for Setting the Anchor
  • Anchorage Selection: Charts & Guides, Picking Your Spot, Swing Radius

This practical on-the-water course utilizes NauticEd’s online Bareboat Charter Master course bundle (includes 9 courses) sold separately. Learning the theory and knowledge online at your own pace integrates perfectly with our practical on-the-water instruction. Overall, this maximizes the amount of time available for on-the-water training and fun.

Certification

Upon successfully passing the online knowledge testing and practical training assessment, and logging appropriate experience, you’ll earn the NauticEd Bareboat Charter Master Rank certification with a Near Coastal Endorsement. Learn more about BBCM certification.

Optional International License (SLC) Upgrade your training to the SLC, accepted by Port Authorities worldwide. The SLC is especially needed when chartering in the Mediterranean and is accepted in lieu of the ICC (International Certificate of Competence).

Assessment: Knowledge and theory competence are assessed online, whereas instructors assess skills and on-the-water competency continually during training or separately and according to a rubric to meet standards. View the Bareboat Charter Master rubrics >

Schedule & Registration

View Bareboat Options below for more schedule and pricing information.

Contact us to register: please submit the following form and we’ll contact you to discuss pertinent details, and we’ll certainly answer any questions you may have! Alternatively, please feel welcome to contact us at marc@santanasailing.com or +1 949-939-8123.

Course Registration Form
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Training You Can Trust

Our Commitment to Your Sailing Competence: We really want you to have the skills - we know that you do too.  So when you continue training with us through Skipper Large Keelboat level, you will be ready to charter a boat on your own or we’ll invite you back for more training, free of charge. That’s our commitment.

See all the details at Commitment To Sailing Competence. Limitations apply.

American National Standard - Sail

Our training methodology meets the U.S. Coast Guard's prescribed On-Water Recreational Boating Skills Standard – SAIL, the newly released 2017 American National Standard for on-water instruction in entry-level recreational sailboat operation.

 

Professional Sailing Instruction

Santana Sailing's instructors are extraordinarily well-qualified: experienced, mature, trained to American National and International Standards, and assessed to the highest standards and expectations in recreational sailing.

Trust through verification: please feel welcome to read Santana Sailing's student reviews ›

NauticEd - 21st Century Sailing Education

NauticEd Flagship School

Santana Sailing offers fully-accredited NauticEd Training and Certification. NauticEd is the international leader in sailing education and certification, which affords our students the best educational resources and certification in the United States as well as abroad when sailing internationally.

Which course is right for you?

Santana Sailing's instruction focuses on goal-based competence -  aligning our instruction with your sailing goals and experience. We do NOT offer "zero-to-hero" or require unneeded courses like many other schools. Instead, Santana Sailing's courses are designed to train competent sailors, based on their prior experience, to the highest training standards in the U.S. And the approach works well - read our student reviews >

You can start with any course below based on your goals and if you have the experience or prior training for that course. Select a course below for more information, and certainly contact us with questions or to discuss which course is best for you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Prerequisite: NauticEd Skipper Rank, or ASA 103, US Sailing Basic Cruising Certification, or equivalent experience. Please contact us to discuss your level of experience prior to registering for this course.

  1. Complete the NauticEd Bareboat Charter Master bundle of online courses.

  2. Join one of our Sail Training Adventures to complete the training and assessment for the BBCM rank. See this link,  BBCM Rubrics, to see exactly what the training and assessment covers. If you have experience and can execute the skills in the rubrics, get your practical competency verified with a one-day assessment – contact us for details.

  3. Log 50 days sailing in the free online sailing logbook, and you’ll receive the Bareboat Charter Master Rank Level III, accepted by Dream Yacht Charter, The Moorings, Sunsail, and charter companies around the world.

ASA schools have a list of skills they train you on, and you’ll get what amounts to a certificate of attendance. ASA 103 is usually conducted in three days, totaling about 32 hours of training in total. Additionally, critical near coastal and multi-day sailing topics such as Coastal and Electronic Navigation are barely covered by ASA 103 or US Sailing Bareboat.  In fact, Coastal Navigation is a separate ASA course that’s not included in their 103 / Bareboat training (which we find absurd – navigation is an essential part of sailing).

At Santana Sailing, we train for a minimal 4-days and 7-days cruises. The online knowledge courses includes a full suite of Bareboat related courses, including Coastal Navigation, Electronic Navigation, and Anchoring/Mooring – all of which are practiced on the cruise. More importantly, we train you to become competent in all of these required skills.

We think you really want a certification of competence, not one of attendance. When you train with us you’ll be ready to charter your own sailboat. See our Commitment To Sailing Competence.