SUS Educational Requirements

There are absolutely no education requirements to join SUS.  You do not have to know how to sail.  It is not necessary to ever have been on a sailboat, or any other boat.  But having a smile always helps.

However, in order to promote well being, comfort and, especially, safety for you and your shipmates, we do require that you take some education within the first twelve months of your joining.

In summary, you will be required to take:

1) a one-hour member orientation, held several times during the year immediately before a Thursday night social meeting;

2) approximately four hours of a Mariners Workshop, an introduction to sail-boating and safety, held on a dock alongside a member’s sailboat (and is often followed by an afternoon sail);

3) eight hours of an approved boating course usually given by the US Coast Guard or The Sail and Power squadron, usually given on a Saturday and, by passing the end-of-day test, you can obtain a state safe boating certificate (which, depending on your residency and other criteria, may be required by a state to operate a boat but the certificate is not required by SUS).

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The specific Bylaw governing the SUS education requirement is below.

 1. Effective April 2008 a member joining in 2008 must complete an SUS Member Orientation Class (MOC) and the SUS Mariner’s Workshop (MW) before renewing SUS membership in the following year. Members who joined in 2008 must complete a minimum of 8 hour safe boating instruction as required in # 2 below prior to their second renewal. Members who joined before 2008 must complete a minimum of 12 hours of safe boating instruction prior to their second renewal.

2. Effective January 1 2009, all NEW members must complete the Educational Requirements within 12 months of joining to be eligible for renewal. These Educational Requirements are as follows:

     A. Complete an SUS Member Orientation Class (MOC)

     B. Complete the SUS Mariners Workshop (MW)

     C. Provide proof of successfully completing at least 8 hours of Safe Boating instruction to be provided by the USCG Auxiliary, US Sail and Power Squadron, or any other safe boating course that is judged by the Board of Directors to be at least equivalent to those courses.

          I. If there is no certificate or proof available a member may sign an SUS Educational Requirement Affidavit, witnessed by the Director of Education and Directors of Membership, which states the member has successfully completed one of these courses.

          II. The course requirement will be waived if the member can prove one held a U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s license.

3. Extensions of time for completion of these requirements may be granted in some circumstances at the discretion of the Director of Education and Co-Directors of Membership.


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