Sailing certification organizations?

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They're all about the same and allow for about the same amount of chartering globally as far as I can tell. There looks to be some regional bias but even then it seems that a cert of a high enough level plus logs will probably get you what you want. If anyone here has any experience with this feel free to pop in and enlighten me.
 
What kind of sailing like the ASA courses they have classes in things like coastal navigation,
weather. The important stuff.

I only sailed the crap out of a Hobie 16. Have sailed outer islands on other's boats as crew.

I like fast catamarans nothing beats time on the water. Open ocean sailing whole different ball game.
 
I live right on the Puget Sound and wife and I have been thinking about boats and learning to sail. I'll be trying to crew for someone soon ish. I used to work in the merchant fleet and have been most everywhere. I tremble to think about what it'd be like on a small sailboat vs the 1300' cargo containers that I worked on.
 
So you know how to plot courses & use marine
navigation equipment. That's a big plus.

Modern sailing craft are digital. Solar panels & small windmills stored energy in batteries to be energy independent.
 
If you are simply looking to charter, nearly no sail charters require any certifications at all.

If you are looking to work onboard a sailboat, the employer may well want something. There isn't really a global, regional or even national standards body, however. Most governmental marine licences are for stinkpots, not sails.

I've "worked" onboard two sailboats for a month or so. No certification was required or asked, buuuuuut I lived on a sailboat for years as a kid, and competed in open ocean races while I was at it.
 
I would imagine Seattle area where you are has sailing clubs, charters, sailing classes. Plenty places to explore.
 
SeattleBen - just find the local yacht club's website (if bigger yacht club) or drive over to any local smaller one and find / contact the club Commodore (his/her name will certainly be posted or if the YC is open just go in and ask).

Bigger YC's will have easily identifiable areas to put your name in to sail ... racing or otherwise ... bounce around (IMO) to figure out what type of boat/program you are more interested in and then which owner/crew combo you jive with better ...

Came up from San Diego last Sept and pretty easily found folks to go out with (small area) but I have raced offshore for 30+ years so folks who wanted to race well were happy to see me ... but most sail boats have 'crew challenges' even, funny enough, the very well funded ones ...

As for cert's/training you can go as deep as you want but spending more time on the water (IMO) is cheap and will definitely help you understand how deep that rabbit hole you want to go ... I you PM me we can chat about where you are at and maybe help understand what you are looking for/help if I can ...

TjA

PS Sorry just saw this thread ...
 
In the US the coast guard offers coastal piloting classes. Both my wife and I took one back when I owned a big sailboat. This was back before GPS.
 
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