Imagine you’re making your way between islands in the Florida Keys, sailing from an anchorage in Lower Sugarloaf Key to a mooring field near Key West. A casual evening of listening to Jimmy Buffet tunes while eating grouper tacos awaits you. It’s a sunny morning and your sails are trimmed perfectly as you cruise along a 225° compass heading in the Straits of Florida on a beam reach with 10-knot fair winds. The clear turquoise and blue waters of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary are in full effect and you just spotted some flying fish skimming atop the water off your port bow — this is a fantastic day of coastal cruising!
What is Coastal Cruising?
Coastal cruising refers to sailing along the coastline of a body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or large lake. It typically involves day sailing trips with shorter distances between anchorages, moorings, and marinas. Unlike offshore sailing, where vessels venture into deeper open waters, coastal cruising involves navigating and exploring the waters closer to shore, typically within sight of land.
Coastal cruising provides a blend of navigation, exploration, and the chance to appreciate different coastal landscapes and cultural attractions. Boaters engaged in coastal cruising may also encounter a greater variety of weather conditions, currents, and tides compared to inland or open-water sailing.
The basics of coastal cruising are taught in the American Sailing Association (ASA) 103 course.
How Does the ASA 103 Course Work?
The ASA 103 Basic Coastal Cruising course builds on your knowledge from the Keelboat Sailing (ASA 101) course. In our ASA 103 Basic Cruising course, you will take the basic sailing skills you learned on our smaller keelboat and transfer them to a larger and heavier sailboat, our Beneteau First 36.7. The course is designed to teach you the necessary standards for understanding key concepts and demonstrating skills at sea during the day in moderate winds and sea conditions.
The course is broken up into in-class and at-sea lessons with a focus on cruising skills such as navigation, anchoring, equipment handling, docking, emergency situations, and more.
Each ASA 103 course lasts three days, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
What You Learn in the ASA 103 Course
In this course, you will:
Expand on your sailboat terminology
Become familiar with safety equipment and procedures
Learn navigation
Understand how to choose and balance a sail plan
Advance your seamanship skills
Here's a peek into a more detailed curriculum of topics you'll learn about in this sailing course:
Reefing
We cover the essential sailing concept of reefing (reducing sail area) in great detail. We begin with the physics of sailing and what it means to be overpowered, then move on to the two main types of reefing systems — slab reefing and roller reefing. After working through the specific steps of reefing with both systems, we discuss the pros and cons of each as well as the advantages and disadvantages of different sailing rigs, such as the sloop rig vs the cutter rig and more.
Anchoring
One of our goals for this course is to take the stress and anxiety out of anchoring. We teach how to:
Select an anchorage
Avoid damaging sensitive marine habitats (such as coral and seagrass) while anchoring
Understand the concept of scope and differences between all line and all chain anchors
Deploy and recover an anchor safely and successfully using non-verbal crew communication
Ensure your anchor is set and is suitable for an overnight stay
Visual Navigation
You will learn to take charge of navigation. During our chart briefing and lesson, we learn about latitude and longitude, variation and deviation, and common chart symbols and abbreviations. We also discuss important reference tools such as Chart No. 1, cruising guides, and chart tables.
Safety Maneuvers
We will review the appropriate maneuvers to use in a crew-overboard situation or when you need to park your vessel at sea in heavy weather. The two major skills we focus on are crew overboard recoveries and heaving to.
Emergencies
Emergency lessons include learning about important safety equipment and procedures specific to a 36-foot recreational vessel. You will also become familiar with the federally required and ASA-recommended safety equipment. What do you do if you run aground? Or foul a propeller on a lobster pot? What if your vessel is taking on water? In ASA 103, we talk through all of these emergencies and more, including fires, rig failure, engine failure, and more. Although these emergencies occur very rarely, it never hurts to be prepared!
Weather
The core competency of the ASA 103 - Basic Cruising certification is "to skipper a sloop-rigged auxiliary powered 25- to 35-foot keelboat by day in moderate winds and sea conditions.” But how do we ensure we are going out sailing in moderate winds and sea conditions? We teach the basic concepts of weather, including high and low pressure, weather fronts, synoptic weather, local weather patterns, thunderstorm avoidance, weather sources, and the Beaufort Scale.
Maneuvering and Docking
For most sailors, the most daunting part of any sailing day is taking off and returning to the dock, which involves maneuvering a heavy sailboat under power in tight spaces. We cover the concepts of maneuvering under power and docking at length. We’ll even dedicate an entire on-the-water session to just practicing these skills! Students come away from the course not only being competent, but confident docking a cruising sailboat.
For a full list of all 52 concepts and skills required to pass the ASA 103 - Basic Coastal Cruising course, please visit the official ASA 103 certification page.
What Courses Are Needed to Complete to Earn an ASA Certification
The American Sailing Association (ASA) offers a wide range of certifications and endorsements. Their core curriculum is linear and begins with ASA 101 - Basic Keelboat and ends with ASA 108 - Offshore Passagemaking.
Each of these courses is a prerequisite for the following course, meaning you must pass ASA 101 to move on to ASA 103 (ASA 102 is not a pre). At the end of each course, you take a written and practical exam, and upon a passing grade, you receive your ASA certification. ASA also recommends that after completing ASA 101 and before starting ASA 103, sailors should complete a minimum of 24 on-water sailing hours.
When you join the ASA, you receive a logbook and a student ID. Once you complete a certification course, you receive an official seal to place in your logbook and your course grade is registered under your ASA ID number. This means that even if you lose your logbook, there will always be a record of your certifications!
FAQs About the ASA 101 Course
What Can You Do With ASA 103?
Upon completion of Basic Coastal Sailing ASA 103, you will confidently be able to plan your next trip and skipper a vessel on a multi-day cruise upon inland or coastal waters.
How Long Does ASA 103 Take?
Each ASA 103 course lasts 3 days, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
How Many Skills Are Required to Earn the ASA 103 Course Certificate?
The Basic Coastal Cruising ASA 103 course has 52 skills that must be completed to earn the certification.
Getting Started With ASA 103 at First Reef Sailing
If you are in the Boston area and you’re ready to start earning your next certification, we can help you get started. Enroll in ASA 103 today to start learning the basics of coastal cruising.
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