LTCO Sail Canada and ASA Celestial Navigation Course Overview
We are pleased to announce that the LearnToCruiseOnline.ca (LTCO) Celestial Navigation course will launch in May 2025. This online self-study course addresses all the requirements for certification for the Sail Canada and ASA 107 Celestial Navigation standards. The most recent version of the standards are here:
- Sail Canada: https://www.sailing.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Celestial-Navigation-22-February-2021-1.pdf
- ASA: https://americansailing.com/learn-to-sail/certifications/asa-107-celestial-navigation/
1. LTCO’s Celestial Navigation Course
The SC and ASA Celestial Navigation standards provide a framework that organizes the navigational knowledge and skills needed for celestial, and are prerequisites for skipper certification at the Offshore level.
LTCO’s Celestial Navigation course has two primary objectives:
- To prepare participants to successfully write the exam required for SC or ASA celestial nav certification;
- The second is to provide a practical way to learn celestial navigation in the easiest way I have found so far through my years of teaching celestial navigation. With today’s modern electronics, it is rare that anyone would ever navigate an offshore passage using exclusively celestial means of determining position. However, knowledge of celestial navigation is not only rewarding in itself, there are rare circumstances that could arise in which that knowledge could make a crucial difference in reaching a safe destination. Accordingly, this course includes some basic emergency navigation content that goes beyond the Sail Canada and ASA Celestial Navigation standards.
2. Course structure
LTCO’s Advanced Navigation course is comprised of 13 sessions:
- Course Overview and Getting Started
- 1. Lesson 1: Introduction to Celestial Navigation
- 2. Lesson 2: Taking and reducing sun sights
- 3. Lesson 3: Plotting a Celestial Fix
- 4. Lesson 4: Noon Sun Sight
- 5. Lesson 5: Taking Moon and Planet Sights at Nautical Twilight
- 6. Lesson 6: Star Sights
- 7. Lesson 7: Latitude from Polaris
- 8. Lesson 8: Other celestial techniques and resources
- 9. Lesson 9: Basic Emergency Celestial Navigation
- 10. Practice Exam
- 11. Taking the official Sail Canada Celestial Navigation exam
- 12. Next steps
A unique aspect of the course is that the practical worked examples and exercises are based on actual sights taken on a trans-Atlantic passage from Gran Canaria to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in February, 2025.
Each lesson is organized as follows:
- A lesson overview
- Assigned readings in the text (if applicable), or other assigned readings
- Identification of any additional tools and/or resources specific to the lesson
- A video presentation that provides illustrative step-by-step explanations of how and why to perform the techniques that are the focus of the lesson. Wherever possible, these illustrations are based on actual sun. moon, planet, and star sights taken on the crossing referred to above
- Identification of relevant exercises
- Additional exercises and solutions based on the Feb 2025 passage referenced above
3. Text and Exercise book
The text for the course is Celestial Navigation by Dominique Prinet, who was formerly an aircraft pilot and Sail Canada instructor and instructor evaluator. I used this book and accompanying exercises to self-study for my SC celestial navigation exam in 2019-20, so I can personally testify that is an excellent resource. This course supplements the Prinet text by providing: illustrative step-by-step explanations of how and why to perform the various techniques; and accompanying exercises.
The text and exercise book can be obtained in various formats from Dominique Prinet’s website at:
- Text: https://www.marinenavigationbooks.com/book-celestial-navigation.php
- Exervise book: https://www.marinenavigationbooks.com/book-celestial-navigation-exercise.php
The most economical option is the PDF formats available from Friesen Press.
4. Course author / instructor
LTCO’s Advanced Nav course has been assembled by Rob McLean, who has six decades of sailing and boating experience. He began cruising in 1982 and has accumulated more than 45,000 miles on the Great Lakes and associated inland waterways, the St. Lawrence River and Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico, including more than 25,000 miles offshore and three Atlantic crossings.
Rob is the only Offshore Instructor certified by both ASA and Sail Canada. and is also the only IE certified by both ASA and Sail Canada. He is the only instructor in Canada certified to teach all four navigation standards: Basic Coastal, Intermediate Coastal, Advanced Coastal, and Celestial. As an offshore instructor, he has led more than 12 offshore courses since 2021.
In 2017, Rob collaborated with Phil Morris of Wavelength Sailing to launch LearnToCruiseOnline.ca, which is Canada’s leading source of online sailing education, having trained over 1500 students in recent years.
As an Instructor Evaluator, Rob has contributed to the development of the evaluation materials for the SC Advanced Navigation standard, making significant contributions to the development of the exams for all modules.
His detailed sailing and instructor resume is available here:
https://robmclean.ca/sailingresume.html
Rob is available by email and phone to answer questions or provide additional coaching as needed.
5. Introductory Pricing
Introductory pricing, available for a limited time until December 31, 2025, is CAD499, USD360.
The pricee covers access to online content, email / phone support, access to a practice exam, the official exam marking fee, and the fee that SC or ASA assesses when your certification is processed. You should acquire the text and exercise books directly from marinenavigationbooks.com in the format of your choice.
The course has been completely designed and recordings are in progress. Subscriptions will be available before the end of May 2025.