Class room consists of teaching the material the is part of the Boating Skills & Seamanship (BS&S) USCG Auxiliary Public Education course .

Special additional modules are added, including an expanded navigation and chart work, as well as Helicopter Operations.

This course runs 35 hours in a single week.

On-The-Water Week

This week consists of daily forays on vessels where piloting, navigation as well as all other seamanship skills are taught.

In the PAPD vessel, a PAPD Coxswain and two (2) Auxiliary instructors were utilized. We also limited the number of students to seven (7).

The plan had each student under the tutelage of the Coxswain spend 45 minutes a day at the helm. This student, during the 45 minute time-period did one (1) docking and (1) un-docking maneuver. During this time, the other students, who were not operating as Lookout or Navigator, manned lines and fenders, reinforcing marlinspike and line handling.

We also do several Man OverBoard (MOB) drills as well as anchoring maneuvers.

During the other 30 minutes, they worked on different aspects of the PQS.

Every 45 minutes the entire student body shifted positions. Over the course of this 5 day lesson plan, each student had approximately four hours of helm time, and had made at least 10 docking maneuvers.