The Captain School of Naples

In Florida we are a boating state. I’ve taken the on line boaters safety class and. Still wanted more. This class is not for everyone. Most enthusiasts will benefit from a basic course offered by the USCG Aux. Legally boats for hire must be under the license of a captain.
I had three other friends who are graduates of this school. And while going through this journey you will get to learn along with 9 to 11 other students.
My friends spoke highly of Capt Casey and instructors. I had to wait an extra month to get into this class as there was not enough students in December. This month we had a max. Of 12 students, but two dropped out after the first day for other reasons. This course has 4 major categories, rules of the road, chart plotting, navigation gen, and deck gen/​safety. Capt. Terry Kuykendall started by teaching us rules of the road and intro to chart plotting and Capt Joe Calzone taught us the rest.
This school also has extra endorsements for towing, master inland, master near coastal, radio operator. Port security, I will have to say that the students in this course were from various backgrounds and ages. 3 of us were retired. Two were involved in marine sales and rentals. And a few were doing it for personal development. One student was sponsored by his employer.
Class time is very intensive as they prepare you to think large like 100 gross ton 65ft vessels. Many of the rules are specific to inland waters and international rules are equally important. The weekday night class moves along quickly and we are tested each day after each topic you will be given immediate daily feed back on the information that you have reviewed. They did a good job of staying on topic as to not fly off on tangents. Most of our classmates were respectful to the instructor and other students.
The instructors will teach but as students you will have to put in the time to review the manual and learn the procedures and formulas. Know chart navigation and identify signals both lights and sounds. Bells whistles and gongs. Expect it to be very difficult if you fail to study and put time in. The instructor was willing to help one on one if needed.