Weather For Cruisers
On-Line Classroom
(ASA - 119)

The old joke is that no one could be as wrong consistently as the weatherperson and keep their jobs.  But weather is of the utmost importance to the sailor, whether you are planning a day trip or an ocean passage.  Knowing the intricacies of how huge air masses moving around the globe will affect the wind, waves and precipitation over the length of your cruise is your best way of interpreting what information the weather forecasters are providing.

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Our Weather for Cruisers course is designed to give you the theoretical basis and the practical skills to evaluate the data available to you for weather planning and build predictions of your own.  It focuses on the how and why of climate and weather and how the two differ.  It will also teach you how to use the additional resources available to you to evaluate the weather in your area and make decisions about your sailing plans.

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In this course, taught over three weeks by Captain Frank Mummert, you will learn how to use the online and onboard tools that sailors have devised over the decades to make their route planning safer and more comfortable.  The class is held over three consecutive Saturday mornings, from 9:00 to 13:00, using a Zoom classroom.  You will be live with Captain Mummert as he explains the material in understandable terms and can both ask questions and interact with your fellow students.  If you can't make it on a Saturday morning, the class session can be recorded and made available to students for the following week, ensuring that you can stay up-to-date despite disruptions in your schedule.  You will need to notify us beforehand, so that this can be arranged.

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Once you have completed the course and feel comfortable in your knowledge, you can take the final exam at a proctored environment (usually a local library or community college).  If you prefer, for an additional fee of $50, you can do the test at home, with an online proctor (talk to us for more details).  After completing the test, you will send it, and your American Sailing logbook, if desired, in a prepaid envelope, directly to Captain Mummert, who will grade it and send it back to you with detailed feedback on anything that you did not quite master.

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Over the past decades, applications and web pages have developed that can provide you with very detailed forecasts for small areas, but most people do not appreciate the limitations and liabilities of these programs.  Having an understanding of what is happening "under the hood" makes you better able to evaluate the information that you are getting and lets you make better decisions about when to get underway and, more importantly, when to stay in port.  As the old sailors say, it is better to be in port, wishing you were at sea than to be at sea, wishing you were in port!