Blue Water Certification Process

Blue Water Foundation has a safety program which includes ensuring that crew and captains have the needed skills and knowledge to safely handle the boat and maximize the safety and enjoyment of the people we take sailing.

Volunteers are not required to have sailing skills since we have related programs such as scholarships and outreach that do not require sailing expertise. However, only those with verified sailing skills can be listed as certified Crew or certified Captains. Our sails with children require a minimum of a First Captain, a Second Captain, and three Certified Crew on board. For sails at night we require additional certification skills be demonstrated in order to be night certified.

We use a check list of skills to ensure Crew, Second Captains, Night Crew, and Night Captains know and have demonstrated all the sailing maneuvers, terms, and operations necessary to safely handle the boat. We confirm skills on each boat separately due to the differences between their equipment and layout. A few skills (such as knots, VHF communication, etc.) are general and apply to all boats.

Certifications have dependencies. You must be certified Crew on a boat before you can be a certified Second Captain, and you must be a Second Captain before you can be a First Captain. Night Crew requires prior Crew certification and Night Captain requires Second Captain certification. A First Captain on a night sail must also have Night Captain certification.

First Captains, who are the persons in overall charge of the boat and the sail, have already demonstrated their sailing skills when they become Second Captains. We verify their capacity to take full responsibility for the boat and everyone on it by having them take full charge of sails under the observation of an already certified First Captain. To be successfully promoted to a First Captain the candidate must have sailed acting as First with at least two other (and preferably more) First Captains on the boat in question. A candidate is nominated when one or more First Captains think the time has come for promotion to First.

When nominated for First Captain the decision is first voted on by the current First Captains. If they approve it is referred to the Board of Directors for final approval.