Ben Booth, Seaman’s Master’s License Instructor
Ben Booth, owner of Orcas Island Sailing, will again offer his class enabling experienced sea-men and -women to obtain their official Coast Guard Master’s License. (A prerequisite to obtaining the license is 365 days seatime of at least four hours per day).
The class will license captains to operate uninspected vessels of any size and up to 100-ton inspected vessels.
Classes will start Feb. 4 at the Great Blue Heron Room at Camp Orkila, which Booth says is “the best classroom on the island.” The cost is $1,100, and a payment plan is offered. Booth notes that on the mainland, the same class costs $1,300 to $1,400. Class size is limited to 16 people.
The 80-hours class meets on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and includes units on charts and navigation (Booth uses Chesapeake Bay Entrance charts for teaching), rules of the road, deck and general safety. Coursework include homework and practice tests.
Booth notes that everyone who has taken his classes has passed the tests required for licensing.
In 2001, Booth obtained his Captain’s License after attending classes in Port Hadlock on the Olympic Peninsula. The classes were held at an old alcohol plant on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Booth camped and says the experience was “real expensive and a real hassle.”
In 2007, he team-taught the class with Captain Jeff Sanders and became qualified to teach the class without having to leave the island.
While providing the training for others to obtain Coast Guard credentials, the class also augments Booth’s winter income. Booth says he appreciates others who, like him, have a desire to learn, and having been raised by a family of volunteers, “this is the best way for me to give back to the community.”
Past classes have been made up mostly of 40 to 50-year-olds who take the class “to exercise their brain; to develop a future resource; and to acquire a needed license.
“There are so many different learning styles and reasons for being in the class; it makes it exciting for me,” Booth says. Students encourage and help each other round out information, yet “We don’t spend a lot of class time reveling in old sea stories.”
To contact Booth, call 376-3072, or email info@orcassailing.com.
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