BSAC Boat Handling Course
BSAC’s Boat Handling course is great fun and is ideal for anyone wanting to learn about rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RIBs) and how to drive them.
It’s a practical boat-based course that gives each student plenty of time at the helm of a small dive boat to practise their skills, including how to drop and recover divers safely. Some boat insurers require any person driving a boat to have an approved boat-handling qualification.
What a fantastic couple of days! My boat handling skills and knowledge have come on leaps and bounds and I’m now really enjoying driving the RIB on club dive trips.
- Peter Dix, University of Nottingham SAC
The Boat Handling course is open to anyone aged over 14 and it’s a great way to get non-divers involved in the club, especially if they have family members who dive. No diving qualification is necessary to take part.
After completing the Boat Handling course and consolidating your skills, you can be assessed to become a qualified Diver Coxswain.
You could further your seamanship training by doing other Skill Development Courses (SDCs), including Chartwork and Position Fixing and Outboard Engine and Boat Maintenance.
Or you could develop specific skills to expand your interests further, whether you are a diving member or non-diving member. Imagine being qualified in diver first aid or becoming a compressor operator or mixed gas blender. Check out the SDCs you can get involved in.
