John,

      We do have several members who are ASA celestial instructors and/or have a lot of experience with celestial navigation.  The course we are offering this year is a basic introduction to celestial navigation.  If there is a enough interest, we could offer more advanced courses in either emergency navigation or precision celestial navigation.  We have the capability to do both in a class room setting.  Practical application of celestial takes time on the water.

    There are three commercially available celestial courses in the area:

  One is the Maryland School of Sailing.  It is available as either an online course or a home correspondence course.  Both are taught by Tom Tursi, who literally wrote the book on celestial navigation for ASA.

   The other is with the Annapolis School of Seamanship, which is a school for commercial mariners.  It is an introduction,  similar to the course we are offering this year in both length and detail.  I don't know anyone who has taken this course, but the school has a great reputation for diesel engine and electrical systems classes.

    JWorld also offers a class, but I don't know anything more about it.  JWorld does have a good reputation for racing instruction.