NauticEd Sets New Global Standard
Mobile App Competency Now Required for SLC Sailing and Power License AssessmentHello
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2025 – Austin, TX — NauticEd, the world leader in sailing and boating education, has announced a landmark evolution in its Certification and Licensing standards by formally incorporating mobile app usage competency into the Bareboat Charter and SLC (Sailing License and Certification) assessment process. This strategic move positions NauticEd as the first education body globally to mandate that candidates demonstrate functional competency in using mobile navigation, weather, tidal, and current data applications as a required component of their final practical evaluation by a NauticEd-qualified boating instructor.
Effective immediately, candidates pursuing the SLC—a bareboat charter license accepted in European and international charter destinations—must show not only a conceptual understanding of tides, currents, and route planning, but also the ability to utilize modern tools to obtain and interpret real-time information relevant to their voyage. Failure to demonstrate this capability will result in non-issuance of the license, regardless of other demonstrated skills.
“Being a skipper on a boating adventure with friends and family in an unfamiliar location takes real competence and prudence,” says Grant Headifen, Global Director of Education at NauticEd. “Having the right tools at hand—delivering accurate, real-time information—is a core component of prudent modern-day seamanship. Anyone going to sea without this level of awareness is simply not prudent. And this is why we’ve made the formal shift. Our mission is to graduate only competent Skippers.”
While other certification bodies may still rely on legacy-style assessments that focus on memorized knowledge or analog plotting techniques, NauticEd’s approach continuously adapts to the actual needs and demands placed upon today’s skippers, particularly those skippering bareboat charters in foreign waters. For years, NauticEd has taught digital navigation and weather interpretation through eLearning, but this marks the first time these competencies are required and assessed as practical, mission-critical skills.
“We feel strongly that emphasizing practical competency with boating apps and technology will produce safer and more competent boaters, from planning to real-time on-water decisions to even emergency situations,” said De Henderson, NauticEd COO. Henderson further added that NauticEd has arranged for significant discounts with the pertinent Apps as part of the NauticEd member benefits package.
Why This Matters:
- Real-world readiness: NauticEd students don’t just learn about currents, weather, and navigation—they learn how to use NOAA and apps such as iNavX, Argo, Navionics, and PredictWind, to manage their boating in real time.
- Integrated modern curriculum: This decision aligns theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and technological fluency into one unified assessment standard.
- Safety-forward philosophy: Modern app usage enhances route planning, risk mitigation, anchorage selection, weather avoidance, and emergency response—all fundamental to prudent voyaging.
- Elevated standards: No other certifying body currently requires this level of digital competence as a formal, pass/fail element of skipper evaluation.
- Support from regulators: NauticEd remains the only U.S.-based sailing and boating education company recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard and NASBLA.
This policy applies to both sailing and powerboat candidates under the SLC license program and represents a further codification of NauticEd’s long-standing commitment to competence-based training.
As maritime environments, tools, and responsibilities evolve, so too must the educational standards that produce seafarers. With this announcement, NauticEd reaffirms its role not only as an innovator in maritime education but as the benchmark for competence and prudence in the 21st century.
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Learn more about NauticEd’s programs and International Licensing at nauticed.org.
About NauticEd
Founded in 2008, NauticEd (shortened from “Nautical Education”) is a global leader in on-water and digital boating education and experiential sailing certification. Through a proprietary blend of eLearning, on-the-water training, and real-world assessments, NauticEd has educated over one hundred thousand students in over 100 countries. NauticEd is the only boating education company formally recognized by the U.S. Coast Guard and NASBLA to meet the stringent American National Standards in boating education.
