Get Your Captain's License: The Complete Study Guide, Second Edition [Paperback]

Charlie Wing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2000

Anyone who takes paying passengers aboard a boat must pass a tough exam to earn a captain's license from the U.S. Coast Guard. This guide:
-- Features all 6,215 Coast Guard questions and answers
-- Includes an interactive CD-ROM for self-testing
-- Leads readers through every required field of mastery, including navigation, seamanship skills and regulations.

Get Your Captain's License, Second Edition is the best possible course in seamanship. This new edition extends the coverage and brings the book into conformity with the Coast Guard's revised Q&A database.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Know you'll pass before you take the exam.

Here's the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to prepare for the U.S. Coast Guard captain's ratings exams required for anyone who takes paying passengers on a boat, and useful for serious boaters who want to save money on insurance. This complete study tool includes:

• The six-passenger "Six-Pack," Master and Mate Inland, Master and Mate Near Coastal, and Sail/Auxiliary Sail Endorsement
• Every question and answer on the Coast Guard exams--all 9,000 of them
• An interactive CD-ROM with all 14,000 questions and answers in the USCG database, so you can take an unlimited number of practice exams

This new edition brings the book up-to-date with the Coast Guard's expanded and revised database of questions and answers, and provides 400 pages of tutorials on seamanship and navigation.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows 95 or later
• 200MHz or higher
• 32MB of RAM
• VGA Monitor
• 2x CD-ROM
• 30MB (minimum) of free disk space
• Mouse or equivalent pointing device

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Charlie Wing received his Ph.D. in oceanography from MIT. Wing lived aboard a cruising sailboat for six years, during which he obtained his U.S. Coast Guard Captain's license. His frustration with available study guides for the Coast Guard exams led him to create International Marine's bestselling Get Your Captain's License. He is also the author of four other International Marine books, including Boatowner's Illustrated Handbook of Wiring and How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide.

Dr. Jim Austin, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served as navigator on a navy destroyer. He has taught Coast Guard license courses for many years. He is an instructor for the Ocean Navigator School of Seamanship and writes Rules of the Road newsletters for the Ocean Navigator Web site.

PEARSoft Corporation, creator of Get Your Captain's License AutoExam software, offers a number of test preparation products based on their AutoExam software engine; see them at www.pearsoft.com. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2nd edition (April 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071358196
• ISBN-13: 978-0071358194
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,275,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charlie Wing, an acknowledged authority on home building and remodeling, specializes in translating technical information into layman's terms. He founded the Shelter Institute, the nation's first owner-builder school. He has been the host and writer of a national PBS TV series about remodeling and is the author of 14 home-related books, including How Your House Works. He lives in West Bath, Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You'll need more than this book., December 16, 1999

By 

Chuck Fort (Central Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Your Captain's License (Paperback)

This book is frustrating because the learning consists of taking tests. There is not enough how to information. Also, the cd is supposed to randomly search the database and give a new test each time. However, after many practice tests I found that the cd did not access all the questions. Only because I also went through the written questions did I discover this. If you don't know this, you will not see all of the questions and you may need them all. On the plus side, the diagrams are what you will see in the real tests and the rules of the road are in the back of the book. I think it is very useful for drilling, not learning. This book should be considered a supplement. I recommend The Coast Guard License by Budd Gonder along with Chapman's and Dutton's for learning, and this book for practicing

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Study Tool, May 30, 2001

By 

Randy (Kaneohe, HI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Your Captain's License: The Complete Study Guide, Second Edition (Paperback)

I recently used this book to help me pass my Unlimited Master's Exam. I wholeheartedly recommend it as a study guide and as a drilling tool. I did not have access to the CD-ROM and only used the Questions and Answers Sections. I agree with other reviewers in that you must already have advanced knowledge in the subject areas to get the maximum out of this book. I like the fact that all the questions and answers are in one book and that the price is quite cheap compared to "Murphy's" 6 volumes and ... price tag. I would also recommend "Formulae for the Mariner" and getting a 1981 Nautical Almanac from the start to study with.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Start, January 7, 2003

By 

Chip Lohman (Woodbridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Get Your Captain's License: The Complete Study Guide, Second Edition (Paperback)

No single text is going to allow you to ace the test, but this should be one of the ones you use. This is the second edition and supposedly updated as of 2000. While much of the information is available on the Coast Guard web site, Wing does a good job of "packaging it" to make it much more readable. I found the light and signal summaries worth the price of the book. Without these two summaries, memorization of the many, many lights and signals would be much harder. Another plus is a "plain english" version as well as the original rules - much more readable and easier to learn.