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ASA 103: Coastal Cruising
The first cruising-boat certification: auxiliary power, day passages, moderate conditions.
Moves the sailor toward handling larger cruising yachts in coastal waters.
Typical development includes:
- Who it suits
- ASA 101 holders moving up to boats with an engine and a cabin.
- What it is not
- Not a bareboat qualification on its own — that is ASA 104.
Other American Sailing courses
ASA 101: Keelboat 1
American Sailing’s entry certification, on a small keelboat in moderate conditions.
ASA 102: Keelboat 2
The bridge between ASA 101 and cruising boats with an engine.
ASA 104: Bareboat Cruising
The ASA charter certification, and the one charter companies recognise.
ASA 105: Coastal Navigation
The shorebased navigation certification: charts, plotting, tides, passage planning.
ASA 106: Advanced Coastal Cruising
Skippering coastal and offshore passages, day and night, in whatever arrives.
ASA 107: Celestial Navigation
Sextant work: sight taking, sight reduction, fixing a position without electronics.
ASA 108: Offshore Passagemaking
The top of the ASA cruising pathway: extended offshore passages and real self-sufficiency.
ASA 110: Basic Small Boat Sailing
The small-boat entry point, below the keelboat pathway.
Which course should you actually book?
Three questions — your experience, the boat you want to sail, and your goal — give you a starting course and the schools that teach it near you.