Offering boating safety courses is a traditional civic service of the United States Power Squadrons. For over half-a-century, KSPS has offered public courses to anyone who wished to attend. To date thousands of residents of Southwest Michigan have taken boating courses. KSPS also offers member-only courses.
Currently KSPS offer Americas' Boating Course, (formerly Boat Smart) a course designed to cover topics useful to the angler in an outboard, or to the skipper of a large cruiser or sailboat, as well as those operating Personal Water Craft PWC or wave runners.
Successful completion qualifies you for a discount on boat insurance rates from most insurance companies and membership in USPS and KSPS.
There is also available a home-study version available.
A special DNR boating course for youth ages 12 to 16 is offered in Kalamazoo at the same time as the adult class. DNR = Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources
The Experienced Boater program recognizes that many experienced boaters have already mastered the fundamentals of safe boating. Therefore, the KSPS is making available to experienced boaters the opportunity to demonstrate their qualification for membership through a skills evaluation process. For more information, please contact our Squadron Education Officer: Wally Corder(269) 321-0751
A series of short guides on a wide variety of subjects of interest to boaters are also available; these are known as USPS Guides. Some Guides are also available to the public at various marine supply stores and book stores. These items may be used in USPS® classroom courses and seminars or for home study.
USPS is preparing a series of short seminars open to the public on a variety of topics of interest to today's boating public.
Public Boating Courses
Kalamazoo Sail & Power Squadron is a unit of the
a nationwide non-profit organization of boating enthusiasts.