Study Guides

A friendly, conceptual introduction to the compass, the cardinal and intercardinal points, directions in degrees, and the idea of a relative bearing, with two free apps to help you study.

A conceptual and historical look at the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, and how Maritime Master OOW includes GMDSS as background study material. This is study reading only, not emergency guidance.

A gentle, conceptual introduction to ECDIS, the Electronic Chart Display and Information System, and how Maritime Master OOW supports your study and revision.

AIS lets vessels share their identity, position and movement so that others can build a fuller picture of nearby traffic. Here is a conceptual guide to the idea, and how the OOW and Radar apps can support your revision.

A conceptual study guide to two classic ways of crossing the ocean: the steady rhumb line and the shorter great circle. Understand why the shortest track is rarely a straight line on the chart, and how to revise the ideas behind it.

A clear, conceptual study guide to set and drift, explaining how a tidal stream can push a boat off track and how a navigator learns to allow for it, with the free Skipper app and CalcDeck for practice.

A clear, conceptual study guide to dead reckoning and estimated position for maritime theory revision, with a look at how the Skipper, OOW and CalcDeck apps support your study of the ideas.

A gentle, conceptual study guide to compass errors, explaining true north, magnetic north, variation and deviation, and how the Skipper, CalcDeck and OOW apps help you revise the ideas step by step.

A beginner friendly introduction to signal flags and the International Code of Signals, and how the free Maritime Master app and Maritime Master OOW can help you learn to recognise them through study and practice.

A learner-friendly look at the Beaufort scale and how reading the sea and sky helps you understand the weather, plus how Maritime Master, Skipper and CalcDeck support your revision.

A study guide to traffic separation schemes, Rule 10 of the COLREGs, and how two Maritime Master apps can help you learn and revise the concept.

Passage planning and pilotage are core ideas in any shorebased course. Here is what they mean at a learner level, and how three Maritime Master apps can support your revision.

Celestial navigation lets mariners find their position using the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. This gentle guide explains the core ideas and shows how CalcDeck helps you practise the working.

A short, practical revision checklist for the season ahead, pairing five maritime theory topics with the Maritime Master apps that help you study each one. For study and learning only.

A practical study guide to preparing for Officer of the Watch written exams and orals, covering little and often revision, drilling recognition, practising calculations, and knowing the regulations, plus how the Maritime Master OOW app supports each part of your revision.

A beginner's roadmap to day skipper shorebased theory. See the main topics a course covers, from chartwork and tides to the COLREGs, buoyage, and weather, and how the free Skipper app helps you practise each one as a study companion.

A gentle, conceptual study guide to marine radar for learners: what a radar picture shows, the ideas behind CPA and TCPA, and what ARPA target tracking is for. Plus how the Maritime Master Radar app lets you practise these concepts on a simulated display.

A friendly learner's guide to the IALA buoyage system. Meet lateral marks, cardinal marks and their link to the compass, and the two regions, then see how the IALA Buoyage app helps you study and test yourself for iPhone and iPad.

A friendly guide to five knots almost every sailor benefits from learning, including the bowline, clove hitch, round turn and two half hitches, figure of eight, and sheet bend, then how the Maritime Master Knots app helps you study them in animated 3D. A learning aid only.

A learner friendly guide to tides: what causes high and low water, how spring and neap tides differ, and how the rule of twelfths estimates the height between them, plus how TideDeck and CalcDeck help you study and plan.