Try boating today: Affordable 3-hour courses for beginner and experienced boaters

Affordable learn-to-powerboat courses start today at Edison Sailing Center © Stacey Nedrow-Wigmore/BoatUS

Edison Sailing Center and the national nonprofit BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water make it easy and affordable to learn how to drive a powerboat with a series of hands-on courses for beginner, women and experienced boat operators that start today, July 11, and run Monday and Tuesday mornings and afternoons as well as weekends through the fall. Courses are three hours long and priced at $175. No prior boating experience is necessary.

Classes depart from Edison's 13001 N. Cleveland Avenue location on the Caloosahatchee River in North Fort Myers. All instruction is offered aboard 16- to 18-foot single-engine powerboats, and class size is limited to three students per vessel to ensure each student gets sufficient time at the helm under the watchful eye of a U.S. Coast Guard-licensed captain certified to teach the National Safe Boating Council modular curriculum.

Courses include Introduction to Powerboating, Precision Docking & Boat Handling, Open-Water Boat Handling and Open-Water Advanced Maneuvering. Women Making Waves, an all-women course, can be applied to any of the four modules of instruction. The minimum age to participate is 16 years old. Early registration is encouraged and there is a three-person minimum for courses.

Edison Sailing Center was conceived in 1984 as a way to bring sailing to southwest Florida's young people, and today it maintains 250-plus sail- and powerboats for instruction and racing. The Edison Sailing Center partnership is one of 15 locations across the U.S. with BoatUS Foundation On-Water Training programs. Register at boatus.org/On-Water.