Testimonials

The overwhelming responses from our students were very positive. Adding the BoatHowTo content to our electrical curriculum really helped us get the students a leg up on understanding the core concepts of marine electrical. I feel it especially helped our younger students learn the material in a way that was more familiar to them. The way I used the modules was to assign them as homework before discussing the same topics in our classroom lectures. I noticed an increase in the comprehension of the topics and had less questions from the class during lectures which I would take as a good thing! I feel confident that adding the BoatHowTo content really helps our school produce a higher level technician entering the field.

Thanks for all your hard work and creating such great content!

My wife and I are halfway through the course and loving every minute of it. Well put together, paced nicely and instructions in easy to understand, not too technical language.

Looking forward to finishing and getting onto some of the subsequent free updates you have forwarded.

Thank you for these courses. I'm a new member to the site, and am making my way through the 101 class now, and I am thoroughly delighted. Smashing job of presenting the material and making it engaging. I have learned from and been entertained by every lesson so far, and I look forward to the next one each time. I'm SO glad I found you!

Boat Electrics 101 helped me understand how to plan an upgrade to the energy system of our Moody 44 "High Flight". Thanks to Jan's great explanations, I am now confident to have a plan forward and make the the right choices when I will be sizing the new battery bank and upgrading the old alternator with a modern B2B charger.

Perhaps some might say the course isn’t particularly cheap but I would argue the cost versus the excellent work that has been done in the creation of the course and in my view at least, it’s excellent value for money. It is also a reminder that there are things we may think we know, until you complete the course you may well find there are things you didn’t know or had assumed differently.

So thanks for all your hard work and I do hope that many will learn better and safer ways and take a much closer look and inspection of their own electrical systems. I certainly have. There is a great deal of information to absorb and I have no doubt I will be returning again and again to re-read various sections of the course.

I’m glad for taking this course at BoatHowto, I'm still in the middle of the lessons, very interesting and challenging at the same time! I'll stay tuned. Jan & Nigel show knowledge and passion for what they do with high proficiency and enthusiasm! The content is well done /explained and rich of details , a little fast in some points (for me) but there is always the possibility to go back and re-watch again !

I learned quite a bit and it helped me to rewire some of my electrical on my boat to meet ABYC standards. The teachers are very clear and precise on the presentation. All subjects were easily understood. The lessons are presented in a well understood form.

The Boat Electrics 101 course is a fantastic resource for beginners like myself who know little about electricity and even less about boats electrical systems. Clearly expressed and illustrated, the course is full of practical information presented in a way that makes boat electrical systems understandable. Thank you for putting it together.

Thank you SO MUCH for these courses. My husband and I bought our first ever boat two years ago and have officially made it our new home as of two months ago. It's a 1982 Hardin 45... A LOT of boat for new sailors! The electrical system is riddled with residential cable, wire nuts, and electrical tape. We don't know much about marine systems, but we KNOW that's not right OR safe. So we're prepping to basically rewire the entire system.

I have Nigel's book, and it's awesome, but I am much more a visual learner. I've only gone through the first module and already understand so much more than I did when my husband tried to explain the basic concepts to me. He was excited when I told him everything I've learned and announced that he can be the mechanic and I'll be the electrician. One less thing for him to worry about.

I'm confident that by the time I finish both courses, I will be able to handle rewiring our floating home and anything that comes up with the system as we live the boat life!

Appreciate the time and effort the three of you put into helping people like me understand what's happening behind that control panel 😊

I want to let you know how impressed I was with the BoatHowTo course!!
Having purchased a new to me Island Packet 350 this year, I was overwhelmed with all electrical systems on the boat!
Modern cursing boats have become very complex and I was lost!
Having taken your Boat Electrics 101 course I now understand all the electrical systems and how everything works together.
From the very basics, through creating a detailed circuit diagrams of the electrical systems on my boat, my knowledge is years ahead of where I thought it would be at this point.
Thanks for a wonderful, extremely useful (and fun) course that takes a lot of the mystery out of sailboat electrical systems!!

Your courses are really nicely rounding off my knowledge of boats, and it is greatly appreciated. I talk to boat owners often and pretty much always recommend Nigel's book, buying a good electrical meter and reading about how to use it, as well as taking your courses. You guys do a great job explaining and getting right to the point. Thank you so much.

BoatRx just signed up our newest hire for Boat Electrics 101! He's brand new to the marine industry and starting from scratch with zero experience in electrical and all things boats. We're so glad you guys are building this.

I’m actually a Refrigeration Technician by trade and Marine Engineer for last 20 years, but it's good to do the refresher courses. They are fun and I have certainly picked new stuff up. I never say I know everything, always open to learn and the think tank in BoatHowTo is well worth tapping into!

I must tell you that after a 50 year career as an aircraft maintenance engineer with considerable electrical training and experience, I have learned so much from Nigel and Jan about marine electronics that I have made your material mandatory study material for everyone that works for me in my boatyard (my retirement project – loving it!)

Wow, what an outstanding course – thank you so much. I intensively studied each lesson, took notes (frequently pausing the video to do so), read and made sure I fully understood the lecture notes and then likewise all comments. The entire course took me about 6 full days to complete. In my own case I have owned a 30 year old Swedish boat (Najad) for the past 10 years. It has both 12V and 24V house systems, with two alternators. I got the batteries replaced about 8 years ago (with Victron AGM) but am now looking to upgrade the electrics in numerous ways, and obviously to audit and rectify any OCP or other shortcomings. New batteries will obviously be needed shortly but I also want to add solar. But mainly I want to either get rid of the 12V bank (and use DC-DC converters for the 12V house load) or add 12V-24V-B2B charging both for redundancy and to use full capacity of both 12V and 24V alternators and shore power battery chargers. I now feel empowered to research and undertake this work on my own. Thanks again.

The course was really well put together, and in a way that each lesson built you up for the next. I see myself using it for reference for some time to come. The teachers Jan and Nigel are great instructors. The information was presented in a clear logical way that made it easy to progress through.

The Boat Electrics 101 course provides essential information and knowledge in an easy-to-consume format; the Advanced course takes it several steps further. Together, the two courses give the viewer an excellent, cohesive understanding of how the elements of a boat electrical system tie together . Combine that with Nigel’s Boatowner’s Manual for the details and you will be much less likely to make costly and potentially dangerous mistakes. I recommend BoatHowTo any chance I get and consider it an essential investment for anyone who is about to tackle the electrical system on their boat. After a slight learning curve with Jan’s accent it became the Pavlovian bell that put me in BE 101 absorption mode 🤓. The presentation is well structured and illustrated . It is delivered at a manageable pace that isn’t tediously slow.

Well done Jan and Nigel!

The internet is a sea of misinformation for the unwary, so your courses and information are just gold knowing they come from such qualified and experienced people like yourselves.

Great! I teach full, 9 month electrical courses at a community college (Skagit Valley College, Anacortes, WA). Also, I teach weekend short courses on electricity. Anytime students want more, I steer them to your site - the best online electrical course I've seen! The teachers are knowledgeable, and very well organized. You start from the basics and progress at a perfect pace! The presentations are very professionally done. Organization of topics is great with illustrations and a comment section.

Jan and Nigel truly nailed it with this course. With Nigel Calder on the technical committee developing
safety standards for the American Boat and Yacht Council and Jan's expertise as a technical writer for
multiple publications, you couldn’t ask for more qualified instructors.

As ABYC certified marine electrical instructors who specialize in training sailors aspiring to go offshore,
our philosophy is rooted in 'success through practical preparation'. Boathowto's curriculum delivers
incredible value, featuring comprehensive and well-organized lessons enhanced by technically precise
animations and diagrams. It covers everything from basic principles to advanced troubleshooting
techniques. With even more added value in bonus content!

The self-paced learning format is a game changer, allowing learners to tailor their educational
experience to fit their individual schedules and lifestyles. The depth of content provided fresh insights,
even for those of us with professional training. If you’re serious about mastering boat electrics, this is
the course for you! I can't recommend Boathowto enough!

The pace and the way the course builds up chapter by chapter is well designed and leads to understanding of what initially seem to be complex. Not only did I learn a great deal but enjoyed the course. Jan and Nigel are approachable, and supportive of questions offline. Great to work with.

watching this brought back happy memories of being taught something interesting by a good teacher at school – I’d forgotten that there were any positive aspects to being at school, so thanks for that 😉

Thank you all for a brilliant course, well constructed and presented and definitely value for money. I have a 47′ 1986 yacht to re-wire, with all new modern devices and this time last year I was a complete novice with no understanding of any kind of electrics – let alone Marine. I have spent 12 months learning online, and the more I learnt, the more questions I had. This course (and the prompt and detailed responses to my comments) has answered those questions and given me the confidence to install the DC system later this year. I will need to go back and revise, but this is a fantastic reference resource too. I also have Nigel’s book and Kindle version so I won’t be alone. Having spent a year searching for information and answers I can say with certainty that this site and its course are unique, and will make a lot of us ‘amateurs’ and our loved ones a lot safer – and that is very important. Now got plenty of calculating and circuit diagrams to do – and on to the Advanced course. See you there!

Having access to up-to-date materials on Boat Electrics is very handy for someone who deals with small boat design, like me. The best part of the whole course is that it actually isn't only a course, but it is an evolving learning platform.

Just a note to say how terrific the Boat Electrics 101 course is. It is very comprehensive. It has empowered me to refit my 1976 Westsail 32 original electrical system. Though I am outsourcing some of the work, the course has given me the knowledge to make better choices, do my portion of the project, and have a smart conversation with the contractors. Thanks for all your hard work and keep it up!

Thank you Jan & Nigel for passing on your life experience and wisdom. I believe this may have saved me thousands of dollars and many frustrations and headaches. [...] I have already sent a couple of others to your site. The more who know the better.

This would've saved me hours of trying to figure out what the best approach is for various parts of the power setup on our Tayana 37. More importantly though, this course has given me the confidence to know that I am doing it 'right' from the start.

I've made a lot of mistakes in the past that cost me time and money, even putting the boat at risk unknowingly.

The content of Boat Electrics 101 is clear and easy to navigate. And Jan presents the content in an easy to follow (and even entertaining!) way.

I've noticed I feel less anxious, knowing better how things work and how to fix them myself. So save your time, money and stress! Invest in knowledge that will pay you back again an again as you cruise.