Boating Skills Class—

Father And Son

Together In The Classroom

By Susan Coney

Newtown resident Rich Tortora and his 11-year-old son David recently obtained their personal watercraft operators certificate by completing an intensive one-day workshop offered at Naugatuck Valley Community College. The course covered basic boating skills and safety techniques designed to enable residents to obtain Connecticut certification that is required to operate a personal watercraft in state waters. The course is approved by the United States Coast Guard.

David, who will be a sixth grader at St Rose School this fall, said that he was the youngest person in the class of about 25 people. “The class was easier than I thought it would be. At first I was nervous, but the instructor was really great and had a slide show to help. We learned a lot like the names of the different parts of the boat and the different buoys and flags and what they mean. We also learned how to anchor a boat properly and all about the different types of floatation devices and how to use them,” David said.

He went on to say that he would recommend the course to any family whose is thinking about getting a boat. “It was my dad’s idea to take the class together,” he said.

Mr Tortora said that the family had been talking about getting a boat. “I’d had two boats previously and was over my boating phase, but now that I have an 11-year-old, I thought he’d be interested in boating. I wanted to get my boating license in case I wanted to drive a friend’s boat. I saw the course offered at Naugatuck Valley Community College and called to see if my son could attend as well. We took the all-day course and the Connecticut boat and personal watercraft license test offered at the end of the class. I was so proud that David scored better than I did. David missed one to my three,” Mr Tortora said.

David went on to say that the test was a 60-question multiple choice test and they received immediate feedback on how they had scored. David commented that the instructor chuckled that he had outscored his dad on the test. David went on to say that he enjoyed the course, learned a lot, and had a great time spending the day with his dad.