To get someone trained in piloting by eye takes , on average, about five days.
I know because at Coastal Transportation Inc we do it regularly.
We have our own 65’ training boat Curlew, operating on the Salish Sea.
We do it with mates newly minted from ABs. We do it with academy grads. Also, for MMA students working for us over the summer. The instructors are our captains.
The training is simple: travel day after day past islands and reefs and all sorts of traffic with just a compass, paper charts, and binoculars. In fog/night you add the radar. Nothing else. No magenta line.
Take a look at the San Juan islands and Gulf Islands on a chart. That’s one of our training grounds. A complete labyrinth of rocks and strong tidal currents.
At first the trainees freak out. By the end of the first day most begin to calm down. By the fifth day most are proficient.
A fringe benefit: the captain can closely observe the mates he will sail with later on a freighter. There are usually no more than two trainees aboard.
There have been cases where the trainee was terminated because they could not pass the course, the captain having no faith in their navigational abilities.
When you train like this reality intrudes in way it can’t in a simulation. Once, in a dangerous pass called Race Pass, the Curlew’s steering system failed. The crew had to diagnose and fix the issue in minutes. Diagnosis: low battery voltage. Cure: swap out steering batteries with generator batteries. Method: get to work NOW before you run aground. Ten minutes of intense action and a lesson in diagnosing steering problems the trainees will never forget.
They learn very quickly because the back of their brain warns them if they screw up they could die, forcing them to concentrate intensely in a way they never would in a simulation. When you come across the few who are obviously not concentrating ( the talkers) you fire them.
The cure for over reliance on the magenta line exists. In the end it’s simply a financial decision not to make use of it.