sailing school vacation?

[njcoaster]

Can anyone recommend a sailing school that does a three or four day sailing program? It must meet the following criteria:

- East Coast of U.S. (Florida? Carolinas?)
- Not too terribly expensive (not a deluxe, all inclusive, super fancy resort)
- suitable for basic sailing and maybe coastal cruising training
- Nice and warm!

There are a lot that come up when you do a Google, but I wanted some firsthand advice.

[Steve Paskey]

If a five-day course works for you, I can highly recommend Oriental's School of Sailing in Oriental, NC. See:

www.sailingschooloriental.com/ (http://www.sailingschooloriental.com/)

The school was in the process of changing hands when I was there in Sept. 2000, and the new owners are great, especially head instructor Chris Daniels. Don't know if they've changed the regime, but we had mornings in class learning navigation, knots, and what have you, with the afternoons spent sailing. And they've replaced what was then an admittedly aging fleet with newer boats.

[Alan D. Hyde]

So Steve, what kind of cruising boats do they now have?

Alan

[CptnDon]

Try J-World Annapolis. Excellent reputation. You can go from rank beginner to advanced racing and/or cruising. Rated #1 by Practical Sailor.

[Steve Paskey]

When I was there, they had a 27-foot Ericcson and a 30-foot Pearson. They were older boats -- I think the Ericcson was a mid-70s model -- but they were, ironically, the sort of used fiberglass boats that many folks buy. (Who's got the money for a new cruiser? Cruising World magazine seems to consider $100 grand to be a "bargain" boat.)

There was talk of getting a "late model" C&C in the 30 to 35 foot range, but I'm not sure what they have now.

[ 02-04-2003, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]

[Ariel]

Castle Harbour Sailing School-Miami www.castleharbor.com (http://www.castleharbor.com) & Coconut Grove Sailing Club www.cgsc.org (http://www.cgsc.org) Richard Crisler--crisler@mindspring.com Miami

[Sailman58]

WoodenBoat School has a number of sailing classes but they are all 5 days long. They may also be filled by now but take a look. Temperature can range widely, but I can remember being too damned hot two years ago.
If they ever rerun Ben Fuller's Messing About class don't miss it. We had the use of every small boat in the fleet, plus a couple of Ben's boats.

Ron

[ahp]

I have no recent info but there was the Rhoade (SP?) River Sailing School, somewhere near Gailsville MD that tought cruising. I came across a fleet of them in St Michaels, Maryland once. I think the cruising course was one week.

Many years ago there was an international racing school that gave courses some place on Oslo Fiord in Norway. I believe it was one month.

[Matt Middleton]

I don't have much info, but there's a marina owner around here who does an ASA sailing school. You'd have to call Diamond 99 Marina, in Melbourne, FL, @ (321) 254-1490 and ask for Ed. I know that his overnight courses require some more basic pre-requisite courses, but he might could work with you to suit your needs.

I haven't sailed with him, but have had him do some work on our boat, and he gave us a lot of advise when we were first starting to look for our boat. Really nice guy, and he seems really sharp, too.

(and he only lauged a little at my novice boat handling skills, which caused me to do some entertaining maneuvers leaving his marina one day...)

Good luck!
Matt Middleton

[njcoaster]

Thanks, all. Good leads to follow up on as I daydream about warm weather. We want to go in March, I think, so MD and VA, and ME would be too cold. I think FL is the only spot I could lure my wife to (she's not wild about lessons on knot tying and navigation to begin with).

Thanks again.

[ 02-05-2003, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: njcoaster ]

[James River Rat]

I used to teach at Annapolis Sailing School from 1982 to about 1987. Talk about a a great summer job when I was in school!

Their courses were all weekend or 5 day. You are right it could be a bit nippy that early...but could also be phenomenal weather!!!

One rule we had was to always split up husband and wives on different boats. Worked great! I strongly recommend that you do this.....especially if she is at all reticent about going.

Ric

[Ariel]

I was in a hurry yesterday--Richard Crisler is a friend of mine and I think you would really have a good time and learn a lot about sailing through his instruction--besides I think he is a great guy! crisler@mindspring.com

[Armedmariner]

My wife and I learned to sail in a 3 day basic sailing class at the Annapolis Sailing School in St. Petersburg, FL. You said east coast of US. Drive 3 hours west of the Atlantic in Florida and you're in St. Pete. I still consider this EAST coast.

I can tell you this. Annapolis people were EXCEPTIONAL. We were stunned with how fun it was to sail. They use 24 foot Rainbows with full keels and NO MOTORS. You spend 30% of the time in classroom and the rest on the water. As we finished our "solo" run together, the instructor was in a motorized launch and he came up to us and said, "Ok, head in and we'll finalize your certificates if you can dock properly."

We tacked back toward the entrance and immediately we had two dolphins surface next to us. Those two dolphins followed us all the way into red #1. We were so awestruck by this. Why did these dolphins follow us? Did they do this to communicate some message to us about their own love for the sea? Was it fate or just luck? We don't know the real reason and we never will. But, they did and it is a true story and the instructor witnessed it. He said, "You didn't need to flemish the lines to show off to me. You got the dolphins to do your showing off." We all smiled. Honest, this was one of those incredible moments in life I'll never forget, that was a 10 minute sail under dolphin escort.

You can easily find Annapolis on the web. They are of course headquartered in Annapolis, MD but their St. Pete detachment is really nice little place. St. Pete itself is to the north and this marina is in a small bight of land adjacent to excellent practice waters with good winds. The Rainbows sail great too. Nice little boats. I highly recommend them. Ask for Richard - he's in charge in St. Pete.

Good luck.

Oh, you wanted WARM. I agree with that. Nothing like learning in nice temps. St. Pete is always nice.

By the way, we also used this place to get coastal crusing certified. Their captains are real barefoot cruisers with lots of experience.

[James River Rat]

RE annapolis SS rainbows.

Sparkman and Stephens design, Nice boat. Tough as nails. We used to watch students slide them up the floating docks in Annapolis until the waterline was above the dock.....OUCH!!!

Sails nice too. Like a little breeze, but not real beamy so if you are careful you can get tehm moving in near nothing.

I figure I have spent 1000's of hours sitting on the lazarette hatch coaching hundreds of people how to sail. Loved every minute of it.

Fond memories of my days at Annapolis SS. Thanks Jerry and Cathy Wood! (the owners)

Ric

[Matt J.]

I'll happily and enthusiastically vouch for Annap Sailing School (hate the anacronym, though...). The instructors were all top notch (except one guy who taught weekend courses - Poor Jenny had him her first day and refused to get on a boat with him the second day and got a difft instr who was just simply kinder. she went from terrified of being yelled at again to enjoying her sailingn lessons and learning a lot in 1 day).

We also did a weeklong cruise with them. Both classes were great. Instructors - except the exception who proved the rule - were more patient than anyone I've ever met. "Matt, the jib.. matt, the jib.. matt, the jib.. matt the JIB!." :rolleyes: No one got hurt, and she knew no one would, and she just repeated the instruction til I realised what she said.

Great operation, great teachers, great fun, and great boats. They offered our basic sailing class a free lesson if we could lay her down flat. No chance.

-Matt

[John M]

You may also check out the Maryland Sailing School in Rock Hall, MD. Their site is

http://www.mdschool.com/yachts.htm

I don't know anything about their reputation. I do like those Island Packets, though, even if they're not made out of wood.

John M.

[landlocked sailor]

Viv & I took the 5 day Anapolis Sailing School cours about 6 or 7 years ago. They had a package that included lodging in one of the historic inns in town. We had a great time, really learned how to sail and would recommend it to anyone. We did it in May though.... :cool: Rick