Sailing Lessons
 

Hi, <BR> <BR>My wife and I want to focus our trip around sailing lessons. Can anyone recommend a good course/lesson package? <BR> <BR>Thanks.

Hi George, <BR> <BR>My daydreams usually involve sailing around the islands, as it is one of my favorite things to do. Alot depends on how involved you want to get--just a couple of day lessons, or do you want to become certified to bareboat charter? I would check out the American Sailing Association website for some tips, and www.seadogsailing.com is where I learned to sail--we had an awesome "learning" trip to the BVI's a few years ago. <BR> <BR>Have fun!

Not sure if this is what you are looking for but you could look into the Moorings. It is a company out of the Caribbean and Florida that rents boats - CATS, etc... you can get them crewed or not and beleive that if you get it crewed you can go with others or just the two or you and they can actually teach you to sail. They have many different routes going to some wonderful places, does not appear to be overly expensive and included food.

Sea Dog Sailing is just the kind of thing we're looking for. THEN we can do Moorings. <BR> <BR>Thanks to you both. <BR> <BR>

Annapolis Sailing School has a base in St. Croix where they offer a number of courses. I am alum of one of their Annapolis courses, and can assure you that the instruction is first-rate; one of my colleagues took a St. Croix course and loved it as well. <BR> <BR>Also, I think that Bitter End Yacht Club (www.beyc.com) also has a number of instructional programs, in the spectacular setting of Virgin Gorda's North Sound (the resort is awfully nice, too).

Hi - You might want to check out Offshore Sailing School. I believe they have sailing programs in a number of places. I haven't participated myself but have heard they offer good training. Good luck!

These suggestions have been terrific. <BR> <BR>It seems that schools offer one of two types of certification. What's the difference between American Sailing Association (ASA) certification and US Sailing Association certification?

Hi again George, <BR> <BR>I can't really comment on what the US Sailing Association certification is, because we were ASA certified, but this is my general feeling: in order to bareboat charter, the charter company typically looks at your "sailing resume", and decides to charter a boat to you based on that. So I think in general, it is experience that counts, and not necessary what technical schooling you have (since there are many people out there that have never been officially certified but have resumes a mile long and charter boats.) I also think it helps to have connections in the sport. For example, if you belong to a local sailing club, perhaps they have deals or special connections to certain charter companies and that is another way to get a good charter deal. <BR> <BR>My husband and I took ASA Basic Keelboat in San Diego (weekend course) and did our ASA Coastal Cruising and Bareboat Chartering while aboard the Sea Dog Sailing trip in the BVI's in the fall of 2000. After that, we felt confident enough to bareboat charter on our own with four non-sailing friends in the BVI's last May. The same charter company that Sea Dog Sailing used rented the boat to us in May--so our connection helped us (considering our sailing resume is still pretty darn short!) <BR> <BR>I should add that your question sparked my curiosity and so I looked at the Sea Dog Sailing website again yesterday, and it appears that the Captains are two new folks (ours were Bob and Lana) so I'm not sure if that means the company changed hands or what...but our experience with them was very professional and a great time! <BR> <BR>You just can't beat the romance of sailing around turqoise waters. Your wife and you will have a blast! Good luck and let us know what you end up deciding!