This thread scared the bejebus out of me, since I only saw it until after I booked on!
We ended up sailing with blue
oyster in Costa Brava, and had a thoroughly good time, though there were a few rough edges. In the past, I have had experience with a number of other sailing schools (Menorca sailing, Faro sailing, Atlantic Sailing), and found Blue Oyster perfectly fine. Since I had a wee bit of experience, they gave us a yacht master instructor (freelance), who was very good.
There were some lapses in customer
service levels, which is typical for your husband/wife team outfits. Not excusing that. I don't like that you can't pay using a credit card (with the buyer protection that comes with it), and I particularly dislike being asked to clean a
boat at the end of the week. But we were in Costa Brava, which is an expensive part of the world to
charter a
boat, and we got a weeks sailing at a very good
price (for the region), with a very good instructor. We swapped to a smaller boat on the last day, so that we could practice manoeuvring in the marina, which was a nice touch.
Saw some fasttrack yachmaster guys, but didn't get a chance to ask them about their experience. Fast track guys usually have something to complain about though :-)
These guys really have to sort out their social media presence!
Dan