Newbie here, Sailing School Question

[meatservo]

Originally Posted by OldFrog75

I used to Sky Dive. It has some value here. When you Sky Dive you typically have about 50 seconds to save your life (much less if your main fails and you have to deploy your reserve). Boats move a lot slower so with the possible exceptions of rigging failure, hull breach, or a fire you generally have much more time to make critical decisions but those decisions need to be second nature. That comes with experience.

D-8357 Here!

[KISS]

Originally Posted by TomAndLee

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

My husband and I have recently inquired about taking a 7 day sailing course for ASA 101, 103 and 104. Two of the schools quoted us prices very similar and the third was $2000 more. The third one comes highly recommended but I'm having trouble justifying the drastic difference in cost. All three have great public reviews. How do you know which sailing school to choose? We don't want to waste our money but then again do you get what you pay for? The sailing schools are in Florida so we will also be paying for airfare.

Is it too much to do all three courses in a week? We both catch on to things very quickly and know how to pay attention

I'm a newbie too, planning to do the same thing: 101, 103, 104.

Doing them all at once is cheaper, and I think 7 consecutive days of training are probably better than 7 days broken up, as far as getting a feel for the cruising experience.

Can't recommend a school, though.

Good luck

[Vronsky]

Originally Posted by chuckr

.... headed to the black sea

Please keep all of us here posted on your adventures there

THANKS,
V.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by KISS

I'm a newbie too, planning to do the same thing: 101, 103, 104.

Doing them all at once is cheaper, and I think 7 consecutive days of training are probably better than 7 days broken up, as far as getting a feel for the cruising experience.

Can't recommend a school, though.

Good luck

Having done them I disagree -- you brain can only absorb so much and it takes some time to process the information -

We did not do all of them at one time and on purpose -- when we did the 103/4 our instructor complimented us on doing 101 first as we had a bit of a basis and he said when he taught all 3 at once the students really did not get all out of if as they should have

your money your choice -

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Vronsky

Please keep all of us here posted on your adventures there

THANKS,
V.

We'll try - but is a bash north and the Dardanelles is quite a lovely little passage - currents at between 2.5-4k and more big ship than you can count - thank you AIS for we can dodgem and we are only 1/3 of the way up - boy are we burning diesel - engine at 3k for a lot of hours just trying to keep her over 5k - and whirl pools and eddies everywhere - every interesting - and had big south winds last couple of days so wind against current could make it a bit bumpy but we are old so we are sitting - will probably leave on lite south winds before northerly set back in to get to the Marmaras -

[LTDsailing]

This is all good advise. The more time on the water you can get - the better. I would tell you that we have a lot of success with teaching 101, 103 & 104 in a week - but it really does all depend on the instructors. One other thought for you - if your goal is to cruise in the Caribbean - taking a class in the Caribbean seems like a good idea. It would give you a good taste of what the life is like also.

Best of luck with your sail training - learning to sail will open up a whole new world for you! Enjoy.

[briblack]

I definitely support the idea of learning to sail in a boat 14' long or less (trailerable). I think it's the best way to get the feel of sailing, sail trim, rudder, leeway, etc. It really is harder to learn in a bigger boat/bigger group. When the time comes it's easy to transition to bigger. Lots to learn there too.

[TomAndLee]

Originally Posted by LTDsailing

This is all good advise. The more time on the water you can get - the better. I would tell you that we have a lot of success with teaching 101, 103 & 104 in a week - but it really does all depend on the instructors. One other thought for you - if your goal is to cruise in the Caribbean - taking a class in the Caribbean seems like a good idea. It would give you a good taste of what the life is like also.

Best of luck with your sail training - learning to sail will open up a whole new world for you! Enjoy.

I have looked at your website as you have come recommended from a few people's blogs I follow. I am concerned about doing it all at once and was wondering more about the ten day option. I would love more information from you all if you could email me at leeanna512@gmail.com.


Thank you every one for all of your replies. You have given us much to think about and depending on what LTD says we are thinking about doing our 101 close to home. I don't know why the prices in Austin are so much more than a couple hours south, looking in to that. Thanks again!

[LTDsailing]

Leeanna - sorry for the delay in getting back to you! I don't always check Cruisers Forum and just saw your response!!! I just sent you an email - thank you for your interest in our sailing program!

Guess I better spend more time on CF!

[ChrisA]

Hello, another first-time poster here. Even though I'm a newbie on this site, I was in your shoes a couple years back, so figured I'd share my experience. I'd shopped around several "101-104 in a week" options, and ended up going with school which was local to me (New England), with the three courses spread across several weeks. Factors in my decision:

- Time on the water: Taking the classes separately gave me 8 days on the water vs 7 in a package course, but the school I went to also threw in a two additional half-days on a 101 boat to help practice my skills, which helped a lot going into the 103.

- Time to absorb the material: Each course comes with a book you're supposed to have read before the class (thought it was clear not all students followed that advice). I tried to front-load all the reading, but I found it hard to absorb the more advanced material until I'd had some hands-on experience. Spacing the courses out a bit gave me time to let everything "sink in".

- Cost: Even without factoring in travel time & expense, the "all in one" courses I'd looked at were comparable.

- Location: for me, the option of going with a school in my region rather than an airline flight away was a big factor. There's also a benefit in practicing in the area where you hope to eventually sail. I found that, after sailing in some NE weather, the BVI was a piece of cake, but YMMV.

- Instructor personality: When I spoke with the the owner of the local school, his personality just "clicked" with me, and that personality carried through to his instructors.

- Student personality: I've read a few horror stories about people getting paired with "characters" during their week long courses. Regardless of how good the instructor is, your fellow students can make or break a class. I expect the risk is low (sailing students tend to be cool people!), but by spreading out the courses I figured I was at least limiting my exposure to difficult personalities. In my case, we did have one somewhat demanding fellow student in one class; he was handled well by the instructor, but I was glad I didn't have to share a boat with him for a week.


Please don't read any of that as a recommendation to avoid a week-long course, but I do like another poster's suggestion to at least try the 101 locally first before deciding on where to take the 103/104. Even if you do end up taking them back to back later on, I think you'll enjoy it all the more with some sailing time under your belt.

Best of luck,
Chris

[Cool Hand Luke]

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents...

If you're going to FLY and spend money on airfare and the full shebang (101, 103, and 104), then why not do it in the waters that you'll be chartering in?

If you want to charter in the Caribbean, I would say... learn in the Caribbean

ASA and Sunsail have courses where you can mix the course with a vacation... 2 for the price of 1! And, you get to learn in waters where you will literally be on your own when you charter.

See:

British Virgin Islands ASA 101/103/104 Sailing Course | Sunsail USA

https://asa.com/schools/international/