Sailing cert and charter combination in Florida?

[Blue Skye]

Looking for any recommendations for a certification course combined with a 7 day charter in Florida/Bahamas area. Trying to squeeze honeymoon (early dec 08) and certification into one package. Would like to be on a catamaran. Thank you for your help.

[Chuteman]

Florida Yacht Charters & Sales - Sailing School & Instruction

Blue Water Sailing School, ASA Bareboat Certifications, Offshore Sailing, Navigation & Seamanship

Sailing Schools, Catamaran Sailing Schools, Sailing Vacations, Sailing Lessons

[Blue Skye]

Thank you. I have contacted Blue Water, looking for competition so thanks again.

[Chuteman]

Here are the links to the largest Sailing associations where you can find their approved schools. I've been happy with US Sailing but ASA works well too...........depends on school & instructors but the formal association structure helps a lot.

Get Started Sailing!


Learn to sail with American Sailing Association.

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Blue Skye

Looking for any recommendations for a certification course combined with a 7 day charter in Florida/Bahamas area. Trying to squeeze honeymoon (early dec 08) and certification into one package. Would like to be on a catamaran. Thank you for your help.

My wife and I took the A+ course through BWSS. While the training was quite good, I'm not sure it will meet your needs because having a crewed charter is different from taking the courses.

On a crewed charted you are basically a passenger whereas at a decent or better school, you're there to learn. So you need to actually do the basics like tacking, anchoring, navigation and so forth. And you’ll need to study espically if you don't have a great deal of experience.

Just to give you a quick rundown on the route (as I think it's fairly standard) you go from Ft Lauderdale to Miami along the coast, then through Miami and down the ICW to Key Largo and back. Most the nights are at anchorages except Key Largo. There’s a great little tiki bar at the marina. Wind permitting you catch the gulf stream on the way back up.

[Pblais]

US Sail and ASA are the most widely found courses. Both use certified instructors and are widely recognized. One is not much better than the other. It's more about the instructors you actually get than anything else. If you can talk to the instructor first that is what to go buy. Someone that works in the office won't be teaching you anything you need to know.

Many offer live aboard type situations. Doing a whole set of 3 courses in one week to get bare boat certification is offered but I would say without a fair amount of prior experience you won't pass the whole set in a week and have much of a honeymoon. We did the last two together in a one week course and that worked but was still a lot of work.

[Blue Skye]

Thank you for the info. I have pretty much scrapped the idea. BWSS was helpful and convinved me that unless we do 2 weeks we would not enjoy ourselves. BWSS will most likely be where we go for the courses.

Thanks again.

[Hyprdrv]

Skye,
My wife and I just finished a 1 week course with Stephen Cockcroft and his wife in Abacos. I can tell you in a word "Intense". We took 4 courses in the week with winds on the first day at 20 knots and finished up the final 2 days close to 30 knots. This isn't "normal" conditions down there and to be honest I loved every minute of the adventure. Both of us passed all 4 tests and are still married! I studied for 6 months while Cindy went in this with a few weeks and scored better than I did. Teachers pet I figure but this really is a working vacation. Now after 34 years of married bliss we can take a few broad sides, but I don't think I would have tried it after a few days of marriage. I think your doing the wise thing and enjoy your honeymoon.

Steve