ASA classes around Boston MA

[Zhent]

Good morning!

I'm looking for recommendations on ASA classes in the Boston area - I've done some sailing of small boats when I was younger, but nothing significant and most of that was just clowning around in 420's.

There seem to be a number of companies that offer classes, but difficult to differentiate quality between them without experience.

Is anyone familiar with either Boston Sailing Center or Blackrock Sailing School, to recommend one over the other?

Thanks!

[BostonSailer]

I highly recommend the Piers Park program, https://piersparksailing.org/. Great organization that offers adaptive sailing programs for folks with disabilities. They have a fleet of 23ft Sonars and once your ASA 101 is completed in two weekends, you simply pick times online to check boats out. There's also parking. The last factor is critical in Boston : )

[Zhent]

Thanks - that looks pretty interesting, I'm going to reach out to them.

Do you know if they provide any of the other ASA classes? I'd like to work up to 103/104 in the next few years, getting some experience in the larger hulls while I do so.

[BostonSailer]

They're setting up a navigation class for later this summer, but you'll likely need to get 103/104 from another school. My wife and I are planning on doing a liveaboard class in Antigua in January for ours. Piers Park is the cheapest way to get on the water in decent sized sloops. As you gain experience (and take the navigation class) you can sail out into the islands outside the harbor. The other sailing centers are 2x-3x the money with limitations depending on your level of membership, but they have access to larger boats.