Any Experiences with Jolly Parrot sailing school in Gibraltar?

[monkeymayi]

Howdy!

I'm thinking of taking some courses with Jolly Parrot.

Jolly Parrot Sailing - Gibraltar : Jolly Parrot Sailing

Any one have any experiences with these folks?

Google turned up Nada when looking for reviews.

Thanks!

[cainiao]

I haven't sailed with them, but I did see them quite a bit during a 7 week course with Allabroad (avoid them!). Their boats looked nice and their students seemed happy. No idea beyond that. Gibraltar was a pretty cool place to learn to sail - lots of traffic, good wind, and pretty much guaranteed dolphins.

If I had to do it over again, I'd try Faro Sailing school in Portugal: Faro Sailing School - Home Peter Lightfoot was my examiner for the yachtmaster exam and was very thorough/competent but also clearly a good guy as well who I think would make a great instructor. Made me wish I had learned with him from the beginning.

There was also a Tarifa sailing school I saw which had students on Salona 'racing' style boats - made me a bit jealous compared to our Bavarias. To be honest though - its really all about the instructor and not the boat.

[raesmith100]

I sailed with JollyParrot a long time ago, I was just browsing the web to see how they were getting on, when I saw this review, Unanswered.

I have to say that I booked a course in Gib and it was the start of my sailing exploits! Even though I have sailed many times, become a Yachtmaster and even done the fastnet race years after the course, I still wouldn't mind a week on board with these guys, Clive is the best teacher I have come across.

10 out of 10 from me.

[samjam48]

I sailed with them recently. (September 2016)

I enjoyed my time with the rest of the crew but the experience overall was wierd and I wouldn't choose them again.

The boat was small and had too many crew members for our course which made it difficult for us to all get enough time to learn different procedures and some things I never had the chance to do.

Our instructor was lovely if not a bit random but tbh I would very much enjoy sailing with him again. The owners of Jolly Parrot, however were wierd. They creeped me out and didn't make me feel welcome to join them for a drink which seemed to be all they did. Furthermore, one of the other members of my crew came back later saying the owner had propositioned her for sex, I'm pretty sure there was some miscommunication as her english wasn't perfect, but either way she said he was very handsy and freaked her out.

We did not get a chance to go all the places we wanted to as we had to come back a day early for a photoshoot for the company which was unorganised and mainly had us sailing around in circles trying to work out what was going on.

They claimed to be flexible with dietary requirements and then when i told them I was a vegan said that they couldn't accommodate something like that and didn't offer me a refund on food budget to go and by my own food. They then purchased me normal veggie food such as quiche and cheese which wouldn't want to eat . They did also buy me extra salad which was nice and make a good veggie Bean Chilli for the night sailing voyage.

In summary, a week sailing in a nice place is never going to be awful so there was a lot of nice parts but overall the experience was not great and I'd go with someone else.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, samjam, and raesmith.

[Stixtess]

Maybe not so relevant now, as it's a post from last year, but I notice there is a recent post about Jolly Parrot Sailing school so thought I'd give my opinion...

I had no sailing knowledge/experience before I learnt with them and as a middle aged women going out to Gibraltar on my own with a bunch of people I had never met, I was understandably nervous. I needn't have been worried - they were utterly brilliant and Clive, the owner, put me at ease as soon as I arrived.

I've sailed with them many times and cannot fault them. Clive is the best instructor I have come across. In saying that, all the instructors I have experienced at Jolly Parrot are brilliant.

I have done my Comp Crew and Day Skipper as well as other courses to boost my confidence. They have a relaxed, fun way of teaching which really put me at ease. I have tried a couple of other sailing schools in the Solent - one of which was awful and I was in tears most of the time because the instructor shouted at me and made me feel stupid!

I cannot recommend them highly enough. I'm looking forward to doing my next sailing qualification with them.

[SkipperReza]

Jolly Parrot. NOTHING JOLLY ABOUT IT!
STAY AWAY!!!! I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS TO ANY SAILING ENTHUSIAST!!!!
I did my day skipper course with them and I was shocked to see how poor the quality the course is for 1.5K that I spent on it.
This company is only interested in money! But not actually giving you anything for it!

Let me give you my true and real experience:
When I arrived to Gibraltar on the Sunday, I rang to put my bags in their storage room (Which was mixed with all the engine parts). I have not met any member of the school, just the lady on the phone and been told the meeting point would be 4pm at the lounge bar and people would be around at that time.

I was there by 4pm, no one came. I waited until surprisingly 9:30pm. Which I met a few of the course students by asking each other “Are you here for the course”. Nobody knew what was happening. So we introduced ourselves to each other. It is very annoying that no one had come to even say hello to us.
At 9:30pm a man working at the bar wore a jolly parrot T-shirt, so we knew he worked for them. There was no introduction or welcome as you would expect. Because this course is all about the fun but we all started with a question of “Am I in the right boat?”

There was 5 of us in the small Jolly Parrot boat including the skipper. The boat only had 4 cabins. So I was already unlucky and ended up sleeping on the dirty sofa bed for 1 week. There is no curtain for the windows so I ended up waking every day early.

The food provided was just okay. I can’t give any trophies for it. You will get 1 old towel and 1 set of bedding for the whole week. (If you can get one.) and you have got to ask for a sleeping bag. The wetsuits are very old and dated (it also smelled).

But I would give a big thumbs to Alister who deserves a much better school than this jolly parrot. I enjoyed learning from him even though losing many hours of sleep on that boat.

After a week of doing competent crew we moved onto a slightly bigger boat. Guess what… I end up sleeping on the sofa again because the cabins were taken by the others quickly.

THE THEORY of the course had started, I have already told the admin on emails and over the phone that I am not a native English speaker so I might need a little extra help on the theory, to which she confirmed I would get. BUT I DIDN’T GET ANY HELP! Plus they will take your chart away from you so they can use it again. Because I paid for that chart and they took it away.
The teacher on the theory test class was overcrowded and was the worst part of this course. We had a lady and some elderly man.

The teacher had very bad manners, using language such as cursing and an aggressive manner such as using the F-word all the time. I felt embarrassed because there was a lady sitting behind me and the older gentleman.
The teacher was drunk every single night and you would see how his face was tired and puffy in the morning while he was teaching us. He even wore the same t-shirt and shorts throughout the days he was teaching theory.
I failed on 2 parts of the course because of the lack of my reading capability and received no help like promised.

Sadly I had been informed he will teach us practical stay with him in the same boat for the next 5 days. Again he would use bad language like saying the f-word at the boat and he snored very loud at night. Guess what? He’s drunk every single night again.

I couldn’t cope with this so I asked to be moved out the first day to a smaller boat and he told me he will speak with Clive. I moved to the old boat with a much better mannered instructor who had much more knowledge in how to teach people. I think he is too high class for Jolly Parrots quality.

I was back to the sofa bed again! But at least this time with a much better environment. At the end, I failed the course in 2 categories. Because I was very passionate to become a skipper and this tall man wouldn’t be a big enough stone in my way to stop me, he couldn’t stop my determination.
I searched for help to start another school straight away (the next day). The money was no problem so I had to pay for an extra course and I was very lucky to find a very high class school in Marbella Spain. I was given accommodation and nice towels and a privet cabin straight away at the boat which was very new, I believe it was the newest school boat in the whole of Gibraltar and Spain. He even gave out school t-shirts to match the rest of the team. Very professional. I will go back to do my coastal skipper with him in a few months.

He took a lot of time and patience to teach me navigation and passages. But Jolly Parrot didn’t give me any extra help. And now I’ve passed my day skipper course and I am seeking to buy my own dreamboat!
My advice to anyone looking to become a skipper do a lot of homework before wasting your money with Jolly Parrots.

All these words above are true and my sole experience with this Jolly Parrots. I have all the images of the boats, and the quality of the service. I will sh