"discovery flight" - sailing training..."certification" or not

[skyhawk]

sort of paralleled to the "learning to sail is important" thread

I'm toying with the idea of taking a sailing class
and toying with inviting my DW to come along as a couples activity

there are three schools I'm finding geographically convenient

one is an ASA certification schools and is in a marina on the ICW and near the St Augustine inlet

another one is an ASA school/club on the Saint Johns river

and the other is definitely not a "formal certification. seems to be 1on1, and all on the boat...in the river, but I can't tell what sort of boat it would be

I've grown up and operated small boats my whole life
not too much time in larger boats >25ft
not much sail time, mostly power boats. Have sailed on friends boats many years ago and have a basic elementary start with the concept

I don't really care about certification or not, unless it might give me traction if every trying to charter in the future

I'm not really even sure what my end goal is....
primary is just to gain a little introductory taste of sailing
maybe it would go nowhere for me
maybe eventually do some bareboat charter day tips or overnight vacations
maybe get my own cruising cat .... longline thought is maybe perhaps a bit of fulltime cruising in a few years with retirement and once kids move along...

Anyway, I think I'll start making some calls to feel them out. I'd rather do a "discovery sail" and lessons on something larger, more like a liveaboard cruiser just to get a taste of that experience
but I thought I'd throw it out here for comment

Would certification sway you one way or the other?

[dougweibel]

Certification may be helpful in chartering, at least until you build up your sailing portfolio.

[Pegu Club]

FWIW, do an ASA 101 keel boat class, we did one some years back, it was three or for days iirc. It was a good overall familiarization with sailboats and rules of the road etc, frankly worth it, you can then do a group of other ASA classes that will indeed help with easing into bareboat charters, and the knowledge base will be helpful when the weather goes to **** all of a sudden... of course you do realize this will cause you to purchase a sailboat and spend all your spare time and money on it,

Fair winds,