South West Florida Schools

[Juliette Sierra]

Hi everyone, long time lurker, first time poster here on cruisers forum. I'm moving to Fort Myers, FL in less than a month from Colorado. I have very limited sailing experience but huge future sailing aspirations and am looking for a good sailing school where I can earn a foundation of knowledge that I can build upon. So far I have been looking at "Offshore Sailing School" and "Florida Sailing & Cruising School" primarily. Does anybody have any feedback on either or both of these schools or other schools in the area? Is there a better/cheaper way to learn these skills? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Sailmonkey]

Just my 2cents, a better cheaper way to learn sailing is on a dinghy. Buy a sunfish to practice on, pay for a few lessons to get the basics down. This won't teach you passage makeing or navigation but will teach you to feel a boat. the rest will come in time and you won't have to learn a million things all at the same time.

[Juliette Sierra]

Thanks Sailmonkey for your prompt response. I agree with you advise, perhaps I should have been a little more specific when I said that I have "very limited experience" in my initial post. I actually joined a sail club on a local lake a couple years back and have taken informal lessons with club members on sunfish, snipes, lasers, and J-22s. I guess I'm trying to bridge the gap of small lake boat sailing to reach the point where I can handle a larger boat, on a larger body of water, for longer passages with confidence.

[Sailmonkey]

Ahhhh, very well
I'll bow out now and let the Floridians fill in their favorite ASA schools.

[bobconnie]

Could be some folks looking for help for daysails down there !! I think I would walk the docks and talk to some folks and I think you mite be suprised !! we in the past always took young folks along when we did some raceing and daysailing ! we had to learn once and try to help others and its a lot of fun to see them smile !! try it you never know what might happen !! have fun !! Bob and Connie

[Juliette Sierra]

Thanks bobconnie, I will try it. It could be a good way to pick up some of the skills I want to learn and meet up with some of the local sailors at the same time.

[krafthaus]

I took ASA 101 & 103 from Capt. Richard Ham at Sail Marco, Marco Island, FL in January 2009. Link attached. I'd recommend him. Good Luck!

Sail Marco Sailing Instruction, Private Lessons and Crewed Charters Marco Island Florida

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Juliette.

[Juliette Sierra]

Thanks everybody. I think I will see if I can make a few contacts for crewing with somebody that doesn't mind having a novice on board and then maybe go see some of the local schools in person if it seems like it would benefit me a lot.