Feel free to contact us with any other questions you may have.

Any reasonably coordinated adult can learn to sail - even if you drive but have trouble parking.  You don't have to be an athlete to take a sailing school course in a typical commercial school format.  Teenagers can certainly do this too: just don't force it on them.  They'll do fine if they are willing participants.  Most active senior citizens have no problem with it, especially if the school's boat doesn't favor gymnasts or contortionists.

However, this kind of program is not usually recommended for most pre-teens.  There are better formats for teaching youngsters to sail: if that applies to your child, contact us for some suggestions, or to see if your child is an exception to the rule.  We have had pre-teens come with their families on occasion with great success, however.

Seriously, though, this is a very intelligent question - and the answer is yes.

Ours is a tried and true format, and it's been tweaked over a 33-year lifespan into its highly refined current state.  We give 6 hours of classroom instruction, 18 hours of on-the-water instruction with only 3 students per boat (more practice time for each), and two 4-hour supervised practice sessions without an instructor on board.  That makes for 5 on water sessions.  The format is typically as follows:
 
 

Our 3 days of pure instruction, with no time lost in transit to good sailing waters and no sailing or classroom  time sacrificed for administering the certification test, is enough for almost anyone.  And after the regular course, you have 8 hours of supervised practice coming to you, taken over 2 half-days.  This reinforces what you've learned and sends you home with a confidence you can only get by doing it yourself.

We even back our program up with a guarantee: if you don't achieve certification and aren't satifsfied with the quality of instruction offered, just let us know right after the course and we'll let you take it again for free.

If you are shopping around for schools and haven't chosen us yet, you must click here now and exit the site. (Just kidding!)  Seriously, for those edumacated consumers out there, we suggest that your short list of schools only contain those that offer 3 days of on-water instruction instead of 2 (or even less).  For more comparison shopping tips, there's a link by that name on the left side of each page on our site.  You can also go right to that page now by clicking here.

Like any activity, it has some risks.  But these are minimized in a sailing school setting, because you're learning in protected waters near the shore.  You should be aware of the potential risks, but not worried about them.  Better school programs emphasize safety awareness and skills not just to minimize risk to students as they learn, but also to better prepare them for safely enjoying the sport as they progress on their own later.  Our course emphasizes fundamental sailing maneuvers, starting and stopping under sail, and safety skills.

Drowning

Obviously, this can result from falling overboard, or if a boat capsizes or  sinks. 
 

On the lighter side...

our boats have lifelines to help prevent you from falling overboard, and positive flotation to make them as "unsinkable" as anything out there.  Most modern keelboats are extremely difficult to capsize in a typical inshore setting, and it takes conditions far worse than what a beginner class should go out sailing in.  (Any school who says their boat cannot be capsized is being patently irresponsible.)

We provide relatively comfortable PFD's, or personal floatation devices - life jackets, in landlubber terms.   We often require that they be worn, too.  Weak or non-swimmers wear them at all times once they reach the dock.  By the way, we've had approximtely ONE person fall overboard in our entire history involving two schools over 36 years - not bad! 

This students suddenly reached a little too far to pick up the man-overboard dummy her husband was trying to coast alongside of after two misses, and she went in.  The husband was no dummy, and brought the boat around and picked her up on the first shot.  (By the way: she was wearing a life jacket.)

It's very rare that sailors are seriously injured by the boom, and of the few that occur, most of those occur in ocean racing.  We're not exactly doing that.  We've never had a serious boom injury in our 33 years of experience.

We aren't telling you all this to frighten you away - but to give you all the information you're entitled to, and to give you an early start in thinking like a prudent mariner.  We hope that when you see how aware WE are, and how aware we intend to make YOU, you'll feel safe in our hands.

This color scheme is used on buoys and beacons to mark channels and help you determine which side to leave them to as you pass (never a substitute for looking at a chart!).  Most boats have to display lights when operating at night: a red light will be found at the port bow and a green one to starboard (with a white light at the stern to complete the "circle").  You'll start learning about this in the Start Sailing,^SM  and it gets more involved with each step up both the ASA and US Sailing ladders.

(Our coastal navigation course, Start Navigating,^SM covers this extensively, as well as everything involved in plotting courses, determining position, accounting for current, etc.)

Who  / How / Safety /  Keep Sailing / Certification / Combo Courses

There are numerous ways to keep sailing once you've learned how.  We make it pretty simple: rent by the day or half day (something many schools don't offer), or join our club for a flat fee and sail with other members.  See our "Keep Sailing" page for more details (click on the link with that name from any school page).

We also sponsor occasional free or inexpensive events for graduates, such as brush-up days or evening trips aboard our Beneteau First 210's, and various trips on larger cruising sailboats.

We're the only school in the Tri-State Area that certifies through both of these organizations rather than just one.  Our sailing, cruising and navigation courses all lead to the appropriate level of certification through ASA or US Sailing.  These are important credentials: they prove that the school you're attending has met nationally (and internationally) recognized minimum standards, and that you'll have proof of the same upon successful completion of the course.

Our students are certified through one organization or the other.  You can also get certified through both if you like for the extra cost of materials (cheap) by sitting for the extra test.  Some schools charge extra just to get certified through one.

(One of our most overpriced competitors only recently started including certification, with a lot of hoopla and fanfare and patting themselves on the back.  But they raised their price another $50 at the same time!)

Who  / How / Safety /  Keep Sailing / Certification / Combo Courses

Why not?  They don't work well!  Like many schools, we've experimented with this, but found out a long time ago that it doesn't work well, and the feedback we've gotten from students who've tried combo courses at other schools is the same.

Why doesn't it work?  Because you need to spend time and the water and practice between courses, and to a lesser extent simply review and digest the material.  Combo courses simply don't allow for this.  They try to do too much in too little time.  We can't overemphasize the need for time on the water; it's indispensable.  Don't just take our word for it; here's what ASA (American Sailing Association) has to say about it:

"Sailing is a performance oriented activity.  Each certification level should be augmented with at least 25 - 50 hours of practice.  The American Sailing Association recommends students always take time to practice between courses.  Use the log section of this book to record your experience.  Education alone will not create proficient sailing skills."
(Emphasis is ours.)

-Excerpted from the ASA Official International Log Book, which is where both students and instructors have their certifications recorded and sealed, and which lists standards for each level of certification.  It also provides areas to record future sailing experience and charters.

Some schools offer a  'Quick Trac' through courses and may offer a package discount as an incentive to do the combo.   The vast majority of students will NOT do well this way, so we neither recommend nor offer these combos.

So, there you have it: a short list of questions with long answers.  (Couldn't make it too long: we have to justify the rest of this mammoth web site somehow, right?)  As we've said before, if you still have any questions after this or any other page, please get in touch with us and we'll answer it (them?) for you.  The link is "bilge-side" (directly below).