Start Cruising^sm is offered in an intensive 2-day format.  We stay local and return each night.  The idea is to get valuable repetition in boat handling and piloting skills and be comfortable on a somewhat larger boat - not just to sail it in a straight line!  As well as plenty of docking, mooring and anchoring practice, we do a trip involving piloting and navigation as well.
 

(Comfortable closthing makes for happy Start Cruising students - spring 2005.)

Prerequisites: ASA or US Sailing basic keelboat sailing certification, or comparable experience.  Non-certified sailors are welcome to take the course, but cannot be certified unless they first earn basic keelboat certification by taking the course or "challenging" the standard.
 

Certification: ASA Basic Coastal Cruising

Tuition: $595; special trips might be more.  Contact us.
Discounts: 2 or more enrolled together take $50 off per person.

Curriculum: enough to require a separate page!

What do we teach you on?  The staple vessel in our stable for Basic Cruising is a Pearson 26.  This venerable design is the perfect step up in size, weight, gear complexity, and cruising accomodations.  Big enough to challenge you after Basic Keelboat, but not so large that you'll have trouble mastering her quickly during the course.  And she'll have you ready to handle somewhat larger vessels immediately.  We also use a Hunter 25.5, which looks like it can't get out of it's own way, but is a surprisingly good sailing vessel in its own right and with more cockpit and interior room than the Pearson.  Both use Yamaha 4 stroke outboard engines with high torque for pushing heavy loads (perfect sailboat auxiliary engine, as oppoed to "fast" engines that just spin the prop without pushing the boat well).

Outboard engines are the logical choice for Basic Cruising.  In our learn-to-sail course, Start Sailing, we use no engine. 

We sometimes use our Columbia 9.6 Meter, "Morning Star." She's just shy of 32 feet with an inboard diesel.  While significantly larger than the other two vessels, she is still a reasonable goal to manage by the end of the course.  We use her instead of the smaller vessels from time to time if the weather conditions or student experience dictates.
 
 

This is a sister ship to our own Pearson 26, with the same two-tone color scheme (pale green top, which dramatically reduces deck glare).  We can't seem to locate pictures of our vessel - must be on a lost disc somewhere.   As ours won't be in the water until spring to take new photos, imagine yourself on this one for the time being!

Here's another P-26, moored at Hodges Creek, Tortola, BVI.  The Dockmaster took this shot before one of our BVI trips.  There were several P-26's within a mile or so of the Sunsail base; this is a seaworthy vessel capable of the trip from the mainland to the islands. To see more of our BVI trips, including video clips, see our main BVI page.

The P-26 is tiller-steered and equipped with an outboard engine, running, "steaming" and anchor lights, VHF radio, depth sounder, large steering compass, working jib and furling genoa, and an asymmetric cruising spinnaker.  It's the correct step up in size from a light day sailing keelboat.  At 5,400 pounds before engine and gear, she's got a couple of thousand pounds on our Beneteau 21, but she's still manageable.  Students can feel they've mastered this size and length of vessel by the end of the course, something that's not nearly as easy with an over 30-foot wheel-steered auxiliary with a diesel, which most schools seem to use by default rather than by exception.

 

We use this Pearson 30, "Sunbow," from time to time.

...The Pearson 26 was built in an era that defined the role of an honest racer/cruiser.  This boat's popularity was such that Pearson Yachts built more than 1,800 hulls over a 13-year span, of which about 200 were Pearson 26 OD's.*
    All of the variations of the P26 emerged from the Rhode Island factory and all were solid, well-built boats that catered equally to the cruising needs of families and performed well on the racecourse... The Pearson 26 still wins trophies at PHRF regattas today."

Pearson Yachts was one of the most respected production boat builders of all time.  Unfortunately, they went the way of too many good manufacturers in the late 1980's to early 1990's (financial bye-bye), but the company was recently resurrected.  Hopefully they'll pick up where they left off.