Perusing this thread, this morning, I wondered if there were still actual courses an aeronautically-minded landlubber like myself could enroll in to learn the basics of sailing on the water.
Back in high school, I was invited to go sailing around Long Island Sound on a “J-35” class sailboat. I couldn’t tell you the rigging scheme, but it had a mainsail and a spinnaker. I always wanted to learn how to sail, even if it was just a little jerry-rigged dinghy.
Are there still schools, or better yet online courses that’ll walk me through the basics?
Tripler
Not really a whole lot of opportunity in the US’ southwest, but the drive is there. Piracy forthcoming.
Start with a free online course from the American Sailing Association.
Most sailing classes are at Boat/Yacht clubs and marinas or the Coast Guard itself.
My FIL has run sailing classes. I learned through the Environmental Group Clearwater. Mainly NJ Friends of Clearwater. We run our own boat program that teaches sailing.
For kids there is Sea Scouts.
ETA: I’m not a very good skipper. I’ve let my skills deteriorate and was never a natural at keeping the sails full while on the tiller.
Both the American Sailing Association and US Sailing offer courses from smallboat sailing through coastal and bluewater (offshore) cruising and navigation. I was going to laugh about online courses but ASA does actually offer an introductory course. However, you can’t learn to sail from a book any more than you learn to ride a bike by learning about physics; you actually have to get in a boat and make mistakes to learn to do it properly.
The certifications you get are all well and good, but except for bareboat charter they don’t really mean much, and even then a charter company is going to want to see your personal log to see how much experience you have before renting you a $100k+ boat. Smaller sailing/yacht clubs will want you to take their basic class or at least do a checkout with an instructor before you take out anything bigger than a Laser or Sunfish. I’ve done classes up through multihull coastal cruising and advanced navigation but I make no pretense of being an experienced sailor.
If you are ever in the San Francisco Bay Area, Shoreline Park in Mountain View (near San Jose) has a sailing course. I took this about 20 years ago and this land-lubber did learn to sail. Sadly, soon after we moved away from the Bay and I never got to utilize my newfound skills (and certification to rent boats).
One of my employees is also a teacher for Nautilus Sailing. I don’t know anything about how good they are but he lives a better life than I do with his working life split between making booze and sailing the world.
You might find organizations offering sailing courses at many marinas. Back in my youth I took a sailing course out of one such marina where several friends docked their sailboats. The lessons were conducted on a beautiful big boat – something like a 32-footer, with wheel steering – and totally turned me on to sailing. I eventually bought my own boat. I got it used, at a marina many days’ sailing away from where I would eventually keep it. Sailing that boat home, after just that one sailing course and no other experience, with a friend who had no sailing experience at all, was the adventure of a lifetime – mostly in a very good way, but with some scary moments!
It’s true, I can vouch that this was my experience with my boat.
OP, I would suggest that any place where there is a marina (in a city such as San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Rochester…etc.) you’ll find a sailing club and/or a sailing school, when you are ready to start doing the on-the-water part.
I took a series of courses from Windworks sailing club in Seattle. Once you had your certifications you could charter the available boats and keep the place afloat. There was a basic course for small sailboats (we used Catalina 25’s), then a more advanced course, then a coastal nav course, then a course where you put everything together and did an overnight trip. They did not offer a celestial navigation class, but another nearby school (Starpath, IIRC) did.
ETA: Universities will often have sailing classes in the summer. Hoofers (?) at UW Madison comes to mind. I took a sailing class through the Univ. of Rochester (upstate NY) one summer. Helped keep my feet wet so to speak.
Tripler doesn’t live near marinas, that’s why he was asking about online classes. While you can’t learn to sail online, you can put yourself into a pretty good spot for when you finally get a chance to sail.
BTW: the most important knots. bowline, cleat and clove hitch.
A square knot is called a reef or reefing knot.
I realize it doesn’t apply to the OP, but if you live near a marina with a yacht club, go by the front desk and tell them that you’ve never sailed, but you’re interested in learning if someone wants a beginner as crew, and find out their race schedule.
I crewed out of Santa Barbara for years, started knowing close to nothing. My experience is that there are lots of friendly rich guys with nice boats that take 4+ people to sail (and on a windy day, another 4+ people to hold the windward side down) who are happy to teach someone who is interested and willing to show up reliably to races.
Here’s another one:
Want to give boat ownership a try before actually purchasing one? Then stand, fully clothed, in a cold shower, tearing up $100 bills one by one.
Blue has to yield to yellow because regatta rules prohibit blue from forcing yellow into the race marker. Also, blue is a shitty tactician to luff in irons into the marker instead of getting clearance to tack completely over clear of the marker. If I were the bowman on yellow I would be smacking blue’s beam and yelling at them to clear the marker.
That’s particularly apt because, in fact, one of the happiest days of my life was when I bought that boat, and the adventures that followed were equally great memories, but I distinctly remember my great happiness when I sold it! Not that it was a bad boat at all, but I wanted something bigger, and I was especially delighted at being able to sell it for more that I had paid for it (with the buyer asking me why the price was so low, which took me so totally off guard that I was speechless!). Sometimes sailboats can be like that. At least back in my days of boating, a good sailboat could appreciate in value like real estate.
I never did buy another boat, though, because of distractions and other financial demands like marriage and buying a house. But ironically, the aforementioned friend who had been with me on that fateful sailing trip and had never sailed before, did actually end up buying a fairly big boat himself later on. The sailing experience really can be addicting.
Not that it was a bad boat at all, but I wanted something bigger, and I was especially delighted at being able to sell it for more that I had paid for it (with the buyer asking me why the price was so low, which took me so totally off guard that I was speechless!). Sometimes sailboats can be like that. At least back in my days of boating, a good sailboat could appreciate in value like real estate.