JWorld Sailing- Read About

Reprinted from Practical Sailor - August 15, 1999

Many sailors attend sailing schools to improve their skills, prepare for a major cruise, or just to add structure to a vacation. Some who have never sailed before enroll to learn the sport.

How do you know what school and classes are right for you? Which schools are the best and which should you avoid? Do you need to take a course before you can charter a boat? Should a sailing school be accredited? Practical Sailor looks at these and other questions with the goal of matching you with the best program that suits your needs.

There are hundreds of sailing schools in North America ranging from one-boat mom-and-pop shops to large schools with locations in every major sailing hub. Because it is impossible to survey every school, we chose the best attended and most successful programs. The fact that a school is not included in this article is not a comment an its competence or quality.

Why Go To School?
Most of us learned to sail purely by doing it or perhaps in yacht club junior programs. The first classroom might have been a friend or relative's boat and they provided the instruction. For those of us who learned on centerboard boats, the term "sink or swim" had special meaning.

Sailing lessons with close friends and family members can be rough, time-consuming and frustrating. Many a sailor has memories of learning from his or her father. Same of these might be of memories of shouting from the foredeck: "I said port, damn it!'" or "Don't you know where the wind is?"

In contrast, most professional sailing schools offer the opportunity to learn or improve your skills in a structured environment, with good equipment. and from experienced instructors with better people skills than your blood relatives.

Schools offer a variety of sailing classes ranging from weekend learn- to-sail courses to resort classes in the tropics. In addition, many schools offer navigation classes, week-long live-aboard classes, bareboat charter certification classes and much more.

Another consideration is equipment. Don't underestimate how important it is to "learn on quality sailboats," said Tohn Lameson, secretary of the Scotland-based international Sailing Schools Association (www.int-sailing-schools.com). No matter how good your instructor is, you will be limited if you are learning on substandard equipment Most of the programs listed here use keel- boats that can handle most conditions. Some programs, like those offered at many colleges, however, use small centerboard boats. When former students complain about the age and condition of boats, take note.

Bareboat Charter Classes
Many sailing schools offer bareboat charter certification classes to provide customers with hands-on practice before they take the helm of someone else's 40-foot, $150,000 asset. If you have never been skipper of a boat somewhat close to the size of the one you intend to charter, a class is not a bad idea. It is not usually required, however.

Most charter boat companies will ask you for a "sailing resume," not certification. Although certifications are impressive-looking documents, a signed check is generally more persuasive. Charter companies are hesitant to make certification a requirement in view of the fact that so many experienced and qualified captains have absolutely no formal training.

How The Rating Was Done
To rate sailing schools for this article, sailing school grads were asked a number of important questions about their experience. Most of these comments were made through a questionnaire published in the January 15, 1998 issue. While we recognize that a survey of PS readers is not necessarily representative of the experiences of all sailing school students, we still believe that same valuable conclusions can be drawn to help you choose the right school.

Armed with former students' comments and criticisms, the schools and their instructors, programs and equipment were reviewed carefully.

Negative comments about programs whether they were an surveys, on the Internet or from former students who called personally, were investigated thoroughly, especially if they fell into patterns.

The ratings were developed by weighing all of the above factors.

J World
In the 1991 survey of sailing schools. J World won the highest ratings for its fleet of new, high-quality racing boats (J's of course), their challenging courses and adept instructors. Eight years later, they are still the best in the business.

"I truly felt like I was attending the Top Gun of Sailing Schools. It was worth every penny I paid," said Karl F. Beaster, a Wisconsin native. J World's Jahn Tihansky said his company's recipe is for good coaches, good boats, and lots of time on the water.

It's working. J Worlds customer satisfaction record was perfect. Every former student who reported was satisfied with his experience on the water and in the classroom. All felt that J World's program was worth the money. That is a distinction no other large school achieved.

Graduates were also pleased with J World's commitment to keeping classes small and filling courses with students of the same skill levels. Most J World classes have three students to every instructor. A few had private lessons. One was Chelsea Clinton, who learned to sail at J World's Newport location.

"We offer more time on the water than most programs. If you come here, you're going to go sailing," said Tihansky, a former sail maker, who owns and teaches at J World in Annapolis, Maryland. Tihansky also works for US Sailing, training future US Sailing-certified instructors.

Most J World grads say they spend almost all their time on the water. "Our whole experience was highly pleasurable and the instructors never forgot that we were on vacation and not in boot camp." said Michael de Angeli, of Rockville, Maryland.