Quote:
Originally Posted by doubleeboy
My wife did the one week course at SDSA. She sailed a Hunter 30 for a week, slept on it at night. No great shakes in her opinion. The owner (older guy) was a little stuck in his ways and could have been more helpful. He was not real interested in my wife's questions about engine systems, which is a part of the class according to the text book. She really had to push hard with question after question to get the most from the class.
His son, was a much better instructor, and answered questions more freely in her opinion. You take the tests in the evening when the sailing is done, She felt it was pretty expensive for what you got. She did have previous sailing experience though. SDSA might be just fine for someone with no experience who wants to get started.
She did come home with a nice tan.
michael
|
nice tan huh? LOL
Well... I guess there's always some perks!
We've got zero sailing experience at this point and that was one of the reasons we chose this.
Over the course of the past few months - and having visited this site and the Cruiser's Forums site - and was really turned off of going to classes, not because of the forums, but from listening to all the people saying "You HAVE to GO!"
Then in dealing with several schools, found they were not real helpful, didn't want to talk on the phone at all, wanted to get me to sign up and not really give me the information I was asking for. I was looking through two sites, one in particular was so convoluted and difficult to understand I sent emails asking for some assistance. I was referred back to the web site, so I called.
The guy was short with me, and referred me again, back to his web site.
So - all in all I've had some bad experiences already and I was about to say "Screw it" - I'll read my books and just "go do" on a lake, where it's relatively safe and non-threatening to figure things out myself.
However, we decided in the end to find someone who will be spending time with us and show us a few things. With NO experience, I'd say, they might be a bit more expensive than I really wanted, but in the long run, I get the instructor - and whether he knows it or not, he's going to be a captive with ME for those 5 days rather than the other way around.