IMHO, sailing a 30' auxiliary sloop isn't something that you can learn to do on your own or from a book, regardless of how self-reliant you might be. Most people start to learn on a 13'' Sunfish, or similar, simple, one-sailed boat, and work their way up to a more complicated boat. You're starting with a bigger, heavier boat that would be difficult for an experienced small boat sailor to learn to handle, simply because of it's size and weight.
You can't safely operate any boat, but especially a sailboat, without knowing something about boats. You'll have a hard time getting the boat out of the slip without damaging other peoples' boats. You won't know how to attach the sails and
rig and raise them. You won't know which sails to use on any given day, or how to adjust them. You won't know how to adjust them so that the boat will sail downwind, and how to adjust them so that the boat will sail to windward, and how to adjust them for every course in between. While you're out on the water, you won't know the right of way rules that help you get through a crowded area safely. When you want to return to your marina, you'll suddenly realize that the whole shoreline looks the same, and you won't remember how to find your way back to your marina. When you take the sails down, you might not be able to get them back into the sailbag, because you won't know how to fold them. When you put the boat back in the slip, you'll probably ram the dock, and you won't know how to tie up the boat. You'll be a hazard to yourself and to other boats. People will shun you. You'll be an object of ridicule and scorn. You don't want that for yourself.
If you can find a knowledgeable sailor who has the time and patience and teaching skills, he can teach you to sail in a couple of days of sailing. But, if you look to an unskilled sailor, or one who knows how to sail, but can't explain it to others, you won't learn much. Your best bet is to take a basic classroom course from the power squadron, or the coast guard auxiliary, that will teach you the basic principles, as well as the special language of sailing. Those courses are very inexpensive. Then take a basic sailing course from a commercial sailing school, where you'll get classroom instruction, and then go out on a boat,
rig it, sail it, return it, and put it away, all under the eye of a trained instructor. You'll still make mistakes. We all do. But you'll skip over the worst of the "ridicule and scorn" part of the process.
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