School-San Diego

[garrettav8or]

Hi Gang,

Finally taking the plunge to learn to sail, after a life long desire, the time/money/motivation have aligned with the 4th phase of the 3rd moon of Jupiter, so I can do it! =)

Quick question, I am in Phoenix, but plan to take a course in San Diego, perhaps Seaforth, for the ASA certification...

Any recommendations? pros? cons? thoughts?

THX

[Jonathan316]

FWIW I took the ASA 101 at Harbor Sailboats (www.harborsailboats.com) on a weekend last year. They use Capri 22''s owned by their club, and it was alot of fun.

The basics taught (to me) are rudimentary & common enough that the difference can be made simply by how much you like the instructor. Our instructor was young, pleasant and experienced on the bay, and had taught day sailing for some time to all levels.

Only downside was ending up with two of the four students (me included) 2nd degree sunburn and a dangerous level of dehydration. Neither of us was heat aclimated and it was in the mid-ninties. We did not know any better and paid the price. We should not have had too.

So the biggest lesson that I learned from that course was: the health and comfort of the crew and/or passengers is the captain''s responsibility. In retrospect, I would not have let either of us sail without proper sun protection and (at least) some bottled water. Five hours of sailing the SD bay in 90+ degree heat with zero water intake is not something a captain or instructor should permit to happen. Don''t care how stupid the passenger; if you take them aboard, they are -your- responsibility.

Another FWIW is that you may only find the "quickie" 2-day courses to be offered by ASA schools -- the USS schools seem to offer a more complete and/or patient perspective on teaching new sailors. And on the one-hand ASA schools (from what I understood) are not supposed to permit people to basically do a crash-course and run through ASA 101, 104 & 104 in one vacation. But the only accredited schools that -do- offer such training are only ASA schools.

I''ve gotten the (maybe wrong) impression that the ASA is there to generate charter clients with a basic skill set to maintain chartered cruisers; the USS is there to teach sailing.

Good Luck - you will have a great time Garrett!

Jonathan