Have you been dreaming of getting out on the open water and starting your sailing career? Craving a new adventure or skill to learn? Curious to know about sailing school?
I mean, I definitely was.
Whatever your reason, I’ve got you. Let’s talk about everything you need to know about sailing school.
For clarity, we’ll discuss what you need to know about sailing school if you choose to go with Blue Water Sailing School, which I highly recommend and will discuss first.
In this article, you’ll also find information about:
- Finding the course(s) for you
- Certifications
- Curriculum/textbooks
- Testing
- My experience and more!
As a caveat – this information is based on my own, personal experience. This is not a sponsored post or anything like that. I just wanted a chance to write out the steps I took to create a record, provide personal insight to anyone else interested in sailing school, and relive the whole experience! If you have any further questions, shoot me an email, comment, or message!
Why Blue Water Sailing School (BWSS)?
When I started researching which sailing school would be best for my situation, I set out a few parameters.
- I needed to sail on the ocean, not a lake. There are allegedly sailing schools in Utah, but I wasn’t interested. When I envisioned standing on the deck with a breeze in my face, I wasn’t interested in anything but a seabreeze.
- I needed a school that offered some kind of certification or license, something that would assist in my further sailing ambitions.
- I wanted the experience of living aboard a sailboat for longer than a weekend.
So as you can see, I wasn’t looking for something crazy. Thus began my search.
After navigating list after list of “top sailing schools” around the US (because, well, travel is still a little tricky these days and I didn’t want to deal with reentering the US), I had a list of possibilities. There are TONS of sailing schools along the west and east coast, each with their own personal spin.
I finally found the BWSS and confirmed that they offered live-aboard sailing school options. I wanted a school that was fully immersive and hands-on.
There were tons of scheduling options, and it seemed like there would be only classes of 4 students, max. With a smaller class size, I was guaranteed more hands-on learning time, rather than having to wait for 20 others to do the same thing over and over.
I also was in the process of rewatching some of my favorite YouTubers and discovered they used the same school.
It was settled. I found my sailing school.
Choosing a Sailing Course
Think about why you’re interested in learning how to sail. Is it to learn a new skill? Change your lifestyle? Are you planning on buying your own boat and sailing around the world? Racing?
Let your why determine your what.
There are a variety of courses you can take with BWSS, or any other sailing school out there, and you’re able to somewhat tailor your experience to your aspirations.
For example: I want to sail mainly on catamarans, so I made sure to choose a course that included a catamaran option.
If you’re simply interested in learning how to sail the bare basics, you can do that as well.
Interested in learning to sail by way of the stars? You’ve got that option as well.
Getting Certified
Although I was really wanting to learn how to sail to gain a new skill, I wanted to have something…”official”…stating that I knew what I was doing. The cool thing about BWSS is that they follow the American Sailing Association‘s (ASA) curriculum and offer courses in line with its certifications.
The ASA is an association of sailors, professional sailing instructors, sailing schools and charter companies. The ASA is dedicated to promoting safe recreational sailing in the United States by administering an internationally recognized education system.
https://www.bwss.com/faq.html
So by choosing BWSS, I would not only gain new skills in sailing, but I’d have certifications from an internationally recognized body with the authority to state that I knew what I was doing.
Sounds like a good idea, right?
It certainly is. I mean, what’s the point of going through the trouble of learning something cool without something tangible to back up your stories and experience?
And when you start earning your certifications, they build up and qualify you for more intensive, specialized courses.
I’m in the process of filling out applications and responding to crew requests around the world. I can’t tell you how awesome it feels to list my newly-earned ASA certifications as proof that I’m awesome and a skilled sailor.
Sailing School Curriculum and Textbooks
The BWSS registration price includes textbooks, certification tests, and an instructor that doubles as captain. Let’s dive into the particulars.
I’m not gonna lie – I was excited to have sailing textbooks. But let’s back up a bit.
When you reserve your spot with BWSS, they send you textbooks – one per course.
I signed up for the A+ Cat: Bareboat Catamaran Skipper, which included ASA courses 101 Basic Sailing, 103 Basic Coastal Cruising, 104 Bareboat Chartering, and 114 Cruising Catamaran. So in total, I took 4 courses and received 4 textbooks.
I couldn’t wait to crack them open and start learning. I was so excited.
And the best part was that they send the books immediately after you register for your courses. I signed up in October and received my books less than a week later, even though my actual experience wasn’t going to be until March.
#nerd4life
But reading the textbook is only part of the journey.
Each certification course you take comes with a corresponding multiple-choice exam, along with observations by your captain. While you don’t have to read your textbooks before boarding your boat for sailing school, I would behoove you to do so.
If this is going to be your first time on a sailboat, reading the textbooks ahead of time will put you on the right path. Imagine stepping on board and actually understanding what the captain is saying to you. And not just the technical stuff. Like telling you which cabin is yours.
Mine was the port aft cabin, and since I had read the first chapter of my 101 book, I knew where it was located in relation to everything else.
Within the textbooks, every couple of chapters or so, are practice tests you can take. While they aren’t identical to the exam questions, there are many similarities that will get you ahead of the game. Plus, the practice questions help you gain a deeper understanding of the boat, ways of the water, and skills you’ll be practicing simultaneously.
Some important points the 101, 103, 104, and 114 textbooks cover include:
- Basic knots
- Parts of the boat
- Parts of the engine(s) and outboard
- Who has right-of-way on the water
- Directions/point of sail
- Man overboard/safety protocols
- How to hoist sails
- Basic navigation
The textbooks assist with learning the terms and boat jargon ahead of time, but on its own, you’re limited.
When it’s used in conjunction with a knowledgable and competent captain/instructor, your drive is your limit.
Trust me – it’s a lot easier to hoist a sail when you can see it, touch it, feel the power of the lines in your hands and tensions on the foils. A textbook can’t do that.
A sailing school instructor’s job, aside from keeping you and the boat safe, is to help you pass your certification exams and make sure you know what you’re doing. Any time they’re talking about sailing, listen.
They will teach you the basics, and then help you put them all together into the act of sailing a vessel on the open water. And there’s nothing better.
Testing in Sailing School
When we sat down for our first certification test, ASA 101 Basic Sailing, my group starting calculating the last time we took a standardized test. For me, it had been over a decade, and longer for others.
Test-taking can be daunting. A lot of people just don’t test well, and develop some kind of phobia around it. My group definitely made some comments along that line, but were reassured by our captain that we would all pass.
Comforting, to say the least.
Each certification through BWSS via the ASA has a multiple choice test associated with it. For 101, 103, and 104, there were 100 questions. 114 had only 50 questions. 101 had options A-F, and the others had options A-D.
Some of the questions were simply True/False. Others were grouped together with an image, asking you to identify certain parts of a section of a boat. The rest of the questions were stand-alone. And the best part was most of them were common-sense.
In my experience, we were able to study for an hour or so before the exam, with no real time-limit. Some of us finished quickly, while others took twice as long. And while it is a test, there’s nothing that can beat the location of actually taking the test. Breeze blowing through the trees. Water lapping against the boat. The occasional splash of a fish or manatee (if you’re lucky).
And there’s no waiting period. Your captain will grade the tests immediately and give you feedback. I believe you need 80% to pass, but if you’ve studied, listened to your captain, and studied a bit more, you’ll do just fine.
Food and Lodging during Sailing School
Some of the first questions I received when I told people that I was going to sailing school were about where I was going to be sleeping and what I was going to be eating. Although it was a bit of a shock at first, I can appreciate their curiosity.
One of the first things you’ll do when you board your boat for sailing school is meet with your captain and other students and meal plan. You’ll discuss water consumption needs for drinking and bathing/washing dishes, and figure out how much fresh water you’ll need to purchase.
Honestly this was one of my favorite parts of sailing school. I’d been looking forward to provisioning and was eager to see what we could get. We put together our basic meal plan with a few dinner options, some breakfast and lunch foods, other drinks like milk and sports drinks, and snacks.
We had access to 2 propane burners, an oven (which we only used to toast bread), and a BBQ grill that fit into a slot on the stern of the boat. All in all, we ate like kings. I love to cook, so I did a fair bit of it on the boat and was saved from KP duty.
I actually kept a record of some of the things we made:
- Omelettes made to order (my first time making omelettes!)
- Bacon
- French toast
- Burgers
- BBQ chicken
- Fish tacos
In addition to the actual meals, we had chips, fruits, dips, and cookies to name a few. We were working hard and needed to make sure we were not only consuming enough calories during the day, but were happy/full sailors.
After a full day of sailing, there was nothing better than crawling into my own private cabin (room). Each of us had our own cabin, except for the married couple that shared. Although our boat was quite old, the mattresses were about queen-size and fairly comfortable.
It would have been fun made for good Instagram pictures to be sleeping in hammocks all together, but having slept in a hammock before…they’re not the best!
Costs of Sailing School
I purposefully saved this until the end because I didn’t want anyone to get freaked out. And…it’s a lot.
Any week-long, all-inclusive sailing school is going to be pricey. That’s a given. You can peruse the BWSS website for exact costs, but note that the price is going to fluctuate based on the location, boat type (nicer/bigger/newer boats cost more to operate), and certifications you want.
Here’s my breakdown:
1 week (7 days, 6 nights) live-aboard school: $3,195
Included:
- All food and drinks onboard
- Fuel, freshwater, docking fees, miscellaneous boat expenses
- Textbooks (and the cute drawstring bag they arrive in)
- Certification fees
- Taxes
- Instructor/captain salary
- T shirt upon completion
- 90-day trial membership with the American Sailing Association
Not included:
- Sailing gloves (highly recommend – mine saved me from what could have been a serious rope burn)
- Tipping your captain
- Transportation to and from the boat (in my case, a flight and Lyft ride)
At a quick glance, it looks like a lot. And I’m not trying to downplay the cost. I definitely had to save a bit for it. But I look at it as an investment. If I broke down everything that was included and tried to do it all piecemeal on my own, the cost would be much higher.
Perks of a live-aboard sailing school
Let’s talk about the perks of choosing a live-aboard school versus a weekend bender or one that has you in a hotel every night.
Personalization of teaching
Since we spent so much time together, we got into a groove. We had stations we were more comfortable at, and those we wanted more time at. Our captain was able to recognize this and create drills to give us the time we needed to feel more comfortable.
Towards the end of our week, we realized that our group was interested in more navigation training. Our captain was able to use some books onboard and teach us more about course plotting, navigation techniques, and a few other tidbits.
If we were rushed for time or had a much larger class, there’s no way we’d have such a customized/personalized experience.
Full immersion experience
By living onboard, you get to feel the rocking of the ship on the mooring. You get to feel the anxiety of a midnight potty run to the head. Stay up late studying/learning/cleaning/hanging out.
I was excited to get the full experience, especially when it came to cooking in the galley. I’ve cooked in some pretty epic places, but having to cook in a narrow galley with everything moving and tight spaces all around is another experience entirely.
Maybe not the happiest of times, but we did drag anchor a bit on our first night. We anchored in a popular area, but one that had a muddy bottom and our anchor didn’t stick well. I’m glad I got to experience this first during sailing school. If we didn’t sleep on the boat, we wouldn’t have had this experience and figured out how to fix it. Or learn and understand the importance of having a well-set anchor.
And many more!
Attending sailing school was one of the best weeks of my life. I made friends for life, learned more skills that simply sailing a boat, found my sea legs (and land legs afterwards), and discovered a love for sailing that will carry me through the years to come.
I wish you fair winds and following seas on your (hopefully) sailing school adventure!
Have you ever thought about going to sailing school?
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