Fair Wind Sailing School Comments |
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| Date Submitted: | August 7, 2010 |
| Sailing School: | Fair Wind Sailing School |
| Location: | MI - Bingham Farms, United States |
| Classes & Instruction: | 10 out of 10 |
| School Facilities: | 10 out of 10 |
| Accomodation: | 10 out of 10 |
| Cost & Expense: | 9 out of 10 |
| Recommend: | Yes |
| Review: | A GREAT Balance of Teaching and Fun Picture this…I’m a 50 something wife of an experienced Hobie Cat 16 sailor and I want to learn to sail BUT not from my husband. We’ve only been married 4.5 yrs and I’d like it to last until the death do we part thing so I begin looking on line for a sailing class. I check out the reviews from this site and start investigating some of the schools. I finally decide on Fair Wind Sailing School because they have the classes I want (ASA 101, 103, 104 and 114), some good reviews, a reasonable price, and to top it off… a fabulous location (Virgin Islands). The class also includes hands on experience clearing customs into the BVI which I really like. I invited my husband to join me and also take the class and he surprisingly accepted. I sign up, get our plane tickets, and impatiently wait several months for our July class to get here. Fair Wind sends us the course materials so we can begin studying….I look through the books and begin to feel overwhelmed by all that I’m going to have to learn so I decide to start getting some experience locally. I sign up for a learn to sail classroom course (8 hrs classroom, 2 hrs sailing) from our local Red Cross and a 2 day ladies sailing course using Sunfish from a local lake sailing club. These 2 classes really helped me begin to understand the concepts of sailing, get some experience tying knots, get some lake sailing under my belt at low wind, and to prepare myself for the ASA July class. For anyone without sailing experience, I would highly recommend learning as much as you can before you go so that you can maximize your learning and not have to spend too much time on the boat learning all there is to learn…it is a lot!!! Class time came and we showed up at the marina on St. Thomas all ready to go. We were greeted by Dan, the Fair Wind Caribbean Operations Manager, and he was very nice and assured us we’d have a great week aboard La Bella Vita. The class had 3 students (me, my husband, and Nate - a 20 something nice man from Roanoke). The first thing we did the day of arrival was pick what we wanted to eat for the week (provisions for the boat)and go get them. We ate breakfast and lunch and 2 dinners on the boat. Students share galley responsibilities. We had an instructor/captain change and were lucky enough to end up with the cream of the crop, Captain Dave Bello. Dave has a great sense of humor and kept things light even thought the learning was at times intense (students pulling the wrong way on the jib sheet, mooring balls going under the boat, etc). We were also lucky to have Dan, the operations manager, aboard our boat during the week so he also gave us tips here and there that helped us continue to learn. There was docking, mooring, anchoring, man-over-board drills, tacking , jibing, sail raising and lowering , furling, and the dreaded navigation instruction. There were 4 written tests. It wasn’t all work…we had time to snorkel in the morning and late afternoons and in the evening we usually went ashore for dinner and drinks......the days reward (Latitude 18, Quitos and Sidney’s Peace and Love Bar were favorites). In closing, my husband and I passed all the courses and we had fun doing it but it wasn’t without effort. If you’re looking for a rubber stamp ASA certification…don’t look here….you are going to have to work for this one!! But it will be worth it…you will really have the skills to bareboat your own sailboat when you are done. Exactly what I was aiming for. Wishing you Fair Winds ya’all! |
| Submitted by: | Linda McKean 54 year-old :: Female Reviewer :: Dayton, OH USA |
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