I'm interested learning to sail, from the ground up, so to speak,
in the New York City vicinity. There appear to be three schools
in the area: Manhattan Sailing School (www.sailmanhattan.com),
Newport Sailing School (www.newportsail.com), and Offshore Sailing
School (www.offshore-sailing.com/locations/nyharbor.htm and also
www.offshore-sailing.com/locations/chelsea.htm).
So far, I've taken the basic keelboat course twice (once each
from two different schools), coastal cruising (just once, and
joined the sailing club of one school for two seasons so far,
now coming up on three. Lots of fun!
But my observation was that the "real sailors" at all these places
learned to sail elsewheres, then moved to New York and joined the clubs.
As far as I can tell, none of these schools seems to teach real sailors
from the ground up, which is what I'm looking for. The basic keelboat
course and club day sails were great, as far as they went. But the
coastal cruising course was a joke as far as learning anything new was
concerned -- just one long day sail. And now I'm not sure how, and
with whom, to proceed.
Any suggestions appreciated (I avoided publicly making any specific
negative remarks about any specific school, and please feel free to
email me if you want to do the same). Thanks for the help,
--
John Forkosh ( )