John Forkosh wrote:
I'm interested learning to sail, from the ground up, so to speak ...
...
... 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 ...
... 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 ...

I took 2 Offshore courses with my wife decades ago and found them helpful,
especially since we were separated during the process based on the tacit
acknowledgement that having one spouse teach another is sometimes
difficult. The rest of what I "know" came from publications and
on-the-water experience. I don't really believe there's much else one can
do in this regard.

Like another person who responded to your post, I don't quite get what it is
that you are having trouble with. If you want to learn about cruising, go
cruising, either on your own or another person's boat. If you find, after
several cruises of at least 2 weeks or so, that you still don't feel like a
"real sailor" then that would be something else again.

BTW not many of us here, including the many degenerates who have decades on
the water, actually know what a "real sailor" is. However we can easily
identify _sailors_ when we bump into them.

--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://kerrydeare.home.comcast.net/