On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 10:30:59 +0000 (UTC), John Forkosh
wrote:
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.

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It's not quite clear to me what you mean by "real sailors", or exactly
which skills you believe to be missing. A lot of serious sailors grew
up in sailing families, went through junior sailing programs as
children, and went on to do collegiate sailing, that sort of thing.
You're not going to be able to duplicate that experience as an adult
so just do whatever you can that gives you as much time on the water
as possible, in different types of boats, and with people of different
skill levels. Read books and magazines, go to seminars when
available, try to find a crewing job on a racing boat (not as
difficult as you might think), charter boats for day sails with
friends, and seek out experienced people for your questions. Best of
all, buy a small boat of your own, learn to maintain it, and take it
out whenever you can.