My Buddy and I live in the Atlanta area and are looking to get ASA
certified in Bareboat Chartering (104). We have a lot of experience
(lake) sailing my Catalina 22 and I expect we should challenge the
Basic Keelboat course. Can anyone give recommendations for schools
and skippers for the 103 and 104 courses in North Florida, either
Atlantic or Gulf coast?

Thanks,
Spigolli

I can't tell you who is good up there but let me take a moment to ask
you how good you are with man overboard drills and the other simple but
important things you will learn in basic? I'm an uscg captain and asa
instructor. I've been doing this for a long long time and one thing is
always true - it was even for me. When you take a good asa course you
always learn something that you would never leave home without if you
knew it was there to know.

If you live in Atlanta and are willing to have a fun live-a-board
vacation, you may want to consider a trip to San Diego, California.
There is are several schools in the harbour that are in competition
with each other so the price is very low at all of them. They have
programs that allow you to live aboard while taking the classes and
with south west flights out of Atlanta being so low it is probably
cheaper then most other ways to get certified.

I use to teach at all of the schools out there including the one with
Denise Conner – if that matters. I think the best of the schools are
Harbour Island Yacht Club and Learn TO Sail ( I think that is what he
calls it). They are about 2 miles from the SW terminal, their boats are
good enough for learning and clean enough for staying on (except Learn
to Sail – he’s a one boat, one guy (one girl but ask for Lee)
school and his boat is pristine). I don’t work for anyone out there
anymore but I can recommend some fantastic instructors if you end up
going that. Harbour Island’s number is 1-800-553-7245 and you have to
push 1 to connect to the San Diego school (they have a long beach
school now too). They have a web site as well but I don’t know what
the url is. Learn to sail’s web site is
http://www.learntosailsandiego.com/ 800-792-9726 or
619-925-4778 Lee, the guy who owns the boat works with harbour island
too and you SHOULD ask for him if you can get him. He is the guy that
teaches the teachers and the guy I got all my teaching signoffs from. I
don’t usually give much credit to others based on the fun I have by
acting like I always knew everything☺ but Lee is really good at
teaching and easy to get along with.

May your anchor be tight, your corks be loose, your rum be spiced and
your compass be true.
--
Captain Danny Taddei