Offshore Sailing School has announced two women-only sailing weeks next April and May to take women from novice or little sailing experience to competent sailors capable of handling large cruising boats up to 54’. Taught by expert U.S. Sailing-certified instructors, the women-only program mirrors the school’s popular Fast Track to Cruising® course – an eight day program that results in gaining three levels of US Sailing certification. Taught by US Sailing-certified women instructors at the bareboat cruising level, these special weeks are “designed to fulfill the three C’s of sailing,” says Offshore Sailing’s President and CEO, Doris Colgate. “Those three C’s are Confidence – in yourself, the boat and those with whom you sail; Comfort – with all the factors that go into feeling at home when you sail; and Control – of your sailing destiny, where you go, how you go and when you go.” But Colgate says there is a fourth C that has to be achieved before all the others kick in, “and that is Competence – which is the focus of all that we do at Offshore Sailing School.”
Colgate should know. She started sailing at age 27 when she took a Learn to Sail course at Offshore Sailing School, and then fell in love with (and married) the school’s owner, Steve Colgate, “and the school,” she says. She has been advocating for women to learn how to successfully and competently handle sailboats of all sizes ever since. In 1990 she founded the National Women’s Sailing Association, and two years later the not-for-profit Women’s Sailing Foundation. “I want women to be able to see the world under sail with the self-assurance that comes with knowing how to sail well,” says Colgate.
Available at the school’s locations on Captiva Island, Florida, and Scrub Island in the British Virgin Islands, the Fast Track Women’s Weeks start with two days learning basic to intermediate sailing skills on a Colgate 26, and then six days aboard learning skills to handle 43’ to 54’ cruising monohulls or 39’ to 48’ cruising catamarans, all while making new friends and memories in a comfortable environment.
The special women-only Fast Track to Cruising programs are April 29-May 6 at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva Island, Florida, and May 19-27, 2017 in the British Virgin Islands, at Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina. Cruising boats available in Florida are two Jeanneau 439s and a Leopard 48 catamaran. In the British Virgin Islands, women will sail on a Moorings 3900 catamaran and Moorings 54.5 monohull. No more than four women students and a woman instructor will be on each boat.
Arrival is Friday before the course begins Saturday, and ends the following Saturday. Course packages range from $3,995 to $6,500 depending on the size of the cruising boat, and whether participants are signing up for a private or shared room ashore and private or shared cabin aboard. Packages include full week course tuition, professional instructions, three nights’ resort accommodations ashore with room tax and daily resort fee, shared or private cabin aboard the cruising boat for five or six nights depending on location, welcome party first night, dinner ashore the night before the cruising course starts, all meals and snacks aboard the cruising boat plus two dinners ashore during the cruising course, graduation celebration, special women’s week logo shirt and hat, Doris Colgate’s book Sailing – A Woman’s Guide and three US Sailing textbooks (for each level of the course), three US Sailing certifications culminating in Bareboat Cruising Certification, diploma and logbook, and one year complimentary Cruising World magazine subscription. All participants also enjoy automatic first-year membership in US Sailing, and in the Offshore Cruising Club for world-wide flotilla sailing vacations led by Offshore, discounted membership in BoatUS, and first-time discounted charter benefits from The Moorings.
Offshore Sailing School was founded in 1964 by Olympian, America’s Cup Sailor and National Sailing Hall of Fame Inductee, Steve Colgate. The school provides a full range of sailing instruction with US Sailing certification – from beginning sailing to advanced cruising and racing – at seven locations in Florida, the British Virgin Islands, New York and New Jersey. In addition, the Company conducts team building programs for corporations and groups, and leadership training for universities, including Emory’s Goizuetta Advanced Leadership Academy. More than 140,000 adults and their families have graduated from Offshore Sailing School programs over the past 52 years. For more information and hi-res images, contact Beth Oliver, Director of Sales and Marketing – Boliver@OffshoreSailing.com or call 239-985-7516. Visit OffshoreSailing.com for more details
