VIDEO CLIP:  The Baths, Virgin Gorda - the latest addition to our BVI series!  Other videos too, including highlights from the Fine Living Network's show Back to Basics featuring one of our students and her experience going to sailing school. Click Here

Start Cruising^sm assumes (and rightly so) that students already feel comfortable handling daysailing keelboats in protected waters and moderate conditions. 
It takes day sailors to the next level, allowing you to practice skills needed in taking larger boats over longer distances.  You'll get a solid grounding (no pun intended) in handling smaller cruising sailboats, including use of auxilliary power and larger genoas, and the necessary knowledge and skills to start cruising on your own.

Start Cruising^sm is offered in both a 2-day and 3-day format.  The difference is simply time on the water and money; consult us about which schedule is most appropriate for you based on your experience and situation.  In both cases, we stay local and return each night.  The idea is to get valuable repetition in boat handling and piloting skills and be comfortable on a somewhat larger boat - not just to sail it in a straight line!
 

(Comfortable closthing makes for happy Start Cruising students - spring 2005.)

Prerequisites: ASA or US Sailing basic keelboat sailing certification, or comparable experience.  Non-certified sailors are welcome to take the course, but cannot be certified unless they first earn basic keelboat certification by taking the course or "challenging" the standard.
 

Certification: ASA Basic Coastal Cruising or US Sailing Basic Cruising.  ("Same difference").

Tuition: 2-day accelerated - $495; 3-day Holiday Weekend - $645
Discounts: 2 or more enrolled together take $50 off per person.

Curriculum: enough to require a separate page!

What do we teach you on?  The staple vessel in our stable for Basic Cruising is a Pearson 26.  This venerable design is the perfect step up in size, weight, gear complexity, and cruising accomodations.  Big enough to challenge you after Basic Keelboat, but not so large that you'll have trouble mastering her quickly during the course.  And she'll have you ready to handle somewhat larger vessels immediately.
 
 

This is a sister ship to our own Pearson 26, with the same two-tone color scheme (pale green top, which dramatically reduces deck glare).  We can't seem to locate pictures of our vessel - must be on a lost disc somewhere.   As ours won't be in the water until spring to take new photos, imagine yourself on this one for the time being!

Here's another P-26, moored at Hodges Creek, Tortola, BVI.  The Dockmaster took this shot before our March BVI trip.  There were several P-26's within a mile or so of the Sunsail base; this is a seaworth vessel capable of the trip from the mainland to the islands. To see more of our BVI trips, including video clips, see our main BVI page. Next exotic trip: GREECE, September 16-23.  Still room as of June 4; could fill up instantly with a whole group, or might take some time.  Airfare can only go UP, so talk to us asap about this trip.  We have a pair of Beneteau 49's, with 4 cabins and 4 heads.

The P-26 is tiller-steered and equipped with an outboard engine, running, "steaming" and anchor lights, VHF radio, depth sounder, large steering compass, working jib and furling genoa, and an asymmetric cruising spinnaker.  It's the correct step up in size from a light day sailing keelboat.  At 5,400 pounds before engine and gear, she's got a couple of thousand pounds on our Beneteau 21, but she's still manageable.  Students can feel they've mastered this size and length of vessel by the end of the course, something that's not nearly as easy with an over 30-foot wheel-steered auxiliary with a diesel, which most schools seem to use by default rather than by exception.

 

We use this Pearson 30, "Sunbow," from time to time, but we do it selectively based on the prior experience of the group. More typically, we might choose to use her for the final day of the 3-day schedule, once the 26 footer is mastered.

...The Pearson 26 was built in an era that defined the role of an honest racer/cruiser.  This boat's popularity was such that Pearson Yachts built more than 1,800 hulls over a 13-year span, of which about 200 were Pearson 26 OD's.*
    All of the variations of the P26 emerged from the Rhode Island factory and all were solid, well-built boats that catered equally to the cruising needs of families and performed well on the racecourse... The Pearson 26 still wins trophies at PHRF regattas today."

Pearson Yachts was one of the most respected production boat builders of all time.  Unfortunately, they went the way of too many good manufacturers in the late 1980's to early 1990's (financial bye-bye), but the company was recently resurrected.  Hopefully they'll pick up where they left off.