Our Boat or Yours?

Sand Dollar Sailing offers multiple ways to learn about sailing. From beginning sailing to advanced cruising techniques Sand Dollar’s instructors are experienced sailors with teaching credentials. We work with children, adults, and couples, in a private one on one setting, teaching the skills necessary to be a competent sailor. Our teaching method is “hands on” and because we only do private lessons we can tailor each lesson uniquely to the individual, advancing on their abilities not a groups.  

Our Boat

Our lesson boat is a vintage Pearson Ensign. She is
22 foot in length and has a full keel. Her sails include
a full mainsail a jib on a roller furller and spinnaker for advanced students. We have chosen this boat to do lessons on because she is very stable for her size yet quite responsive even in light breezes.
On the Ensign we teach up to two pupils from
beginning sailing to advanced spinnaker sets. We schedule lessons based on our typical winds, usually doing beginner lessons in the morning. We try to work with our clients and their schedules but typically a lesson runs 3 hours. In our experience after three to five lessons our beginning clients have a basic understanding of how to rig and derig the boat, leave and return to the mooring, and sail around the bay.

 

Your Boat

Many of our clients have recently purchased a boat
unfamiliar to them. Sometimes it is a different boat that
they learned on, or much larger than they are comfortable with. Often they simply want to become better sailors and what better way to improve one’s skills than on their own boat. Simply put we come to you on your boat, on your schedule, with a personal lesson plan based on what it is
you feel you need help with. From beginning sailing to advanced cruising techniques we have helped clients on boats as small as a “Haven” 12 to as large as fifty foot offshore cruisers.

In addition to our normal lessons we also help new boat owners get their purchase to home waters. We call this service “instructional deliveries”.

 

Personal Instruction

So why personal instruction? There are a lot of good sailing schools around and they all do the same basic things. When you teach to a group you generally have to go at the pace of the slowest learner. Most schools have a set curriculum which also works well for a group but ignores each student’s unique abilities.  Personal instruction allows the instructor to tailor each session to the individual. Students advance faster with a better understanding of what’s going on. There is no substitute for “tiller time” with one on one instruction.

If you have an interest in this sort of course please give us a call at 207-266-1686 or email us at . ^top