Jun 21 2008

Cal Sailing Club: Best Value for Sailing on San Francisco Bay

Published by at 11:39 am under Sailing Clubs,Sailing Instruction

For those of you who may not know, the Cal Sailing Club is one of the best values for sailing on the San Francisco Bay.

The basic premise of the Cal Sailing Club is to function like a co-op for sailing.  For $60/quarter and 2 hours of your labor, you can be a member of the club.  This also entitles you to FREE LESSONS!  As many free lessons as you would like, actually.

After you have achieved a sufficient level of skill and the ability to teach sailing to others, you can earn your Junior Skipper Rating.  With that, you immediately become a Sailing Instructor (you learn the most about a subject matter when you teach it to others).

Do not fret if you are not a natural teacher.  The Cal Sailing Club offer teaching workshops–sort of, train-the-trainer classes for Sailing Instructors.

If you would like to advance your knowledge even further, you can earn your Senior Skipper Rating which includes Keel Boat Sailing, and, of course, the ability to teach it to others.  Your Senior Skipper Rating requires the completion of an approved project.  This may be some maintenance work (leading a work crew) on one of the 6 club-owned keel boats, some dinghy retrofits (again, think work party), or some project of equivalent scope.

And, further still, you can earn your Cruising Skipper rating–which entitles you to plan and lead long-distance cruises in the Keel Boats.  Recent cruises include trips to Angel Island, trips to various locations around the San Francisco Bay for lunch/dinner, night-time cruises, etc.

All of this wonderful instruction is completed under the loving supervision of other members of the club who have earned and passed each of the levels of sailing.

Imagine: all of this fun for $60/quarter and a few hours of your volunteer help.

PS. The Cal Sailing Club still teaches harbor sailing–motorless navigation of the congested waterways of a harbor and th docking of your sailboat.

See the Cal Sailing Club website for details

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