Four to a boat, and nobody watches from the dock.
Back Creek · Severn River · Annapolis
Courses, with what each one is on the water for.
“Weather permitting” is not a policy. This is.
Published because most people book expecting to be cancelled on, and are not.
| Condition | Session | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Rain, any amount | We sail | Bring the jacket we listed. You will be wet and it will be fine. |
| Wind to 18 knots | We sail | Normal Chesapeake summer afternoon. This is the course as designed. |
| Wind 18 to 25 knots | We sail | We reef and shorten the course area. First-day students get a smaller sail plan, not a cancelled day. |
| Small craft advisory | Moved | Everything below bareboat prep moves. Heavy weather clinic, on the other hand, is probably about to be called. |
| Lightning within eight miles | Ashore | Off the water immediately, and we do not go back out for thirty minutes after the last strike. Not negotiable, not weighed against your schedule. |
| Fog below half a mile | Moved | Except navigation ashore, which becomes rather more interesting than usual. |
| Air below 40°F | Moved | Cold students learn nothing. The season runs late March to early November for this reason. |
A moved session costs nothing and is rebooked on the spot. Nobody at this school has ever been charged for weather.
Most people who ring us have never been on a sailing boat. That is the course this school is built around — four days, twenty-two hours on the water, and on the last afternoon you take the boat round the course with the instructor sitting on their hands.
- First course
- $695
- Afloat
- 22 hours
- On the boat
- 4 students
Why four students and not six.
Because on a four-hour session, four students each take the helm three or four times. Six students take it twice and spend the rest of the day being ballast, which is how people finish a course still unable to sail.
It is also why we cost more than the club programmes, and we would rather say that plainly than hide it in a footnote.
The four boats- You will be cold and wet at some point
- It is a boat on the Chesapeake. We send a kit list when you book and we mean the layers on it.
- You do not need to be strong
- Winches and a properly set-up boat do the work. The oldest student we taught last season was seventy-four.
- Seasickness is manageable
- The bay is shallow and short-chopped rather than oceanic. Tell the instructor on the dock, not two hours out.
- One of you can book for both
- Half our students are couples, and the usual arrangement is that both of them learn rather than one of them crewing forever.
The season runs late March to early November.