This year, American Sailing is celebrating their 40^th anniversary of helping sailors around the world realize their dreams out on the water. Since 1983, more than 500,000 sailors become certified after passing classes offered by American Sailing schools in hundreds of ports around the world that let people of all skill levels begin and expand their sailing skills. 

Today, they are continuing that traditional, successful way of educating sailors at more than 400 affiliate schools, while expanding the curriculum and offering more online educational materials to help even more sailors continue the lifelong journey of becoming a skillful sailor.

“We’re bringing more options online, adding interactive classes, and thinking every day about ways we can engage sailors in the learning environment that suits them best,” says Jonathan Payne, Executive Director of American Sailing. 

American Sailing has had online classes available in the past, but the organization is now continually updating its offerings for live and on-demand online learning. Sailors who choose to join as members can receive discounts or free classes, and the options go far beyond basic classes; they also include skills such as passage planning, sailing at night, shorthanded sailing, weather, radar, and docking, to name a few. 

“We’ve always drawn on the most trustworthy, experienced experts in sailing to ensure our sailing students are confident in the education they are receiving,” Payne says. “Through our live and on-demand online classes, any sailor anywhere can hear Peter Isler, Bill Gladstone, Chris Bedford, John Neal, Andy and Lisa Batchelor, and so many other share their knowledge in practical and accessible ways, so people can learn from the best at their own pace, whenever they’re interested in adding new sailing skills.”

These online resources are being made available in addition to the foundational classes (ASA 101, 103, 104, 105, etc.) at American Sailing schools, which are easy to locate by region via the association’s interactive online map. Students can register for classes at schools near their own home port or at schools in destinations where they’d like to learn.

For instance, if you’re heading to some of the larger annual boat shows, you could pair the event with a course at a nearby American Sailing school. There are multiple schools in and near Annapolis, Maryland; Newport, Rhode Island; and Fort Lauderdale, Florida—to name just the major boat show locations.

“Our courses are great for first-time sailors, as well as old salts who want to pick up a new skill after seeing what’s new on the boat show docks,” Payne says. “Some of the more popular courses for more experienced sailors include Celestial Navigation and Offshore Passagemaking. If you’ve been cruising in your local waters for years and want to go farther afield, these are the types of courses that can help you get there.”

Having taught so many students throughout the years, American Sailing is the world’s leading educational resource for this type of learning. All are welcome into its classes—older, younger, athletic, differently abled — sailing is for everyone. Military veterans can receive a discount on some courses at specified American Sailing schools. Sailors who have taken the classes have glowing reviews.

“My wife and I just completed the combined ASA 101/103 courses. We both were new to sailing,” wrote students at the Myrtle Beach Sailing School in South Carolina. “We really enjoyed ourselves and can’t believe how much we learned. We intend to continue sailing and will take additional ASA courses.”

Similar comments can be found on the websites of ASA affiliate schools nationwide, such as Griffin Sailing School in Connelly, New York: “Kris was my instructor for ASA 101 and ASA 104. I’ve also logged over a thousand offshore miles with him. He brings a vast wealth of knowledge and experience to his work. Whether you want to learn just basics or are looking to become a world-class offshore racer, Kris will teach you exactly what to do and how to do it as efficiently as possible.”

For anyone interested in bareboating, the ASA is also a gateway to the certifications that many charter companies now demand. These certifications can allow ASA graduates to charter monohulls or catamarans for sailing vacations all around the world.

“Charter companies want to make sure that anyone using their boats is knowledgeable at the helm. They’ve seen first-hand the difference in sailors who are formally educated, and most require certification through at least 104,” says Cindy Shabes, President of American Sailing. “We not only teach the basics that bareboaters will need to sail the boats, but we also emphasize safety so that everyone can feel relaxed and comfortable on board. ”

Once sailors take their first steps down this educational path, she adds, they generally want to continue. 

“Safe, confident sailing becomes a lifestyle,” Shabes says. “If you feel good about your skills, you’re likely to sail more, to invite friends and family to join you, and to have a great time out on the water. That’s the goal with every class we teach, at every level of instruction — we want people to come away with brilliant memories of times on the water shared with friends and family.” 

The 101, 103, and 104 certifications also translate to an IPC, if you are headed for Mediterranean waters. The IPC is a certificate equivalent to the ICC, which is required by most countries to charter in Europe and the Mediterranean. You can learn more about the IPC on the American Sailing website. 

Another option for learning is a sailing vacation that’s part of a flotilla, which means you charter your own bareboat but are cruising with a group of boats that includes an ASA-affiliated leader. The leaders organize the itineraries for ease of sailing based on their local knowledge, and are available throughout the cruise to help with any questions or challenges that students have.

There are flotilla options with American Sailing Vacations through affiliate locations in the Pacific Northwest, the British Virgin Islands, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Spain, Italy, French Polynesia and beyond. Just about every season of the year, a flotilla is launching somewhere. 

“Flotillas are a fantastic way for all kinds of sailors to get to know a new destination,” Payne says. “Even the most experienced sailors will tell you that having local knowledge can make the difference between a cruise being good or great. These flotillas can combine fun, education and local knowledge in ways that are simply unmatched.”

Ready to start improving your own sailing skills? Learn more at asa.com.

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When you think about all the skills a cruiser needs to know, your mind likely goes to sailing, maintaining and outfitting the cruising boat. But the dinghy? Probably an afterthought.

As it turns out, there’s a lot to know about the little boat that many cruisers equate to their car. American Sailing is releasing a new book, Going Ashore Made Easy, to educate new cruisers and charterers about all things dinghy, including selection, operation, and maintenance. 

The book, which is scheduled for release in September 2022, is written by cruising veterans and ASA sailing instructors Andy and Lisa Batchelor. The Batchelors have contributed to four other textbooks for ASA, but this is the first time that dinghies and outboards have taken center stage. “Once we started researching the topic,” Andy says, “we discovered that there is a distinct lack of information out there.” And from their years as sailing and cruising instructors, the Batchelors know that there is definitely a need to cover this topic in depth. 

With that in mind, Going Ashore Made Easy was developed to serve as a basis and textbook for the Dinghy and Outboard endorsement for the ASA and the Recreational Powerboating Association. It will also be appreciated by anyone who is in the market for a new dinghy, whether its intended use is as a tender to a cruising boat or as a stand-alone vessel. This essential part of good seamanship is a perfect addition to the ASA’s lineup of certifications and online courses that take sailors from their first time at the tiller to skippering a vessel on an offshore passage.

Going Ashore Made Easy is divided into five topic areas: Evolution of Modern Dinghies, Dinghy Operations, Uses and Activities for Dinghies, Secure Transit and Storage, and Care and Maintenance. Let’s take a quick look at each section.

Evolution of Modern Dinghies

Although some sailors might prefer the simplicity of a small rowing dinghy, cruisers now have an abundance of options for their tenders—including a relative newcomer to the market: carbon-fiber dinghies—and how to propel them. The Batchelors take a comprehensive look at what’s available, weighing costs, benefits and, most important, intended use and storage. “Whether you’re storing the dinghy on deck, on davits or folded up in a locker, these things all need to be thought about beforehand because it will impact your choices,” Lisa notes.

In years past, dinghy propulsion was basically a choice between rowing or a small, two-stroke gasoline outboard. Not so anymore. These days options also include four-stroke engines, electric outboards (“which are great, but consider how you’re going to charge the batteries,” Andy advises) and even propane-powered outboards.

Dinghy Operations

The majority of accidents that occur on charters happen aboard dinghies, so it is crucial that charter guests—and all boaters—know how to safely operate the tender. This section covers the gamut from boarding the boat, mounting and running the outboard, steering, docking, anchoring and running at night, as well as U.S. Coast Guard safety requirements. Also covered are beach landings and launchings, which, Andy notes, even experienced cruisers can struggle with.

Uses and Activities for Dinghies

Your boat’s tender can be used for so much more than just trips ashore. The dinghy can be everything from a reconnaissance boat to check out a harbor entrance before bringing the big boat through to a dive or fishing boat. If something, say a propulsion or steering failure, were to happen to your cruising boat, this section even describes ways to safely and effectively use the dinghy as a towboat.

Secure Transit and Storage

Picture this: You’re ready to head back to the boat after a fun evening in town. You get to the dinghy dock…but your tender isn’t there. Or you’re enjoying a cup of coffee in the cockpit in the morning, and notice that the dinghy is no longer tied up astern. Now what? Where to put the dinghy while you are underway, how to keep it secure on a beach or when tied to the boat or dinghy dock, and how to prevent theft are skills that are frequently overlooked—or worse, learned the hard way. Going Ashore Made Easy covers all of this and more, offering valuable tips and insight for all boaters.

Care and Maintenance

While many of the skills covered in this book can be mastered in time if you use a dinghy frequently, this section, which covers both the boat and the outboard, turns Going Ashore Made Easy into a true reference book. Care and maintenance covers everything cruisers need to know about keeping their dinghy in good working order—and how to troubleshoot when things go wrong. “Years ago, many people had small-engine experience,” Andy says. “Nowadays, that’s not necessarily the case, so we really cover in detail all the parts of outboard engines and how to care for them.”

Based in Los Angeles, the ASA is the world’s largest sailing education organization with more than 400 schools located in 27 countries. Whether you’re ready for your first sailing lesson or want to add to your skillset with, say, a course on marine weather or celestial navigation, the ASA has something for just about every sailor. Visit the company’s website at asa.com to order Going Ashore Made Easy or any of their acclaimed sailing textbooks, take an online course, or find an ASA sailing school near you.

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Pick up some new cruising skills—without having to leave your house! The American Sailing Association has launched a new webinar series that aim to help students grow as a sailor by providing a deep dive into important topics. The first session, Marine Weather in the Smartphone Era, will be held on June 11, 2019, at 6pm PDT/ 9pm EDT. This live session will be moderated by America’s Cup winner and author Peter Isler. Topics covered will include marine weather basics, apps and online sources for weather, understanding and staying current with the weather during your sail.

On June 18, the webinar topic is Coastal Navigation in the Smartphone Era which will include coastal piloting and navigation 101, preparing for your sail with paper charts and apps, and using apps and other navigation tools to stay safe underway.

June 25th’s webinar topic is Bareboat Chartering Tips for Sailors, and will feature special guest, Cruising World editor Mark Pillsbury. Topics will include how to choose a destination, a charter company and the boat, as well as packing and provisioning for the adventure.

Each session is $19.95 for ASA members ($29.95 for non-members) and sailors of all skill levels are welcome. For more information and to register, visit the website.

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Sailing Made Easy

This full-color, beautifully illustrated handbook takes new sailors and guides them through stepping aboard a sailboat for the first time to planning a daysail. In between, you’ll find easily digested chapters on the parts of a sailboat, the basics of sailing and sail shape, docking, seamanship and more. Sailing Made Easy is used as the textbook for the ASA 101 class, but will provide a solid foundation for anyone wanting to get their start sailing or brush up on the basics.

The Complete Sailor

It’s like the next best thing to having a friend who’s an old salt (and willing to explain everything to you). While The Complete Sailor goes over the basics for sure, it covers so much more than that — hull designs and ­construction, aids to navigation, the finer points of rigging, the list goes on. Throughout the book there are clear and instructive illustrations that bring it all together.

The Annapolis Book of Seamanship

The Annapolis Book of Seamanship is a classic in its own right, and has a place as a reference aboard any cruising sailboat. Written by one of the leading experts in safety at sea, this book contains all you’d want to know about sailing and sailboats, but where it really shines is in its coverage of weather, piloting and navigation.

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I roll off the cockpit settee, pop my head over the dodger and look into the night. Twenty degrees off our starboard bow, I do see it: three white lights in a vertical line, then a red light below and to the left of the others.

“I’ve been watching him for a while,” Hank says. “His bearing hasn’t changed.”

My first reaction is to call for an ­exaggerated turn to port. As I try to shake off sleep, an exam question flickers from some dim recess.

You are approaching another vessel at night. You can see both red and green sidelights and, above the level of the sidelights, three white lights in a vertical line. The vessel may be

a. not under command
b. towing a tow more than 200 meters astern
c. trawling
d. underway and dredging

My heart races before I call for the course change; another question runs through my mind.

You are aboard the give-way vessel in a crossing situation. Which of the following should you NOT do in obeying the Navigation Rules?

a. cross ahead of the stand-on vessel
b. make a large course change to starboard
c. slow your vessel
d. back your vessel

Adrenaline wallops me. “Turn 90 ­degrees to starboard,” I say.

For the next minute or so, the tug moves safely across our port side, and soon we both see the faint red sidelight of its barge some hundreds of yards behind. I think of the hawser connecting them, lethal and invisible, then sit chatting with Hank for a few minutes before lying back down for another 20-minute nap. (For the record, the correct answers are B and A.)

Hands-On Sailors

I’ve joined Shawn Brown and Hank Schmidt as their instructor for a pair of courses — Coastal Navigation and Coastal Passage Making — two intermediate steps in a tiered curriculum from novice to expert that’s created and administered by the United States Sailing Association, or US Sailing. Shawn is an airplane pilot who’s recently left a tech startup and is now looking to buy a 50-something-foot ketch to live and cruise aboard. Hank (no relation to the Hank Schmitt who organizes cruising rallies under the Offshore Passage Opportunities name) is a New York City emergency-room physician who hopes to start crewing on ocean-sailing trips from the U.S. East Coast to the Caribbean. Both would like to charter sailboats in different places around the world. If they can successfully perform the hands-on tasks laid out in each course and pass the written exams, they’ll receive US Sailing certificates that demonstrate to charter companies and skippers that they’ve attained a rigorous level of ­proficiency in these disciplines.

For this trip, we’re sailing Matilda, a newish Hanse 505 managed by New England Sailing Center in Newport, Rhode Island. The Coastal Passage Making curriculum includes night passages, so we plot a track that will take us from Narragansett Bay out to Shelter Island at the eastern end of Long Island, then across Block Island Sound to Martha’s Vineyard, before returning to Newport — a triangle of some 200 miles over five days, including two overnighters.

After stowing provisions and getting familiar with the boat’s systems, we work through this question together:

The Hanse 505 is fitted with a Volvo D2 diesel engine and 75 gallons of fuel. If she cruises at 6.5 knots and burns 1.75 gallons per hour at 2,200 rpm, what is *Matilda‘s safe cruising range under power?*

a. 75 miles
b. 175 miles
c. 275 miles
d. 375 miles

It takes two steps to answer the question. We know that the engine burns 1.75 gallons per hour and that Matilda will travel a distance of 6.5 miles in one hour. Our first step is to figure out how far we’ll travel on a gallon of fuel. Dividing 6.5 miles by 1.75 gallons gives the answer: 3.71 miles per gallon.

Next, we need to know how far our tank of fuel will carry us. Multiplying 75 gallons by 3.71 miles per gallon gives a result of 278 miles. Answer C, 275 miles, is mathematically possible but not a safe cruising range. Applying a safety factor of 25 percent leaves us with a range of 208 miles. The answer B, 175 miles, leaves us a safety factor closer to a third of a tank. B is the best answer to this question. In practical terms, this means that even if the wind shuts off all week, we could still complete our itinerary without refueling.

We spend our first afternoon sailing in Narragansett Bay, calculating time-speed-distance problems and plotting course-to-steer vectors through the tidal current as we reach over the top of Conanicut Island, then tack down the West Passage to Dutch Harbor. Shawn and Hank study the chart and select a spot near the mouth of Great Creek that shows 14 feet of depth at mean low water and is marked with an “M” for its mud bottom. Calculating for 7-to-1 scope and taking into account the tidal range and our 5 feet of freeboard, they set the hook, then put out 160 feet of rode. We grill chicken, share a few laughs and turn in early.

Our trip’s first night passage begins at 0200.

From Lubber to Salt, Step by Step

US Sailing, which has existed in one form or another for more than 120 years, describes itself as “the national governing body for the sport of sailing.” In the 1980s, it got into the business of teaching sailing, with an initial focus on kids and small boats. In the 1990s, it began developing courses for adult sailors in bigger boats — “keelboats,” as opposed to dinghies, and cruising in addition to racing. Similar instructional programs are available that lead to American Sailing Association certification (see “ASA Courses and Certifications,” at the end of the article).

Two years ago, US Sailing reorganized itself to simplify its several missions. Now there’s a dedicated Youth department, which focuses on teaching kids to sail small boats through local sailing schools, yacht clubs and community sailing centers. Its Youth network includes some 1,500 instructors. Other US Sailing departments support sailboat racing up to the Olympic level, providing rules, coaching, measurements and other tools to create a level competitive playing field.

The courses Shawn and Hank are taking fall under US Sailing’s Adult department. Since January 2017, that division has been led by Betsy Alison, a champion in several senses of the word. Five-time winner of the Women’s Keelboat Championships, five-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and 2011 National Sailing Hall of Fame inductee, her competitive record speaks for itself. But in a broader sense, Betsy has long been a champion of providing people access to the water, especially folks with clear barriers. In 2015, she won the ISAF World Sailing President’s Development Award for her work as head coach of the US Paralympic Sailing Program.

In her new role, Betsy’s mission has broadened. “We just want to get butts in boats,” she told me last winter. “We want people to try sailing and have a hands-on experiential learning opportunity that hopefully sparks their interest and makes them want to continue.”

For Betsy and her department, that ­mission starts with a program called First Sail. First Sail sessions typically run two hours and cost between $35 and $100 per person; after that, many clubs or schools offer discounts on future lessons. “We have First Sail locations that are not US Sailing keelboat schools or yacht clubs,” Betsy said.  ”And we don’t mind whether someone is using ASA instructors or volunteer instructors or whatnot. It’s the first entry point in my department, and it’s for people who have never tried sailing before.”

The next step for folks who want to learn more is US Sailing’s Adult Keelboat program — and this is the track Shawn and Hank are following. The US Sailing website includes a list of accredited schools that offer certification. With about 75 schools on the list, that network is smaller than what you’ll find with US Sailing’s Youth program (1,500 instructors) or the American Sailing Association (roughly 300 schools and clubs).

The Adult Cruising Track lays out a progressive set of standardized stepping stones to lead novices toward sailing expertise:

• Basic Keelboat
• Basic Cruising
• Bareboat Cruising
• Cruising Catamaran Endorsement
• Coastal Navigation
• Coastal Passage Making
• Celestial Navigation
• Offshore Passage Making

In addition to these, US Sailing offers other targeted programs, including Safety at Sea courses and a host of online instruction. “If you look at the millennial generation,” Betsy said, “they don’t want to own things. They want to go to a community sailing program or to a shared-boat club and lease or charter a boat and enjoy it without having to make the big financial investment in it. So this year we’ve started expanding our small keelboat program.” For such people, certifications are their ticket to renting boats. So, US Sailing expanded its program last year to include Performance Keelboat. “It’s an opportunity to teach people to sail their boats better and faster without being related to racing.” It’s also unrelated to the more systems-heavy cruising track.

Another new course comes under the heading of US Powerboating. “What sets us apart from some of the other ­powerboat-instruction providers is that our programs are all focused around ­hands-on, experiential learning,” Betsy said. “So you learn how to pivot-turn; you learn how to dock and undock, and all the little nuances that you don’t get if you sit online for your boater’s education card.”

Bringing It All Home

The full reality of that hands-on, experiential instruction hits us at 0130, when wake-up alarms start ringing through Matilda‘s cabin. After that initial jolt, only the clatter of the anchor chain breaks the midnight silence as we hoist the main and sail off our anchor engineless. A gentle southerly and the ebbing current take us quietly out past the Dutch Harbor mooring field and back toward West Passage.

“See that red light that’s flashing twice then once every six seconds?” I say to Shawn. “Keep that just off our starboard bow.” This is the preferred-channel buoy “DI” at the south end of Dutch Island — red on top, green on the bottom, with a composite group-flash light pattern at night. We talk about how boats traveling north up the West Passage treat this navigation aid as a red mark if they intend to continue up the main channel but as a green mark if they’re going up the secondary channel into Dutch Harbor. When Shawn and Hank take their exam at the end of the week, they’ll remember this moment; at least five questions deal with aids to navigation, and more than one of those asks about preferred-channel buoys.

With sunrise off Point Judith comes the New England fog — the “smoky sou’wester,” as advection fog is known in these parts, recognizing the strange pairing of zero visibility with a ripping breeze. What should we do?

Shawn combs through the Navigation Rules to find out. Subpart D covers  “Sound and Light Signals.” Rule 35 treats  “Sound Signals in Restricted Visibility.”

That’s us.

“In or near an area of restricted visibility, whether by day or night,” he reads, “a ­power-driven vessel making way through the water shall sound at intervals of not more than two minutes, one prolonged blast.” Elsewhere we read that a prolonged blast sounds for four to six seconds.

Sure enough, we can hear one of those off our port beam — and it’s getting louder.

But that signal is for power-driven vessels, and we’re sailing with our engine off. What about us?

“A vessel not under command; a vessel ­restricted in her ability to maneuver, whether underway or at anchor; a sailing vessel; a vessel engaged in fishing, whether underway or at anchor; and a vessel engaged in towing or pushing another vessel shall … sound at intervals of not more than two minutes, three blasts in succession, namely, one prolonged followed by two short blasts.”

And so for the next three-quarters of an hour till the fog clears, we take turns blowing the air horn — one prolonged, two short blasts, every two minutes. The sound of the other boat moves aft, but we never catch sight of it.

Through the morning and the early afternoon, we devise a watch schedule to make up for last night’s short nap, and we set up a detailed log of our progress. All day we motor sail a little south of west toward Gardiners Point, keeping a close eye on the weather. The NOAA forecast calls for a powerful front arriving later and bringing gale-force winds through the night. We call up National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s graphic marine weather charts and compare the surface analysis with the 12-, 24- and 48-hour forecasts. We talk about the isobars, those lines of equal barometric pressure on the map, and how tighter isobars indicate greater wind velocities. We talk about the changing sky, and what the progress from cirrus to stratus to cumulus foretells. Later that night, safely anchored in Shelter Island’s Coecles Harbor, the shrieks through the rigging and the boat’s snappy pitch send home the message that what we’re learning here isn’t just theoretical.

The gale doesn’t quite blow itself out till early afternoon, so we use the next day for coursework at anchor: tide problems using the rule of twelfths, set-and-drift plots, safety procedures in cases of fire or crew overboard. We use the time to plot a ­current-corrected course back across Block Island Sound to Martha’s Vineyard. After a swim and a late lunch, we up anchor and set off in time to round Gardiners Point by sunset and begin our second overnight passage.

By the time we return to Newport after five days out, the exam questions for the Coastal Passage Making certification seem a little less daunting — and a little more real.

The greater the pressure difference between a high- and low-pressure center, the:

a. cooler the temperature will be
b. drier the air mass will be
c. warmer the temperature will be
d. greater the force of the wind will be

Fog formed by moisture-laden air moving across a cold portion of Earth’s surface and condensing is called:

a. sea fog
b. radiation fog
c. advection fog
d. frontal fog

A lighted preferred-channel buoy will show a:

a. Morse (A) white light
b. composite group flashing light
c. yellow light
d. fixed red light

To pass the course and gain their ­certification, Shawn and Hank need to answer at least 80 percent of these questions correctly (the answers to the questions above are D, C and B, respectively). That’s 64 out of 80. But after this week, all that theory from the textbook has been fleshed out with a boatload of indelible memories. All that said, this story has a happy ending: They passed.

Plotting the Effect of Current

Step 1: We’ll use a universal plotting sheet to work out our current vectors. The plotting sheet is marked with units for distance and angle. We’ll use it to draw vectors, lines that represent both angle and distance. To solve problems for tidal current, the trick is to create a plot based on one hour of travel. That way our speed (knots) equals our distance (miles), and the length of each vector directly represents our speed. In this problem, we’re steering a course of 020 true and making 5 knots through the water. Using dividers with a pencil tip on one end, measure off 5 miles on the distance scale and make an arc near our course. Next, using the compass rose, line up parallel rules from the plotting sheet’s center mark through the 020 mark on the compass rose. Draw a line from the center to our pencil arc; this vector represents our course and boat speed. Above the line, label it “C 020 T.” The “C” reminds us that this is our course, uncorrected for current; the “T” reminds us that this is a true course, corrected for compass error. Below the line, label it “S 5.0”; the “S” reminds us that this is our boat speed (through the water, not over the ground).

Step 2: Now we’ll draw a second vector representing the current’s set (direction) and drift (speed). Using NOAA’s Tides & Currents tables, we’ve determined that the current is setting us at 082 true at a speed of 2.9 knots, so we can start by marking off a distance of 2.9 miles with the dividers. From the head of our course/speed vector, scribe an arc near 082. Set the parallel rules at the center of the plotting sheet and at 082 on the compass rose, then walk them to the head of the course/speed vector. Draw a line that intersects our second arc. Label these “SET 082 T” and “S 2.9.”

Step 3: Using parallel rules, draw the vector from the center of the plotting sheet to the head of the set/drift vector. Read the angle off the compass rose, then measure the distance with the dividers. This vector shows that our actual track is 042 true and our speed over the ground is 6.8 knots. Label this vector “TR 042 T” and “SOG 6.8.” We’ve solved for current. A plot on the chart based on this exercise would be called an “estimated position” — more accurate than a simple dead-reckoned ­position but still not as accurate as a positive fix.

ASA Courses and Certifications

Founded in 1983, the American Sailing Association has developed programs for sailing instruction that include textbooks and online courses, as well as classroom and on-the-water instruction. The ASA counts among its membership some 300 sailing schools and yacht clubs, as well as charter companies and professional sailing instructors. Its entry-level textbook, Sailing Made Easy, gets my vote for the best learn-to-sail book for novices. The ASA has developed standards for a series of progressive sailing certifications, including:

• ASA 101: Basic Keelboat Sailing
• ASA 103: Basic Coastal Cruising
• ASA 104: Bareboat Cruising
• ASA 105: Coastal Navigation
• ASA 106: Advanced Coastal Cruising
• ASA 107: Celestial Navigation
• ASA 108: Offshore Passage Making
• ASA 110: Basic Small Boat Sailing
• ASA 114: Cruising Catamaran

In addition to these broad standards, the ASA has also developed endorsements for more specialized skills:

• ASA 117: Basic Celestial Endorsement
• ASA 118: Docking Endorsement
• ASA 119: Marine Weather Endorsement
• ASA 120: Radar Endorsement

Be sure to check out ASA’s online courses too.

CW editor at large Tim Murphy holds a 100-ton Master’s license and has taught sailing for many years. He’s preparing a 1988 Passport 40, Billy Pilgrim, for long-distance voyaging.

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As a Southern California ocean sailor I had never been to Big Blue, the second-deepest lake in America and considered by many to be the most beautiful. But when I saw the endless pine-covered slopes and the majestic mountains that surround Lake Tahoe like a crown, I thought, What took me so long?

The lake has many singular traits. Three hours northeast of San Francisco, it is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, and it is divided roughly in half by the state line that separates California and Nevada. Tahoe sits at the entrance to the Sierra Nevada, with a surface elevation of 6,200 feet. It is drained by only one river, the Truckee, and it is almost 100 percent pure, like bottled water. It has only one keelboat marina, one island and one true bay, named Emerald. However, the bay is so stunningly beautiful that there is probably no need for any others.

I never associated this lake with sailing, possibly because it’s famous for so many other activities. The 1960 Winter Olympics were held in nearby Squaw Valley. The small towns that line parts of its shores boast more bike, kayak, paddleboard, canoe, raft and personal watercraft rentals than one can count. Water skiers love its usually calm surface. Hikers get lost in places that border it, locations such as Desolation Wilderness. Visitors even attend Shakespeare plays performed on the beach, orchestra concerts played under a tent and pop-rock nights at casinos in Stateline, Nevada. But tacking and reaching under sail? That’s possible too.

With that in mind, my wife, Donna, and our two cousins decided to charter a Catalina 27 on this mythical lake and explore its equally mythic Emerald Bay.

Tahoe Keys Marina, in the small city of South Lake Tahoe, California, is home to dozens of powerboats and perhaps 30 or 40 sailboats, and includes hoists and a popular launch ramp that can accommodate vessels of various sizes. It is also home to Sailing Ventures, a charter company and American Sailing Association-accredited sailing school.

On an August day in 75-degree sunshine, we cast off and headed for the marina’s narrow outlet. A number of factors forced us to pay close attention. The exit passage is about 100 yards long but barely wide enough for two boats, and as it enters the lake, its depth can shrink to less than a foot under the keel of an average sailboat. The marina’s operators told us that nearby idle dredgers were “waiting for permits,” adding that a drought in the Western states was also a reason for the extreme shallowness. (I am still skeptical about the latter since it rained at least briefly almost every afternoon of our 10-day visit to the lake, and hillsides do not stay a glorious jade color without some precipitation.)

An aerial photograph of Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay in the summer with Desolation Wilderness still covered in snow, CA.

And then the wonder happened: The depth dropped to 20 feet, 40 feet, 100 feet, 300 feet in less than a minute. We had sailed off a cliff, and soon the thought of even looking at the depth sounder became superfluous. The breeze freshened to about 8 knots out of the northeast, and we glided with eagles through crystal-clear water.

Tahoe’s summer prevailing winds are about equally divided between a morning and midday northerly, followed by a rather consistent afternoon southwesterly coming up from the Pacific. Neither stirs up the lake very much, so they produce ideal sailing: steady breeze with no significant swell. Of course, there are some summer days when the winds never exceed about 5 knots, but after all, this is an alpine lake located 200 miles from the nearest seashore. Gales are rare in summer.

After lunch in the cockpit, cousin Carl declared, “I feel like a Kennedy.” Then we turned the bow northwest and, after about an hour, looked for the downward slope of a mountainside that marks the entrance to Emerald Bay. On this summer afternoon we could have found the entrance just by following a couple of power craft. Before going in, we furled our sails because we were told that winds in the bay either gust and spiral around or become fluky and directionless.

The bay’s entrance was extremely well-marked with red and green buoys, but it proved to be almost as shallow as the entrance to the marina. We watched with fascination — and then with consternation — as the underwater cliff rose to meet us: 250 feet, 100 feet, 35 feet, 10 feet, 7 feet. As though being hurled from the open sea, we cascaded through the little passage, but then once again watched the depth readings increase rapidly. Emerald Bay alone, 2 miles long and a half-mile wide, is deeper than at least one of the Great Lakes.

We cruised under power in a clockwise direction, marveling at the awesome Sierra peaks above us and the impossibly clear water below. The winds did increase to perhaps 25 knots as we approached the head of the bay, but they had little effect on the surface of the water. Paddlers gleefully approached, landed on and climbed to the summit of Lake Tahoe’s only island, Fannette, as we circled it. The islet boasts a small castle-like structure called the Tea House at its peak. Now just a stone shell, it was constructed in 1929 by the owner of the bay’s only residence, Lora Knight. She was a wealthy Sweden aficionado, and commissioned a small mansion at the bay’s head and called it Vikingsholm because she saw the body of water as a kind of fjord. She also built this outpost on the island, and would ferry her guests for tea a few times every summer. We wondered what Starbucks would do with the shell if it could convince the National Park Service to sell it.

We had been told that the best place to stop and go ashore was at the mooring field near the bay’s boat-in-only campground. We found more than 20 moorings, most of them open, but they lacked the accompanying pick-up sticks often found at places like California’s Catalina Island. In fact, they lacked pendants and float buoys as well. Instead, each ball featured a metal ring on top. Carl, a former basketball coach, disdained the use of a boat hook that one might normally employ in such a situation. He lay on the foredeck with his right arm over the side, holding a cleated dock line, and said, “I’ll pick up the mooring, just put the damn boat on it.”

I did, and he did as well.

As we sailed, I’d wondered if Tahoe’s water was too cold for swimming. I soon found the answer when the building southwesterly blowing straight down the bay pitched my sandal off the deck and swept it about 100 feet from the boat. Flip-flops are expensive these days, and since Carl’s wife, Kathleen, was daring me to retrieve it, I dived off the stern. The water was surprisingly mild, no colder than, say, the Pacific off Laguna Beach on an average summer day. In fact, the real challenge lay not in adjusting to the temperature but in swimming back against the aforementioned 25-knot wind.

Rowing ashore and landing were child’s play because there is a true sand beach just west of the campground’s pier. The dock itself is in water that is too shallow for most sailboats. It receives plenty of use from powerboaters, though, since the entire bay is accessible only by water; there are no roads down from the highway that circles it 1,000 feet above the shore. Even visitors to the Vikingsholm mansion must walk down a precipitous trail that descends from that height in less than a mile.

I stood on the shore of this unbelievably clear body of protected fresh water and waved to my crewmates lounging in the Catalina’s cockpit. Basking in the sunshine and relishing the 85-degree temperature, I listened to the wind sing down the 10,000-foot-high mountainsides, through vast groves of sugar pines. It was a memorable experience.

Vikingsholm Castle at Emerald Bay State Park, Lake Tahoe, California.

I’ve enjoyed sailing Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia, but here there were no swirling mists, icy water, whirlpools, submerged logs or chilling winds. This was the Lake in the Sky, right here in California, and I felt like I had discovered a slice of paradise.

I rowed back, Carl cast off the mooring and we powered through the bay’s shallow entrance as before. Once outside, we raised the sails and they again filled as we heeled sharply, enjoying a goodbye wave from the bay’s steady southwesterly. We reached back across Tahoe, unable to remember why we had waited so long to discover it.

Lawrence Mumford is an American Sailing Association-certified instructor and a university professor. With his wife, Donna, he often sails the bays and islands that extend from Santa Barbara to San Diego, California. Their on-water adventures have taken them to the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes, the East Coast and the Baltic.

About the Lake

The Lake Tahoe sailing season runs from about Memorial Day to the end of September, but there might still be snow on the mountainsides into June.

Although the lake has only one true bay, there are several crescent-shaped open roadsteads on both sides that are suitable for anchoring. Examples are Meeks Bay on the west shore and Sand Harbor on the east. Both of these coves have swim buoys that not only protect swimmers, but also act as safe-depth markers for sailboats.

The Fresh Ketch restaurant at the Tahoe Keys Marina is recommended and an easy stroll from most of the docks.

If you go ashore, don’t leave food in your beached dinghy because Tahoe bears are quite interested in such easy pickings. In fact, it is not a good idea to stroll a beach at night eating, say, an apple. At least one visitor has had his snack rudely confiscated by same.

Chartering on Lake Tahoe

We chartered a 27-foot Catalina from Sailing Ventures, located in the Tahoe Keys Marina in South Lake Tahoe. We found it was the only company on the lake that advertises bareboat sailboats for rent. Its fees were quite reasonable, and Michelle Dawn, the director, personally gave us a thorough and unhurried checkout. Rental rates begin at about $250.

Sailing Ventures is also an American Sailing Association school with a full roster of courses and a sister organization on San Francisco Bay. It begins letting boats out around May 15, but reservations can be made at any time of the year: sailingventures.com, PO Box 10583, Reno, NV 89510. Charterers can also call Michelle at 775-287-4356, or send email to michelle@sailingventures.com.

Visit tahoekeysmarina.net for the location of the fuel dock and additional services.

For overnight accommodations, the town boasts at least 50 hotels, motels and cabin complexes ranging in value from luxurious to basic. There are no hotels in the Tahoe Keys Marina itself, but many of the owners of the condominiums and cottages that surround it offer their places for rent during the summer. There are also large public campgrounds on the west side of town.

To fly to the Tahoe Keys Marina, it is best to land in Reno, Nevada, and take the 75-minute, $30 shuttle to South Lake Tahoe. It is a scenic ride over a stretch of the Sierra Nevada. The local Lake Tahoe Airport is used only by private aircraft.

For those visiting by car, there are several good restaurants in the surrounding area, as well as provisioning stores and souvenir shops along U.S. Highway 50.

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Forget the hurricanes: It’s business as usual at Blue Water Sailing School, which reopens December 2, 2017, in St. Thomas, in the United States Virgin Islands. Most of its fleet was not in the Virgin Islands and sustained no fall storm damage.

The school’s base, at American Yacht Harbor in the village of Red Hook, St. Thomas, offers courses through the American Sailing Association curriculum. Among them are Course A+ Cat: Bareboat Catamaran Skipper, a one-week liveaboard cruising course, and Course A: Bareboat Monohull Skipper, starting mid-January 2018.

For more details contact Blue Water Sailing School (www.bwss.com).

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In the wake of 2017’s incredibly destructive hurricane season, the charter companies located in the BVI and USVI definitely had their work cut out for them. The good news is that many are well on their way to reopening and getting sailors back out on the water. Most affected companies plan to re open in December 2017 or January 2018. Here’s a glance at the chartering season for winter 2018, from Florida south, based on interviews with companies at the show:

Charter Company Updates

The Moorings

A new restart date of December 9, 2017, for the flagship base in the BVI and the base in Puerto Rico, have been set. The base in St. Martin will open Feb. 1, 2018.

The proceeds of a fundraising drive and 60 generators have been directed to Moorings employees in the BVI and elsewhere. And, a total of $66.5 million in 130 new boats will be delivered to Tortola in the next six months. “That’s the investment we’re going to do,” says Josie Tucci, vice president sales/marketing for The Moorings. “We fully intend to come back stronger than ever.”

Moorings bases in the Bahamas, St. Lucia, Grenada and Belize were unaffected and are operational. Other announcements the company made at the show include the addition of the Exumas, Bahamas, base in 2018 and the launch of the new Moorings 5000 sailing catamaran in summer 2018.

Steve and Doris Colgate’s Offshore Sailing School

“We’re busy!” said Offshore president and CEO Doris Colgate on a break from booth duty at the show. “And we’re seeing a lot of new sailors!” Offshore, which has taught more than 140,000 people how to sail over 50 years in business, escaped hurricane damage at its Florida locations. The company expects to reopen its BVI sailing school, the official instructional arm of The Moorings, in spring 2018, according to Colgate. The Marriott Autograph Collection Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina on exclusive Scrub Island is currently closed.

Dream Yacht Charter

The company plans to be fully operational in St. Martin, the BVI and Puerto Rico by mid November and to restore its Caribbean fleet capacity to pre-2017 hurricane numbers by the end of the year.

While the company estimates that 60 percent of its 70 boats in St. Martin and the BVI will be declared a total loss, it draws from a global fleet of more than 900 boats in more than 47 bases. “We’re having a very fast recovery,” said manager Dan Lockyer. “It’s the nature of this business.”

The loss is a small percentage of Dream’s overall Caribbean fleet, Lockyer pointed out. Bases in Antigua, Martinique, St Vincent, Grenada and Guadeloupe are operational. The company is also purchasing 20 new boats for the St. Martin and BVI fleets for delivery by the end of 2017. Models include Lagoon 52s, Bali 4.5 catamarans, Dufour 520 and Sun Odyssey 519 monohulls. Dream is also purchasing the Regis Guillemot fleet in Martinique, adding 30 catamarans to its fleet there.

Horizon Yacht Charters

The numbers that Sylvia Driver, Horizon Yacht Charters director, was beaming the most about at the show were these: 15 generators ordered and $1,000 checks written to each BVI staff person out of their staff relief fund consisting of generous donations from yacht owners and charter clients alike. “I want our staff to keep their occupations,” she said. “The BVI is home to them and they’re not going anywhere. Their survival is of utmost importance..”

Activity at Horizon’s other Caribbean bases, which are undamaged, is brisk. These locations include Antigua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada.

The company’s BVI base will resume operations January 6, 2018. For complete details about the new boats and other status updates click here

TMM Yacht Charters

While all of the TMM fleet sustained damaged, some catastrophic, the company hopes to see the season’s first charterers shove off the dock by mid-December 2017. Six new Lagoon catamarans are entering the fleet in the coming months. By mid October, the company had nine cats operational. “We’ll just start from where we started when we had nine boats in 1979!” said director Lin Crook, whose husband, Barney, founded the company that year. “You can only go up!”

Crook proudly added that Nalu, the Lagoon 450F, that was tied off behind her, would deliver 12 generators to the BVI base for TMM employees.

The Catamaran Company

Besides acquiring generators for its employees, the Catamaran Company, whose base and fleet fared decently in the hurricanes, is eager to help the islands get back on track by getting back to business. The logic behind its “Operation Sail It Forward BVI 2017” is straightforward: Go on a bareboat charter. Volunteer while there. Spread the tale through photos, videos, and words, and pump money back into the economy.

The first charter group heads out from the Catamaran Company’s undamaged base on Tortola’s east end on November 25, 2017, led by John and Autumn Vernon aboard Rum Away, a Lagoon 450. They encourage followers to sign up, donate funds, and follow their BVI charter. Even better: They hope their adventure will inspire other charterers to book. Their efforts have already paid off: A second “Sail It Forward” charter group will set out in early December.

Damage to the company’s fleet isn’t significant enough to keep the boats from going out, and 10 new catamarans are due in soon, including a 2018 Lagoon 450, according to director Kimberly Lee.

Voyage Charters

According to staff from Voyage Charters at the show, four to five of the fleet of 28 catamarans at the base in Soper’s Hole, on Tortola’s west end, are salvageable. The company is still doing damage assessment and owners have put deposits on new boats, which are expected to arrive starting in December 2017.

CYOA Yacht Charters

The first booking of the season for John Jacob’s CYOA Yacht Charters, based in Frenchtown, St. Thomas, in the United States Virgin Islands, is October 23, 2017. “Obviously, it’s a slow start,” he said at the show.

Nonetheless, Jacob added, with the downtown being prepared for the resumption of the cruise ship season, “it’s getting put back together. We are open for business.”

“The chartering experience will be much like that in the Virgins 25 years ago,” he added. “West Indians are resilient and your money is crucial to their recovery. If you want to go sailing and snorkeling, it’s going to be great. CYOA has come through Hugo and Marilyn, and each time we’ve come back better. That’s our intention this time, and that’s how we expect it to go down.”

Waypoints by Atlantic Cruising Yachts

From the independently owned companies who are members of a new charter network called Waypoints, the news at the show was all good: We’re open, undamaged, and eager for your charter business.

These companies include Cruise Annapolis, Cruise Abaco, Virgin Islands Yacht Charters, BVI Yacht Charters, Harmony Yacht Vacations, and Sailing Florida Charters.

“We’re working with boutique companies to leverage decades of experience with new destinations,” said Susan Restauri, charter reservations manager. Destinations offered by these companies include: Chesapeake Bay; the Sea of Abaco, Bahamas; the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas; Cuba; Great Exuma, Bahamas; west coast of Florida; US and British Virgin Islands.

American Sailing Association

According to Lenny Shabes, founder of the ASA, the organization is still trying to make contact with 15-20 of a total 350 instructional centers located in global sailing destinations. One thing is certain: Among many others, ASA-certified Key West Sailing Academy & Yacht Charter, situated in the Florida Keys, is unharmed and open for business.

More updates available here.

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Maybe you’re not quite ready for a bareboat charter. Or perhaps a potential charter in a new, more challenging location has you nervous. Or it could be that you’re just looking for a different kind of sailing vacation. Whatever your reasons, there are plenty of ways to get out on the water, all over the globe, regardless of your experience level. Let’s take a look at what’s available beyond the bareboat charter.

Learn-to-Sail Trip

If you’re new to sailing or want to improve your skills to become a more competent and confident skipper, consider checking out one of the learn-to-sail courses offered through many sailboat charter companies. This lets you earn certifications that could be useful for a future bareboat charter while enjoying a vacation destination.

The American Sailing Association, which offers sailing instruction and certifications, has affiliated schools all over the world, and many of these schools also have a charter fleet. This allows students to make a vacation out of learning to sail.

Barefoot Yacht Charters, located in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has been doing this for more than 20 years with its Barefoot Offshore Sailing School. “BOSS gives a unique balance of an extraordinary vacation in a gorgeous tropical environment, combined with a good learning curve for sailing skills,” says Marissa Barnard of Barefoot Yacht Charters. “In addition to basic sailing courses, we also offer an offshore course, which includes overnight passagemaking between St. Lucia and St. Maarten.”

Hire a Captain

Perhaps you’re completely new to sailing, or the boat that you would like to charter is beyond your skill set. Consider hiring a captain for all or part of the trip. Most charter companies make it easy to do this at the time of booking. Just a little rusty? The Moorings offers its complimentary Friendly Skipper option on any bareboat charter. With this program, a captain joins your crew for a four-hour refresher course at the beginning of your charter.

Join a Flotilla

Long a popular vacation option in Europe, flotillas are catching on in the North American market — and for good reason! Basically, a flotilla is a small fleet of chartered boats and a lead boat. Aboard the lead boat are guides who are in charge of the event and are familiar with the local waters and sights. You can charter an entire boat, or often just a cabin. Flotillas are a great way to explore a new destination, particularly if it’s challenging or you just would like the reassurance of traveling with someone who has local knowledge.

The ASA has a full calendar of flotillas offered at affiliate schools around the world. These trips are targeted both at new sailors and those who have been sailing for years. Lenny Shabes, who is an experienced sailor and also chairman of the ASA, wanted to do a charter in the San Juan Islands but had heard so many horror stories — underwater obstructions, floating logs — that he was apprehensive about going it alone on a bareboat. “I was looking for camaraderie and the security of knowing where I was going, so a flotilla was the perfect solution,” he says. “Every morning the flotilla leader would brief us on where to go and where not to go, and what time and place to meet up again. It was reassuring to be cruising in this unfamiliar area, always in sight of other boats, and we met some great people who we still keep in touch with.”

For newer sailors, flotillas can provide a bridge between sailing-instruction courses and heading out on your own. By booking just a cabin, you have the opportunity to learn from the captain and the rest of the crew while gaining experience in an exotic or challenging location.

If you’re looking for a different sort of adventure, one of Sunsail’s themed flotillas might be right for you. Some upcoming offerings include Food and Wine Flotillas in Italy and Croatia, as well as a rum tour of the BVI. “The Food and Wine Flotilla introduces our guests to stunning scenery, fine wine and delicious, local Croatian cuisine,” said Nicolle Smirlis, marketing manager for Sunsail. “Due to the popular demand of flotillas in the Mediterranean, earlier this year we launched a new flotilla out of Palma de Mallorca, Spain.”

Once you decide that a flotilla vacation is in your future, Danelle Carnahan, of San Juan Sailing, which offers a full schedule of flotilla options throughout the Pacific Northwest, offers this advice: “Just relax, brush off your sea stories and enjoy getting to know your fellow cruisers.”

By-the-Cabin

A stress-free sailing vacation where you can meet interesting people and travel to some out-of-the way places on a crewed catamaran sounds pretty perfect, right? A by-the-cabin charter is exactly this, and is ideal no matter what your sailing skill level. These charters “remove the barriers for nonsailors and allow them to enjoy island-hopping aboard a luxury yacht at a reasonable price point,” says Dan Lockyer, general manager of Dream Yacht Charter. “But they also appeal to experienced sailors who enjoy being on the water but want to kick back and relax.”

By-the-cabin charters include a captain, and typically a chef as well, and take place on a well-appointed catamaran, or a larger monohull with separate cabins with en suite heads. Worried about whether you’ll like the other guests? Don’t be, says Lockyer. “These trips appeal to people with a similar mindset, which makes for a good group dynamic.”

Motor Up

Let’s say you have plenty of experience on the water, but it just happens to have been at the helm of a powerboat. Or perhaps your crew just isn’t interested in sailing. A charter aboard a trawler or a power catamaran might be just the thing. Powercats have started to appear in more charter fleets around the world. They offer the space and stability of a catamaran, with the ease of a powerboat. “Most poweryacht charterers are people who already own or have owned a poweryacht in the past,” says Barb Hansen, co-owner of Southwest Florida Yachts. “Other power charterers might be people who have been through our power-cruising school and are chartering for the first time. Their ultimate goal might be to own a boat or just to keep chartering for a while.”

Calling All Salts

If your call to the sea consists more of square rigs and sea shanties, consider a sail-training vacation aboard a tall ship. There is a wide variety of tall ships offering programs throughout the United States that ranges from overnight journeys to a semester at sea. Visit Tall Ships America’s website (sailtraining.org) for more details and to find a program that interests you.

From learning sailing skills while cruising the Med to making new friends on a voyage through the islands, there is a way for you to get out on the water — no experience needed.

– – –

Jen Brett is CW’s senior editor.

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The American Sailing Association (ASA), which offers education and charters through hundreds of global affiliates, has created a pair of mobile apps and a trip-booking website useful to game sought out by enthusiasts regardless of their nautical expertise.

For details, log on to the website, www.asa.com/sailing-challenge-app.

ASA has also released a new version of its Go Sailing app, which connects people interested in sharing the experience. A user-friendly solution for skippers needing crew and sailors wanting to sail, Go Sailing has developed a community of users on the U.S. West Coast and is adding regions regularly.

For details log on to the website www.gosailingapp.com.

Also, Find My Charter is an online service that helps members of the American Sailing Association find captained, crewed, bareboat and flotilla charters in sought after global destinations, including the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. ASA members also receive $100 credit when they book with Find My Charter.

For details, log on to the website www.asa.com/find-my-charter.

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