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Two companies, each a charter outfit offering instruction through the American Sailing Association, have scheduled programs for hands-on learning in a variety of settings in the Caribbean and along the U.S. East Coast.
Horizon Yacht Charters: Horizon offers a shoreside sailing-instruction program at its base on the Caribbean island of Antigua. The seven-day package available at the company’s A.S.A.-affiliated facility combines five days of A.S.A. instruction aboard a Bavaria 42 with a stay in a waterfront villa. Groups can learn to sail, take daysails to improve their skills, and enjoy a wide range of shoreside facilities.
The A.S.A. program offers a variety of course levels. The waterfront villa features two double bedrooms plus a waterfront patio, DVD, stereo, and television. Non sailors in the group can stay ashore and enjoy two beaches, a large swimming pool, an 18-hole golf course and gym, and numerous restaurants and bars in the 300-acre marina complex. The A.S.A. courses are also available without the villa option aboard Horizon Antigua’s bareboat fleet, with onboard overnight accommodation. For details, contact Horizon in Antigua (www.antiguahorizon.com and e-mail info@antiguahorizon.com).
Fair Wind Sailing School: Fair Wind offers two hands-on coastal offshore instructional passages in 2010: one from Annapolis, Maryland, to Mystic, Connecticut, in July; and another from Bar Harbor, Maine, south to Annapolis in August. The onboard coursework, drawn from the A.S.A. curriculum, addresses coastal navigation, advanced sailing, celestial navigation, and ocean passages. Students will gain practical experience and seamanship skills via night sailing, nighttime crew-overboard drills, offshore watchstanding, the practice of emergency procedures, routing, and weather planning. For more details, contact Fair Wind (www.fairwindsailing.com).
Catamaran Company Opens Northern Florida Sales Office
Sailors in the southeastern United States interested in pursuing multihull ownership and charters, take heed: The Catamaran Company has opened its sixth regional sales center, this one in St. Augustine, Florida.
The office, which serves South Carolina, Georgia, and northeast Florida, is headed by broker John Anderson and will maintain ties to The Catamaran Company’s corporate office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The Catamaran Center of Saint Augustine is the site for sales of new Gemini catamarans and new Lagoon catamarans and will also service the used market for buyers and sellers. The center will also field inquires about bareboat and crewed chartering, and it will offer “try before you buy” charters for those considering a boat purchase. For more details, contact Anderson (954-821-6450; e-mail john.anderson@catamarans.com).
Horizon Wins Award
In other news, Horizon Yacht Charters has been voted Best Caribbean Yacht Charter Company 2009 by Caribbean World magazine. The annual awards honor excellence in services that provide comfort, entertainment, and enjoyment for those who travel to the Caribbean. For details, visit the magazine’s website (www.caribbeanworld-magazine.com).
