Basic Sailing vs Basic Keelboat 101

Posted by vaq153@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 11 comments

I´m a total noob, but want to learn to sail.

I live close to San Diego and found two ways to start:

a) Basic Sailing at Mission Bay Aquatic Center Basic Sailing | Mission Bay Aquatic Center, San Diego, CA, or;

b) Basic Keelboat 101 at Harbor Sailboats or Seaforth.

Is it wort it starting from basic sailing (small vessels)? or should I jump straight to basic keelboat?

I´ve been scuba diving for about 9 years now, and spent up to 10 days on the sea, and would like to rent sailboats from time to time for friends and family.

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feed_me_tecate@reddit

FYI, you can also take 101 at Harbor Island yacht Club. Get captain Frank. Check Groupon.

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MissingGravitas@reddit

For vacation charters, both are equivalent.

For local rentals it depends on the organization; often places may prefer to have you do a check-out or submit a resume regardless of certification if you didn't do training with them.

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Conscious_Yellow_474@reddit

Learn in small boats first, Sabot, Opti, sunfish, laser. If you can’t competently maneuver a single handed dingy you shouldn’t be trying to sail something bigger alone, if that’s the goal.

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I learned on a small sailboat, a Flying Scot. Small enough to be responsive, so you get a feel for wind, waves, sail trim and rudder. (Better feedback.) Large enough that unless something ridiculous happens, you're not going to dump the boat and end up in the water.

In my experience, folks that learn on a small boat and move up to a keel boat later are better at the "sailing" aspect. The size and weight of most keel boats gives you less feedback on how you're managing the sails and helm.

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Westar-35@reddit

Start with the small boat. Best way to develop an intuitive understanding.

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Mother_Food9930@reddit

I tried sailing dinghies for a while and I had a hard time figuring it out. Dinghies punish you noticeably for making mistakes, and trying to learn a new skill while getting thrown into the water a lot just kept my mind on such high alert i never really settled into it, never really got the muscle memory for it, and stopped wanting to sail because it just fried my nerves too much. I recently picked up keelboat sailing again and found the steady, plodding, forgiving personality of a Catalina 22 was just what I needed, and now I look forward to trying dinghy sailing again now that I've gained confidence on a less squirrelly boat. I would say you can't go wrong starting with either honestly. Pick the sailing school location that is easiest for you to reach so you just keep going back to get more time in the water, then whatever you learned first, switch to the other one at some point.

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MissingGravitas@reddit

If it's practical, I'd suggest the Basic Sailing first. It's a great way to develop a feel for the wind and the boat, as on larger boats the connection is much more muted.

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Finally_Adult@reddit

I’ve done both of those classes. I really enjoyed MBAC classes and it’s lots of fun to get out there and learn in mission bay on a smaller boat for a while. San Diego bay gets quite busy and learning the basics on small boats makes the transition to larger boats much easier.

That said you can totally start on keelboats and have lots of fun, but I take my boat out almost every weekend and besides all the rental boats looking the same, it’s obvious they don’t fully understand stand on and give way rules, so I just stay out of everyone’s way.

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nogoodalternatives@reddit

You don't need to do dinghy sailing first but it helps get a feel for how a boat/sails respond to wind and balance. Things happen quickly on a dinghy and you get wet if you mess up. If you start on bigger boats it's harder to develop that sense. The order also doesn't really matter, you can go back to dinghies whenever you want.

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Infamous-Adeptness71@reddit

Either. It really depends on how much time you have. I say start at zero if you can.