When it Comes to Your Sailing Education, You’re the Boss!

By: American Sailing Association, Schools

One of the most important parts of beginning your sailing education is finding the right sailing school. Every individual has different strengths, weaknesses, needs, and ideal learning methods. Likewise, every sailing school has different instructors, courses, boats, and teaching methods. Even a school’s location can affect your sailing education. For example, learning to sail in San Francisco Bay’s heavy winds might scare one student and motivate another. At ASA, we want to provide every sailor with a sailing education that conforms to their needs and inspires them to continue sailing. We know this for sure: you know yourself, and we …

Three Essential Sailing Knots

How to Tie 3 Important Sailing Knots

By: Equipment

There are as many sailing knots as there are stars in the night sky — or so it seems. But the reality is that most sailors can get along with only knowing a few, as long as they’re the right ones. In this blog I’ll single out three very important sailing knots, explaining what they’re used for and how to tie them. Don’t forget, it’s necessary to practice these in order to get them down. Your fingers need the tactile learning experience in order to develop muscle memory that will allow you to tie them quickly when you need to! …

Sailboat Anguilla

Sailing Terms Everyone Should Know

By: Sailboats

Knowing the right sailing terms to use on board a boat is not JUST a way of sounding super cool and impressing your friends. (Though it works for that, too.) It’s actually very useful, and sometimes crucial in communicating while you’re sailing. Some of the vocabulary used on board boats can sound arcane, which it is! That’s part of what’s fun about it; we’re still using terms that have been used by sailors for hundreds of years. So when you know your terminology, you’re participating in the grand sailing tradition, and you don’t have to say, “Can you hand me …

How Much Sailboat Do I Need?

How Much Sailboat Do I Need?

By: Sailboats

Okay, you’ve checked out of 101, 103 & 104 and the sailing fever is still burning strong. You need to either check into a hospital or buy your first boat – you choose the latter. But what kind should you get? The magazines and websites have you drooling over boats that have tempted you with their sex appeal or indestructible capabilities and you are leaning in every direction.

earth day 2019

This Earth Day, Treat the Planet Like It’s Your Boat

By: American Sailing Association, Environmental, Sailing Story, The Oceans

I first learned about the art of sailing when I was nineteen years old. I had signed up for a semester abroad with a program that teaches students marine biology and oceanography courses, as well as sailing and coastal navigation skills. After a year of scraping together money and filling out forms, I spent my sophomore winter on an 88’ schooner in the Caribbean with a plan to sail to twenty islands.

Toxic Sunscreen: A Sailboat Captain’s Experience

By: Partners, Product Review, Safety

By Kim Walther, ASA Instructor Working as a boat captain, I see a huge variety of sunscreen brands. It’s always interesting to check out what my sailing school students or charterers bring with them. I like to read what’s on the front, and then look at the back.  It’s absolutely incredible that some brands that we perceive as being very good for us and the environment actually include those poisonous chemicals. I found that out the hard way, when I used a sunscreen that I thought was wonderful and I ended up being poisoned by the ingredients! You can read …

Spring Safety

By: American Sailing Association, Equipment, Safety

As the days get longer and the weather gets nicer, droves of new boaters are flocking to local chandleries to obtain the “required safety essentials” for boating. Many boat stores have handy visual charts showing the minimum legally required safety equipment based on your vessel’s length. However, the Coast Guard’s legal minimum is just that–a minimum–and should be regarded as only the barest of necessities for boating. The American Sailing Association has clearly defined an extended list of safety essentials that every prudent boater should be equipped with when taking to the water. When going boating this spring, use this …