Bareboat Sailboat and Live-Aboard Cruising Courses
What does Bareboat Cruising mean? This is a popular phrase coined by the first sailboat charter companies around 1970. It's like renting and driving your own car versus hiring a limousine with a chauffeur. Bareboat Sailing is chartering a sailboat you can live on, without professional captain or crew to help you sail the boat, but everything you need for cruising comfort and safety including sheets, towels, galley and other gear, even food and beverages.
On the other hand is Liveaboard Cruising - read on below to learn more about both courses.
Three Ways to Learn to Cruise
If you want to start sailing big boats on your own or charter without the responsibilities of ownership, but aren’t ready for a larger yacht, this is the experience you need. Any of our cruising courses are a terrific way to get ready for the best charter and cruising vacations you'll ever have. You have three choices for your learning experience: Bareboat Cruising, Liveaboad Cruising, or Fast Track to Cruising.
Fast Track to Cruising®
Fast Track to Cruising® takes you from no or little sailing experience to ready-to-cruise in one week. This is the course you need if you don’t have basic sailing skills and certification. It’s the experience of lifetime. You start with two to three days on a Colgate 26, then go straight to a gorgeous 42-49 foot cruising yacht for five days, building confidence on a big cruising boat in anticipation of your mini-cruise without the instructor aboard. You’ll go home with three certifications and the skills to sail wherever the wind blows. If you already have Day Sailing or Basic Keelboat Certification (or equivalent experience), you can by-pass the Learn to Sail level and head straight to cruising.
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Bareboat Cruising Preparation
If you take the Bareboat Cruising Preparation course, you'll learn to cruise in five days on a 42-49 foot cruising sailboat while living ashore in a resort hotel or commuting from home. A practice cruise without the instructor aboard highlights the last day of your bareboat sailing course. This is a fun and relaxing way to get all the bareboat skills you need for cruising on your own or friends’ sailboats back home or chartering in exotic ports all over the world. You'll need Colgate Day Sailing or US SAILING Basic Keelboat Certification (or equivalent experience) for this course, and may achieve Bareboat Cruising Certification at course end. Bareboat Sailing is great for anyone -
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Live Aboard Cruising
If you prefer to learn while living aboard, choose the Live Aboard Cruising Course and experience the joys of cruising while learning! The ultimate dream for most sailors is to cruise exotic islands and see the world under sail. Go where the wind takes you, at a pace set by the rising moon and setting sun. This is real live-aboard cruising and you can experience it with Offshore Sailing School, earning your Bareboat Cruising Certification in just five days on a beautiful 43' catamaran or 43'-49' monohull. If you already know the basics of sailing (equivalent to our Learn to Sail course) and want to move up to bigger boats to get the true feeling of what it's like to live and learn aboard, this week-long course is for you. Liveaboard Cruising is a truly remarkable experience for any sailor -
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Bareboat Refresher
Do you already have big boat experience and just need a refresher? Thinking of doing a bareboat cruise in the Caribbean but feeling a little rusty? Our Weekend Bareboat Refresher course brings you up to speed in ten hours of hands-on training on one of our 42' to 46' cruising boats. All you need is US SAILING or Offshore Sailing School Bareboat Cruising certification (which comes with the cruising courses listed above). You may also take this Refresher if you have equivalent experience to what you learn in our Live Aboard Cruising or Bareboat Cruising certification courses. This weekend program is designed to put you back on the helm after being away from sailing for awhile -
today to find out more!