Live Aboard Sailing and Cruising Courses
A lea
rning vacation as you cruise from port to port
During this five-day live aboard sailing course you gain incredible knowledge and skills that qualify you for chartering and handling big cruising boats on your own. From docking and anchoring to easy maneuvering in crowded harbors and quick actions in heavy weather, this is the ultimate learning vacation.
Learn on a glorious catamaran or fun monohull
Your classmates include no more than three others, in private or shared cabins (unless you opt for Private Live Aboard for Two or the Private Family Live Aboard Course for up to six). Close, personalized instruction is provided by an expert live aboard sailing instructor with you throughout the first four days. After taking your certification tests, you’ll set sail on a 24-hour mini-cruise without the instructor aboard – confident in your abilities to enjoy cruising sailing to the max!
"Thank you for an outstanding experience! Great learning material, great equipment, great instructors, friendly staff – we could not ask for more. We enjoyed sailing the Leopard 46 catamaran. What a wonderful boat! Thank you for an outstanding experience and a great father/son bonding time."
Rudolf and Marc Kroseberg, Bonita Springs, Florida
Each day during our liveaboard cruising courses you will progress towards the ultimate goal - taking charge of your own boat, cruising with friends or chartering in dream sailing areas around the world. A “classroom session” after breakfast before embarking previews that day’s lesson plan. You'll practice drills and new techniques throughout each day as you navigate from port to port, island to island. Lunch is “on the hook” or underway. Each evening you’ll anchor and debrief what you learned before dinner and relaxing under a canopy of stars. A detailed daily schedule for this learning vacation is available when you enroll.
Big boat sailing on monohulls and catamarans
Your home and classroom for five days is a beautiful 43-51 footer with all the comforts and equipment you need for liveaboard cruising cruises. You may take this course in three southwest Florida locations or in the British Virgin Islands on a monohull or catamaran.
Our cruising sailboats have three or four cabins, a generous main salon and galley area, hot water showers, aprés swim deck shower, spacious cockpit, air conditioning (in Florida) and all the equipment you need for safe, successful big boat handling.
"The Live Aboard Cruising Course gave us exactly what we needed – some big boat training and experience. We are pumped and plan to get into cruising within a year. The instruction was outstanding!"
O. Thomas Mueller, St. Petersburg, FL
Packages to suit every budget
Four-day Liveaboard Cruising courses in the New York metro area start at $1495 per person (weekdays), sharing a cabin aboard, and includes everything listed below, except the evening start, accommodations ashore and fewer meals to fit this schedule. Five-day resort based learning vacation packages start at $1845 per person double occupancy (lowest Florida season rate), sharing a cabin. Rates vary by location, time of year and whether you wish a private or shared cabin. Your package includes:
- The complete Liveaboard Cruising course tuition
- Your berth aboard in a shared cabin (please ask for private cabin rates)
- All breakfasts, lunches, snacks and three dinners aboard while underway
- Evening start aboard the boat depending on location
- One night ashore at some liveaboard cruising course locations
- Fast Track to Cruising textbook
- Colgate Coastal Cruising and Bareboat Cruising Certification
- Diploma and logbook (or pages for a logbook if you already have one)
- Bonus 24-hour mini-cruise without the instructor aboard
- A once in a lifetime learning vacation that you will never forget
The best textbooks you'll find
Offshore Sailing School is known for its informative, comprehensive textbooks, written by the foremost sailing education experts. Your textbook sent in advance is Steve and Doris Colgate's Fast Track to Cruising, published by International Marine/McGraw-Hill in 2005. This 246 page compendium gives you all you need to know to start cruising successfully.
Certifications
Two certifications are achieved with this course: Colgate Coastal Cruising and Bareboat Chartering. Colgate Day Sailing or US SAILING Basic Keelboat is a pre-requisite. For a small extra fee you may choose US SAILING certification: Basic Cruising and Bareboat Cruising with Basic Keelboat certification as the pre-requisite. If you choose these certifications you will also receive these two US SAILING textbooks to round out your sailing library: Basic Cruising and Bareboat Cruising.
If you don't have Colgate Sailing Certification or US SA
ILING Certification, but feel confident about your abilities to crew and skipper on small to mid-sized sailboats, you may “challenge” the pre-requisite certification test and go straight to this course. Otherwise, you should consider the Learn to Sail or Fast Track to Cruising course for the right start to your cruising lifestyle.
For information on what you will learn in this course, click here.
Top off your week with a bareboat charter!
If you take this course in the British Virgin Islands with family or friends, why not continue your cruising adventure with a charter vacation right after you graduate? For a seamless getaway package, we'll book and add that week to your learning vacation package, at your Offshore Sailing School discounted Moorings Captain's charter fee. Just tell your sailing advisor when you sign up for the course that you want to extend your learning experience with a super do-it-yourself bareboat charter cruise!
Click here to get a quote on your liveaboard sailing & cruising adventure.
Call 888-454-7015 to talk to one of our friendly sailing advisors.
Locations for Liveaboard Cruising