Offshore/North U. Performance Race Week

Our 11th Race Week — the best way to hone your skills!

• Maximum time on the water 
• All-day schedule allowing you to get the most out of your sailing
• The very best coaches, all racing experts with decades of teaching experience and people skills
• Coaches right on board with you during all training sessions, not yelling directions from a chase boat
• North U curriculum, renowned world-wide, accelerates your race training experience
• Video reviews where you see you and your teammates in action; we focus on your sailing
• The Colgate 26, an ideal training platform – stable, responsive, purpose-designed
• South Seas Island Resort, an incomparable beach resort with terrific sailing conditions on Captiva Island, Florida

Learn more, have more fun, go home a much better racer!

No other program offers this combination of winning attributes. Bill Gladstone is the Director of Education for North U, and creator of the North U Tactics and Trim seminars, books and CDs. He has been teaching sailing and racing since 1973 and raced on everything from dinghies to fifty footers, ponds to oceans, foredeck to helm. Graduates of Bill’s programs are winning races in fleets worldwide. Bill is with you throughout the week — running seminars each day, video-recaps each evening, socializing and tweaking your knowledge to match the skills you get on the race course from Offshore Sailing School's expert racing faculty. 

“Performance Race Week was fantastic. What you learn in one week is more valuable than anything you’ll learn in years of sailing.”
Winter Hawley – Manitowoc, WI

April 3-9, 2011 at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva Island, Florida

• Great weather
• Super location
• Best time to get ready for racing back home

Our very successful 2010 Performance Race Week was held last April with 40 participants and 10 boats on the starting line every day of the week!  What a blast! Dates are now set for 2011. Don't delay! Reserve your berth today as this years dates are smack in the middle of the resort's most popular season!

Here's what you get on a fabulous Race Week vacation

• Welcome Happy Hour party arrival evening
• Beach buffet Tuesday night
• Complete Offshore/North U curriculum tuition 
• Six hours of on-water race instruction and practice, all with your coach on board, each day Monday through Friday 
• A two-hour seminar ashore between sailing sessions, each day Monday through Friday
• Regatta on Saturday with silver trophies awarded
• Instructional video review five evenings after racing 
• 7 nights in a Harbourside Guest Room with applicable sales 
• Two acclaimed North U textbooks
• Commemorative Performance Race Week polo shirt
• Gala prize presentation dinner Saturday night
• Exclusive benefit from The Sailing Company - your choice of a year's subscription to Cruising World or Sailing World magazine

Packages including everything listed above start at $3225 per person double occupancy in a Harbourside Guestroom. Add $875 for single occupancy in Harbourside Guestroom. If you are bringing family and friends who won't be racing, their share of your room includes social events.

Many other types of accommodations are available including villas and homes. If your party prefers accomodations with two or more bedrooms, kitchens and living areas, we are happy to quote these on request. Please be aware the Race Week occurs during Florida's "high season" for obvious reasons: coldest time of year up north, best weather down in Florida. And our beaches remain pristine!

Sail-Race "boot camp" in a resort paradise setting

The program starts Sunday evening with a welcome party and orientation where you'll meet your fellow crew members and coaches. During happy hour, Bill conducts a race orientation session, explaining how the week works. Unless you come with your own crew, you will be assigned to race with others based on a resume we ask you to fill out in advance of your arrival. Monday morning starts the week with two race sessions each day with your coach onboard at all times, a midday seminar, and video recaps after the last race session. 

Midweek there's a fun beach buffet or informal dinner and Saturday everyone celebrates at the awards dinner with silver trophies going to the winning crews and fun recognition for all teams.  Anyone traveling with you is invited to share in the fun at these two events.

 Bring family and friends

South Seas Island Resort is one of the most beautiful destinations in Florida. With 330 acres on fabled Captiva Island, surrounded by the Gulf and Pine Island Sound, our race course is just outside the well-protected yacht harbor. This resort offers a great variety of activities and sunsets beyond belief. Accommodations include Harbourside hotel rooms, a variety of two and three-bedroom villas, condos and homes. Family friendly to the core, the resort has tons of activities for everyone in the family, several easy-dining restaurants and trolley service to the main gate where you can walk to nearby eateries and shops. Captiva Island is serviced by Regional Southwest International Airport (RSW) in Ft. Myers, a little over an hour's drive away.

In six-days of superior on-water training, your performance improves with each race. With the combination of North U’s renowned racing seminars and expert guest instructors, Offshore’s top-notch racing instructor/coaches, one-design class Colgate 26s and Florida’s outstanding spring sailing conditions, Performance Race Week is truly a winning experience.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? 

Practice, practice, practice. How do you move up the pack and start winning races next season? Come to Florida for Offshore/North U Performance Race Week and immerse yourself in racing. You’ll have a ball, do something you really love, and meet a bunch of sailors who are just great to be with in this exciting, fun-filled, action-packed and highly productive week.

Learn to Sail and Bareboat Cruising courses are also available during your week, with half-day sailing sessions and time to play, for family and friends accompanying you who want to learn too while you race.

Just one Race Week in 2011 - just one chance to win!

 Don’t wait! Only four sailors per boat, maximum 40 positions available. And we only do this once a year. Click on the button or call 888-454-7015 and speak with one of our expert sailing advisors. Only one Race Week is offered each year and based on our past 10 years of experience, it will fill early.

A note from Bill Gladstone

"Come sail with us at the Offshore/North U Performance Race Week. We've refined the format for our tenth season of Race Weeks to provide more sailing, more instruction and more racing. I should tell you to come to imporve your tactics, strategy, sail trim, spinnaker handling and helming. I could draw you in by detailing how much you'll learn from our team of expert instructors. I might entice you with the combination of onboard coaching, on-the-water clinics, shoreside seminars and video review. But the "closer" is really the fun! Come to Captiva Island, Florida and enjoy an incredible week of sailing and racing. Have a great vacation, and as a bonus, go home a winning racer! Call Offshore now at 888-454-7015 for registration and more details. I'll be there. How about you?"

Never raced before? Sailing skills in need of fine tuning?

Fast Track to Performance Racing is the perfect solution to this very solvable dilemma!  You'll enjoy three action-packed days learning on a  Colgate 26 with one of Offshore Sailing School's expert racing coaches. Steering with a velvet touch, crewing with finesse, flying spinnakers to perfection, trimming sails for ultimate speed are all part of this super course. Then you'll join racing sailors for the piéce de résistance of sail-training: Performance Race Week. You just might have a leg up on everyone else in the week because of your three full days sailing and learning on the very same Colgate 26s they are about to board!

Call 888-454-7015 to book your spot or boat today.