Sailboat Racing & Performance Sailing School
Maximum speed, maximum performance, sheer fun
Fine tuning your sails to beat everyone in a little friendly competition on a leisurely day on the water is fun and very satisfying. Likewise, pushing yourself, your boat and crew to maximize performance sailing in a club race, regional or international competition is the only way we know to get your adrenalin going without having a stress meltdown. Thinking all the time about how to get maximum speed and performance with sail trim, crew performance, balance and tactics, and then actually reaping those rewards either off sailboat racing on your own or in a fleet – is surely one of the greatest mental and physical exercises.
Advanced
sailing at its best
This course – taught on our lively Colgate 26s – is the next step up from Learn to Sail for anyone who wants to continue Performance Sailing in boats of any size. If you intend to sail on your own rented or purchased boat or crewing for a friend, our Performance Sailing School is for you.
You’ll learn how to make a sailboat perform to its highest level – trimming sails and rig for speed, placing you and your crew where weight does the most good, mastering the art of flying downwind.
When Doris Colgate took Steve’s racing course in the Bahamas back in 1968, a crew mate called the spinnaker “that machination of the devil!” Well, in Performance Sailing flying that chute will feel like dressing an angel when you’re finished.
Sail trim for wind and waves
Performance Sailing focuses heavily on sail trim on every point of sail. Whether beating to windward, flying a spinnaker downwind, or cutting through waves on a close or broad reach, the speed you achieve depends heavily on how well your sails are trimmed for wind and wave conditions. In this course your instructor will work with you closely on getting maximum performance, tweaking your sails by trimming and adjusting every control that impacts sail shape. Take our Performance Sailing Course to learn everything you need to learn about Sail Trim.
Safety procedures covered in-depth
Our Performance Sailing School also expands and solidifies your knowledge and confidence level of safety procedures aboard with repeated exercises to master techniques without even thinking about them. Even if your ultimate goal is cruising, you'll find this course invaluable in re-establishing your understanding of sailing. Check out What You Learn in Our Courses to see what you will cover in Performance Sailing.
Three or five-day schedules
Two schedules at many of our locations are available — a three-day course in the New York metro area and three- or five-day course at two getaways in Florida. If you take the three-day course, you’ll have a 1-1/2 hour classroom session, followed by six hours of sailing with a lunch break each day. This is a powerful action-packed format, perfect if your focus is on getting out on the water and learning all the nuances you need for go-fast sailing in a short amount of time.
Each Performance Sailing session is packed with intensive drills to insure you graduate as excellent racing crew with the ability to maximize a boat's performance, and respond quickly and accurately to emergencies. You sail with no more than three other classmates and your instructor aboard, insuring close individual instruction and no down time. Proof of all you learn is the required test sail without the instructor aboard at the end of the course. A minimum of two (maximum four) is required to open a Performance Sailing course date.
A package for every budget
In the New York metro area the four-day Performance Sailing course tuition (no accommodations) per person is $995. The total package cost per person for the five-day resort-based Performance Sailing course starts at $1,426 double occupancy and includes:
- Complete Performance Sailing School course
- Classroom sessions each day to reinforce what you learn on the water
- Five nights accommodations double occupancy, with applicable tax (private rates and three-day course stay also available)
- Steve Colgate's Performance Sailing textbook
- Test sail at end of course
- Colgate Performance Sailing certification
- Diploma and logbook or logbook page if you already have one from a previous course
Fast Track to Performance Racing
If your goal is to get into racing
as fast as possible and successfully crew for someone else, or skipper your own boat – consider Fast Track to Performance Racing that combines our Performance Sailing School with our North U Performance Race Week: Three days in the Performance Sailing course followed by six days of racing instruction in our Offshore/North U Performance Race Week. You'll get right up to racing speed, perhaps even be way ahead of the game because of the intensity of the education you just received and your familiarity with the Colgate 26.
Our next Race Week is April 18-25, 2010 at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva Island, Florida — an absolutely beautiful destination so bring your family and close friends along for a vacation treat of their own. Plan to arrive Thursday, April 15 for Performance Sailing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then join the incoming racers Sunday, April 18, for a fun welcome party and jump right into Performance Race Week on Monday morning. The week ends with a sailboat racing regatta for silver awards Saturday – and big, big smiles as you head home Sunday.
Bring friends and family on a great vacation for all
If you have family or friends traveling with you who might be interested in our Learn to Sail or Bareboat Cruising Preparation course, or you want a little free time each day so you can relax and absorb everything else there is to do, choose the five-day schedule for the perfect productive vacation.
Locations for Performance Sailing courses
Click here to get a quote on Performance Sailing or Fast Track to Performance Racing and you'll be sailboat racing in no time!
Call 888-454-7015 to talk to one of our friendly sailing advisors.