The Preparation You Need to Get the Most From Your Sailing Course
Once you get out on the water for your sailing course, you’ll want to spend as much time as possible sailing! One way to spend more time at the helm and less time sitting at the salon table reviewing material is to prepare before you arrive.
Go Sail Virgin Islands sends reading, study guides and preparation information before your course. You don’t need to arrive as an experienced sailor. You’re not expected to know how to sail yet! But spending a little time preparing before you arrive can make a surprisingly big difference in what you get out of your time on the water.
This Isn’t A Traditional Class
A sailboat isn’t a traditional classroom and ASA courses aren’t traditional classes. Sailing is a hands-on skill.
You can read about a tack, watch someone else do one and understand the theory but eventually you have to feel the boat turn, handle the sails and make the decisions yourself. That’s why an entire week aboard one of our premium sailboats is so valuable.
During your course, your instructor will have you practice things like:
- Steering and handling the boat
- Understanding points of sail
- Tacking and jibing
- Trimming sails
- Anchoring and mooring
- Basic navigation
- Safety procedures
- Communication aboard the boat
- Making decisions based on wind and conditions
Your instructor can explain what to do, demonstrate it and coach you through it. But confidence comes from taking the helm yourself, trying something, making a mistake, adjusting and trying again. That’s why preparation matters.
What Happens When You Haven’t Done the Pre-Course Work?
Nothing terrible happens if you don’t do your pre-course work. You’re still here to learn, and your instructor will help you. But there’s a tradeoff.
If the basic terminology and concepts are completely new when you step aboard, your instructor has to spend some of your limited course time introducing material that you could have reviewed beforehand.
That can mean less time practicing the skills that brought you to the Virgin Islands in the first place.
Think of it this way: prepare on land so you can learn on the water. For example, you can learn what a tack means at home. When you get out in the beautiful Virgin Islands seas? That’s the time to be practicing them!
The more familiar you are with the basic concepts before you arrive, the more time your instructor can spend helping you put those concepts into action.
You Don’t Have to Know How to Sail Before You Arrive
You’re not expected to know everything or be able to regurgitate the content from your ASA course books. Your goal before the course is simply to become familiar with the material you’ll be using. When your instructor introduces a concept aboard the boat, it’s much easier to understand when you’ve already encountered the terminology or idea once before. You’re preparing so that everything isn’t brand new at once. Here’s how we recommend you prepare:
1. Read the Assigned Course Material
Start with the reading Go Sail Virgin Islands sends you. Not all at once! Just take your time over the coming weeks and months to become familiar with the content. If something doesn’t make sense, make a note of it. That’s a great question to bring to your instructor when you’re on the boat!
2. Work Through Your Study Guides
The study guides are there to help you identify the information you should understand before you arrive. Use them as a way to check your understanding and not as a reason to panic if you don’t know every answer immediately.
3. Give Yourself Some Grace
Sailing is full of concepts that make much more sense once you can see them in the real world. Something that seems confusing in a book may become obvious when your instructor points to the sail, the wind direction or the equipment right in front of you.
If something doesn’t make sense, just note it down to discuss with your ASA instructor.
Prepare on Land. Learn on the Water.
The goal of your pre-course preparation isn’t to arrive at Go Sail Virgin Islands already knowing how to sail. It’s to arrive ready to make the most of your time on the water.
Read the material. Work through the study guides. Write down the things that don’t make sense. Then bring those questions with you.
Once you step aboard, let your instructor help you turn that knowledge into experience.
A little preparation before you arrive means more time doing what you came to the Virgin Islands to do: