Customized Sailing Itineraries: Specify Your ASA Courses
Choose to take only the American Sailing courses you want or need on your Virgin Islands sailing vacation!
For example, if you have already taken a few ASA courses, we can tailor your weeklong liveaboard vacation so you don’t repeat material and only receive the sailing instruction that’s relevant to you. Alternatively, if you feel like taking multiple American Sailing classes at once is too overwhelming— customize your trip to only take one or two on your weeklong liveaboard vacation!
Browse through the prerequisites and purpose behind each ASA course to see what American Sailing course options would be best for your learn-to-sail vacation.
ASA 114: Learn to Sail a Catamaran
Take ASA 114 as part of a Series 1 (101/103/104/114) or Series 2 (106/114) course with Go Sail Virgin Islands. This course is only available to students sailing aboard a catamaran on their Virgin Islands vacation. This American Sailing course gives students the ability to skipper an auxiliary-powered sailing cruising catamaran of approximately 30 to 45 feet in length during a multi-day live aboard cruise upon inland or coastal waters in moderate to heavy winds (up to 30 knots) and sea conditions. In this ASA course we’ll cover catamaran structure, components and features, performance under sail and power, boat systems, seamanship and safety, heavy weather operation, and emergency response.
KNOWLEDGE
✔️ Catamaran Terminology
✔️ Catamaran Features and Performance
✔️ Catamaran Systems
✔️ Heavy weather operation and emergency response
SKILLS
✔️ Predeparture
✔️ Under power
✔️ Under sail
ASA 111: Sailing Refresher
Prerequisites: ASA 101 recommended
Haven’t sailed in a while? Add ASA 111 to your Series 2 advanced sailing course or to your customized course plan! This American Sailing course can be taken multiple times and focuses on an array of different sailing subjects, depending on which skill set a student is looking to improve upon. During this course, your ASA instructor will work with you to create a written personalized curriculum or plan to continue gaining on the knowledge you already have.
ASA 106: Learn to Sail a Catamaran
Prerequisites: ASA 104, ASA 105 (available online) and 1+ year of sailing experience
Go Sail Virgin Islands offers ASA 106 as part of our advanced Series 2 sailing courses. This advanced American Sailing course can be taken independently of other courses or alongside ASA 111 and potentially ASA 114, for students sailing aboard a catamaran. Upon completion of ASA 106, ASA students are able to safely act as skipper and crew of a sailing vessel about 30 to 50 feet in length in coastal and inland waters, in any conditions.
KNOWLEDGE
✔️ Describe true and apparent wind
✔️ Describe center of effort
✔️ Describe sail shapes
✔️ Heavy weather operation and emergency response
SKILLS
✔️ Engineering
✔️ Vessel maintenance
✔️ Boat handing under sail at night
ASA 104: Learn to Sail a Monohull
Prerequisites: ASA 103 – You can take this on a catamaran course or a monohull course.
ASA 104 is an American Sailing class included on all Series 1 beginner courses with Go Sail alongside ASA 101, ASA 103. However, If you’ve already completed ASA 101 and ASA 103, skip right ahead to just taking ASA 104 on your learn-to-sail vacation in the Virgin Islands! This course is perfectly paired with our monohull sailing courses, although Go Sail also offers ASA 104 aboard catamaran and trimaran sailboats. In ASA 104, you will learn how to skipper a 30 to 45 foot sloop-rigged, auxiliary powered keelboat during a multi-day Virgin Islands cruise. Once certified, you’ll feel confident in your ability to skipper in inland or coastal waters in moderate to heavy winds (up to 30 knots) and sea conditions.
Most students combine 104 with 114 so you receive both certifications.
KNOWLEDGE
✔️ Cruise Planning
✔️ Systems
✔️ Emergencies
✔️ Seamanship
✔️ Navigation and Weather
SKILLS
✔️ Under power
✔️ Under sail
✔️ Navigation and Weather
✔️ Knots
ASA 103: Basic Coastal Cruising
Prerequisites: ASA 101 – You can take this on a catamaran or monohull course.
Take ASA 103 as part of any Go Sail Virgin Islands Series 1 American Sailing vacation, alongside ASA 101 and ASA 104! If you’ve already taken ASA 101, you can choose to take just ASA 103 or ASA 103 and ASA 104 during your Learn-to-Sail vacation instead. In ASA 103, students learn to skipper a sloop-rigged auxiliary powered (inboard or outboard engine) keelboat of approximately 25 to 35 feet length by day in moderate winds (up to 20 knots) and sea conditions. ASA students complete the course with knowledge of cruising sailboat terminology, basic boat systems, auxiliary engine operation, intermediate sail trim, navigation rules, basic coastal navigation, anchoring, weather interpretation, safety and seamanship.
KNOWLEDGE
✔️ Cruising Sailboat Terminology
✔️ Safety equipment and Procedures
✔️ Navigation and Weather
✔️ Sail Planning
✔️ Seamanship
✔️ Emergencies
SKILLS
✔️ Preliminaries
✔️ Navigation
✔️ Under power
✔️ Under sail
✔️ Return to dock/slip
✔️ Knots

ASA 101: Learn to Sail Basics
Prerequisites: none, some experience recommended. You can take this on a catamaran or a monoull course.
Go Sail Virgin Islands offers ASA 101 on all beginner Series 1 American Sailing courses alongside ASA 103 and ASA 104. However, you can choose to only take ASA 101 during your Learn-to-Sail vacation and take additional courses at a later date. ASA 101 gives sailing students the confidence to skipper a 20′ – 27′ sloop-rigged keelboat by day, in light to moderate winds and sea conditions. In this American Sailing course, students learn basic sailing terminology, parts and functions, helm commands, basic sail trim, points of sail, buoyage, seamanship and sailing safety in the Virgin Islands (including basic navigation rules to avoid collisions and hazards).
KNOWLEDGE
✔️ Keelboat Sailboat Terminology
✔️ Safety equipment & Procedures
✔️ Weather
✔️ Sail Planning
✔️ Seamanship
✔️ Emergencies
SKILLS
✔️ Tacking
✔️ Jibing
✔️ Figure eight/COB
✔️ Mooring/Anchoring
✔️ Return to dock/slip
✔️ Knots