New online sailing course

Hot off the press - we just finished posting a new online course called Maneuvering Under Power. Here is a description from the course.

Maneuvering under power in a sailboat is one of the most over looked skills and it is a skill. When sailing in open waters it’s reasonably difficult to hit something so long as you have a proper watch out, radar and navigation skills. When maneuvering around in the marina it’s reasonably easy and common to hit something namely the dock or other boats. And of course hitting something is expensive and embarrassing.

Near the beginning of my open water sailing career, I chartered a 46 ft sailboat in St Marteen. In St Marteen, the charter base is located in a protected cove but with a tricky reef entrance. Therefore the charter base requires that a pilot come out to your boat in a speedboat, jump on board and bring the boat through the reef and park it in the slip in the marina for you. I spent some time observing this very talented Rastafarian expertly maneuver my chartered boat into the slip. It was a maneuvering job with which I was very impressed. Why? Well, just days before I had wiped the bbq off the back of the 46 ft sailboat because I could not maneuver the boat in a tight marina with 20 knots of side wind just as it was getting dark. I was trying to back up to a concrete wall and simultaneously lasso pilings as they went past to hold the front of the boat in place and - off the wall. As captain, I was seeing very quickly that my open water experience was not paying off and was about to cost me, the charter company and the insurance company a lot of money.

I remember a year later maneuvering a Beneteau 50 ft sailboat into the marina in the beautiful port of Bonifacio, Corsica. Our slip was right next to the side walk restaurant loaded with tourists, so it was imperative to my ego to get it right. Well, I did but actually, I still think it was really more luck than anything else. As we sat on the back of the boat celebrating a no damage docking we watched a crew expertly maneuver their boat backwards down a row of slips and then turn right angles then back their boat into a tight slip, stopping perfectly. We all cheered and clapped as it was very impressive. I vowed right then and there to learn the skill.

One year later I was smiling as I maneuvered a 50 ft sailboat in a very tight harbor in Kos, Greece. You can always tell how you are doing in a busy port. If you’re doing well, everyone on the other boats will be watching and will continue to drink their Gin. If you’re doing bad they are all putting down there drinks and putting fenders over the side. In Greece, everyone continued drinking their Gin!

When I created the fractional ownership industry for sailors a few years later, it was obvious that a course like this needed to be developed. As a result several thousand students have been through this clinic. Through 27 practical exercises, this Maneuvering Under Power Clinic will teach you how to practice and master the skill of placing the boat however you want, every time in all wind situations, with confidence. The lesson is arranged so that you can first read the material now and begin to understand the theory. Each chapter also has associated practical exercises that you absolutely must perform and repeat to become an expert. The exercises are designed to get you extremely comfortable with maneuvering your boat. At the end, I'm confident that you'll be so comfortable with maneuvering and backing your boat in a tight marina that you'll never have onlookers need to put down their drink and pick up a fender. You'll feel great and even if you mess it up a bit, you'll know exactly how to do it better next time. If you're hesitant about the cost of this clinic, just think of the cost of one - just one ding into another boat. If you take this clinic we guarantee you'll have less intimidation about maneuvering a boat and you'll save yourself from hitting another boat.

In the conclusion chapter there is a PDF document that you can print out and take with you to the boat. It lists out all the exercises to perform.

Please enjoy our Maneuvering Under Power Clinic (and no damage docking) bought to you by

Please also feel free to contribute to the Maneuvering Under Power blog. What did you like about the clinic, any tips you have, can the course be improved, sucess stories? etc

Sailing Video

We just finished creating this 40 sec video for learning how to sail with NauticEd - online sailing lessons. It is supposed to be funny so we'd appreciate some feedback on it. It's about a guy who desperately wants to go sailing.

A sailing adventure all over the world

As I've always said - learning to sail is a hands on process. You've just got to have you hand on the tiller or the wheel to get the feeling of what a wind gust does to the boat and how to automatically correct it. Like burning data onto a cd, your brain has to be burned in with the feel of the wheel. That's why NauticEd takes care of the theory so you know what is happening, why and how to correct it plus other things like rules of the sea etc. But there is something bigger to learn as well - if you're up for it. That is world cruising, making a passage, sailing in unfamiliar territories. And that is what Seafaring360 is all about. An Adventure - on a GLOBAL scale.


Seafaring360 is for anyone - whether experienced or not. It's a 1/6th sailboat fractional ownership in a Beneteau 57 ft sailboat or Shannon Global 52. The yacht is on a 4 year circumnavigation of the world, stopping in most ports for about 3 months at a time. Owners fly in and use their boat as they wish. There is a full time captain on board to take care of all the details. Thus owners experience levels can range from novice all the way to experienced. Each owner has 8 weeks per year to use their yacht. Owners can either do a passage from one cruising ground to another - or they can just fly in and use the yacht in and around any particular place of their choosing. Or they can make up any combination. For example, an owner may fly in with friends and family use the yacht for a week in Tahiti, then who ever wants to stay on for the crossing to Tonga will stay while the others hang out in a spa for 10 days then fly to Tonga and catch up with the others. And perhaps the group may then cruise the Tongan cruising ground for a week before flying back home.

It gets even better, the logistics of destinations and boat management are handled by a professional team headed up by the Latitudes and Attitudes magazine staff. Their experience and resources is par none in this arena.

If someone wants to immerse them selves in the world of sailing and really experience a sailing adventure at the same time, Seafaring360 is it.

Newbie and wantabe sailors

A few years ago - the phone rang and on the other end was a guy asking me if I could teach him to sail around the world - I had five years to do it before he retired. I said it could be done but he'd need to get started on learning to sail right away.

I got him in a boat in a sailing fractional ownership program because he was new and wasn't sure if sailing was totally for him yet.

Well - actually that was 5 years ago now. Alan doesn't necessarily want to sail around the world anymore but he has done some cool sailing trips including from Fort Laurderdale to Corpus Christi, Texas, The british virgin islands twice, and Croatia.

He is hooked on sailing and is now a pretty competent sailor.

The point of this post is that if some one wants to get into sailing - well - just get started. It's simple - it's certainly fun because you end up sailing to really cool places like the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Pacific and even just out for a nice night sail. And - you get to say that you did something that is a little different.

Speaking of different, in the next post I'm going to talk about adventure sailing with a company called Seafaring360 it's about sailing all over the world.

Power boaters switching over to Sailing

It is happening - slowly but it does happen. One of the big wake up calls this season has been the dramatic increase in fuels prices. I meet people all over who say - "Sailing - that's too much work" or "Sailing - Isn't that difficult". I think this comes largely from other people. Because once on a sailboat with the wind in your face you suddenly realize it. And at the end of the day both the sailboat and power boat end back up in the same place - the marina. Yes the power boat has traveled a further distance but the end point is the same. Yet I tend to think that the end point of the mind is different. Your body and mind naturally have to de-stress on a sailboat.

One of the missions of NauticEd is decrease the intimidation factor of the "learn to sail" stigma. Having to go to a sailing school and sit in a class room is sometimes hard to do time wise. So being able to discover through on-line sailing courses that sailing is pretty simple is simple in it self. Now- however - once the theory and basic theory is down - one must get the practical time through a hands on sailing school. However that it time on the water anyway W5 (which was what was wanted).

I hope that anyone who has hesitated about getting out on the water this season because of the shear cost of it reconsider that boating is right there for them inexpensively through sailing. I spend about $20 in diesel every 6 weeks and I sail actively. Just enough motor power to get out of the marina and pull out the sails.

Come on every one - lets get back on the water - the Icing on the cake of life is time on the water.

New Boaters into sailing

I just returned from the Annapolis boat show and it is comforting to find that so many people were talking to me about getting back into sailing. Some because of the cost of fuel, some because the kids had left and some just because they had discovered how much fun it is though a friend.

I worked on the Beneteau stand where we had an impressive line up of the entire fleet from the Beneteau 31 through the new Beneteau 54. The walkway was quite packed and the party on friday night was certainly elbow to elbow. And despite the economy, there were lots of purchasing of new boats going on. Not quite as many as last year but of similar magnitude.

I worked the Beneteau Fractional Ownership section and I have to say wow! People were really interested in fractional ownership of a sailboat. Fractional sailing has gotten to a point in the industry that people realize it is here to stay and there are some good options. With Beneteau stamping their name on their plan we know that it is not only reputable but has been designed well.

For every new sailor or those who hadn't sailed in a while I introduced them to NauticEd - online sailing courses. It was well received.

Two friends of mine came to the show this year from Austin. we sail together on our fractional ownership Beneteau 373 on Lake Travis. It was their first time to come to a show of such magnitude. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I'd recommend every one to attend the Annapolis sailboat show if you can every October.

Learning to Sail - Practically or theory

Certainly all would argue that learning to sail is a hands on learning requirement. And here at NauticEd, we agree. All the theory in the world won't have you sailing a straight course the first time you're out. However a grounding knowledge in the theory is highly necessary to be ultimately skilled in the art and have a good safety background. NauticEd.org advocates both theory and practical learning. There are many sailing schools that can be found online in anyone's local sailing ground. NauticEd has taken a consistent and quality approach to the theory of sailing by delivering it via online sailing courses and clinics.