Class Acts

How did you learn to sail? If you’re a boomer, the story likely involves getting soaked, freezing your butt off, smashing fingers, spilling blood, getting scared silly and at least one near-death experience. But you still thought it was cool enough to try again. Uncle Bob’s teaching methods — and, in retrospect, his knowledge — may have left a bit to be desired, but he certainly lit the fire. And bit by bit, you became a pretty proficient sailor.

Wannabe sailors these days are lucky. Their introduction to sailing might still come from a friend or relative. But nowadays, they can get a rock-solid foundation and skillset from a professional sailing school in a fraction of the time it took at Uncle Bob’s school of hard knocks. For next month’s issue, we talked with 10 individuals or couples who learned to sail at local sailing schools and went on to some amazing adventures in a relatively short period of time. Among them:

•  Tony, who had only sailed dinghies a few times. He went through keelboat classes locally, met another student who shared a dream of sailing around the world, and the two of them took off on a circumnavigation from 2001-2003.

• Jennifer, who got more than she bargained for at a local sailing school. She not only learned to sail, she discovered a soul mate in one of the instructors. The two of them married, bought a boat and circumnavigated.

• Don, who had sailed off and on for years but ‘filled in the knowledge gaps’ through classes at a school. It gave him the confidence to sign up for the 2004/2005 Global Challenge — the ‘wrong way’ race westabout around the world.

•  Allan and Rina, former powerboaters who ‘crossed over’ six years ago, took sailing classes, bought a boat, did the last Baja Ha-Ha and were happily enjoying life in Barra Navidad when we talked to them.

Look for their stories and more ‘class acts’ in the March issue of Latitude 38, which hits the streets on March 2.