The second part of 5 ways to become a sailor is here. Yesterday’s post talked about a family owned yacht, sailing as a part of the school curriculum and sailing clubs.
4. Sailing Schools
This is a very interesting chapter about sailing education because there is a wide variety of sailing schools all over the world. Some of them are oriented to sporting sailing while others are oriented to hobbyists. Many of them issue some sort of certificate which is often not a sure sign of competence. Trustworthy certificates of competency, licenses and verifications could only be issued by authorities and/or authorized and licensed entities. A useful sailing school program I found so far is designed as sailing on cruisers where the education is held aboard a sailing yacht during a cruising week.
That way the students gain knowledge about sailing, route planning, navigation, regulations, weather forecasting as well as the principles and tutorials about chartering a yacht. Advance sailing course is a great opportunity for those who have no company for sailing holidays, but love to sail.
There is an experienced tutor/skipper on the advanced course who takes care of safety and drill while students do all the rest by themselves in terms of cruising week. Such education could also be useful if you are not confident enough to charter a yacht on your own. Take a week assessing your skills then charter a yacht.
5. You Answered the Call of Billow
This is probably the most adventurous way of getting started. When they hear the call of billow reasonable people would take a course at the nearest sailing school and start sailing as described above. Other would follow their dreams and just take off. I know a few examples of people who felt it so strong that they even build their yachts by themselves and started learning to sail on their own trials and errors.
Such way is not accident free for sure, but some say that God takes care of children and fools… However, some of the mentioned have learned their lesson by sailing the world and gained respect when they got back home after years spent aboard.
Every one of the described paths to seamanship has their own advantages and disadvantages. However, every one of them is equally good if the goal is achieved – to become a sailor. Last but not least, more important than the way you become a sailor is that you abide by the rules – respect the sea and the wind…