The Caribbean - Bareboat Sailing Lessons?

Has anyone taken bareboat sailing lessons in the Caribbean?

Can you relate your experiences, who provided the lessons, the time spent learning, what skills you started with and certification accomplished.

how much do you know about sailing? I bareboat charter 50's in vi & bvi about every other year. I cannot imagine how you would learn from rank beginner to boat driver first class on a 50' sail boat in a week or 10 days.

back in my youth, I ocean raced with very famous names, now long forgotten. I don't think they give a cert. I just walked onto the boat and told them i knew the pointie part from the other end, and how to pull all the ropes.

my problem now is a lack of strength due to very old age. we always take a younger couple with us. I never got a cert of any kind, nor has anyone ever questioned my taking a boat out. I do fill out that form they send me.

we have chartered with 4 or 5 different companies. this year, I hope to get a hyard 54(sp) as it has 3 zone AC.

we have always chartered in late july, aug, or early sept, as that is when the wind is best(lots of lows, a few hurricanes).

If you are a competant racing small boat sailer, you should be able to learn enough safety(it's all safety) in a couple 3 days.

most of the people who charter never put the sails up. you can drive a 50 at 5 knots under power with one day of instruction. may hit a few docks hard, and may have a hell of a time picking up a mooring, and forget about anchoring, but, that is what most of the bvi charters do. buy the insurance.

we once chartered an 18 mo old 50 out of vi. started sailing, and the bilge alarm went off. the boat hook fell overboard. the boat had never been heeled before. when we called the charter company, they wanted to know what we were doing????????had sales up???tipped the boat???????

for first timers, moorings at bvi is probably tough to beat. a bit more expensive, but class operation.

Has anyone taken bareboat sailing lessons in the Caribbean?

Can you relate your experiences, who provided the lessons, the time spent learning, what skills you started with and certification accomplished.

I would recommend taking ASA approved courses locally for basic sailing and coastal navigation and then arrange to take bareboat certification at a Caribbean destination.

I did basic sailing and navigation in Portland Oregon and bareboat on Puget Sound. Basic and navigation were about 4 weeks each and then bareboat was done on a weekend back in 1997.

I try to charter every 2 years and this May we are taking a 36' boat from Raiatea to Bora Bora and a couple of other islands in Tahiti.

Has anyone taken bareboat sailing lessons in the Caribbean?

Can you relate your experiences, who provided the lessons, the time spent learning, what skills you started with and certification accomplished.

Suggest to go with an good company and hire a captain for a few days, Moorings is great. Have not heard of a real sailing school but BVI has the easist sail since you can stay in the channel always in sight of land. Good to take a course at home, CityIsland in NY had one. But this is still not enough to take a yacht out. Way we did it was to go a few times with experienced people, took soe courses at hoe, then hired a captain the first time we went by ourselves
Also can go to the Bitter end on Virgin Gorda, they have small boats enough for a day or two and pretty easy to handle

have fun!