Hubby has been wanting to take sailing lessons for a long time, and after our youngest expressed an interest in either the Naval or Coast Guard Academy, he was even more motivated. His research led us to North Texas Sailing School on Lake Ray Hubbard. We took both the Beginning and Intermediate sailing classes together, which meant one Thursday night 3 hour classroom based class and then two weekends on the boats-both weekends included 6 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday-ending with testing on the last Sunday to earn your ASA 101 certification. The classes also included lunch and after sailing drinks on Saturday, but nothing on Sunday. Being Texas in July, we had a variety of sailing conditions over the two weekends, from strong winds to dead calm, although all of it was HOT. The school gives you time on the boats with at least 3 different instructors, so you get to learn different styles/techniques for the same skills. All the instructors were great and it allows for a lot of individual time at the helm, as well as learning by watching others. That said...the boats are 22 foot wooden J22s and they are uncomfortable!! And there is no shade, so had to slather up the sun screen like crazy. The Saturdays made for really long days and I was more than done by the end of them. Not sure how they could have broken it up differently since you need a certain amount of time on the boat, but the 6 hour days were brutal!
Once you are certified, you can come back and join the racing on Wednesday nights and/or Alumni sails on Sunday afternoons.
I would recommend NTSS, and we might even be taking a Coastal Cruising class with them in the future. read more