Before the sailboat, bodies of water were only traversed by borrowing your dad’s canoe or by piggybacking on a friendly giant clam. Celebrate the invention of breeze-catching sheets with today’s Groupon: for $215, you get a five-hour Basic Keelboat Sailing Theory class, plus three two-hour sailing outings, from Windsong Sailing Academy (a $436 value).
For more than 20 years, Windsong Sailing Academy has set sail with navigational novices and returned ashore with yachting yeomen. During the five-hour Basic Keelboat Sailing Theory class, participants learn proven tricks and boating methodology, discuss the physics and theory behind the speed and direction of boats, and postulate theses regarding the duality of man in Moby Dick. The ground school's small class sizes ensure maximum individual attention, and the three sailing outings take students in a keelboat out to Lake Lanier. There, sailors can rotate manning different crewing positions, such as steering or counting cadences for the oarsmen. Windsong Sailing Academy sets sail from multiple marinas, so discuss your best options when you call.
Windsong Sailing Academy
Windsong Sailing Academy blends the educational and the recreational aspects of sailing. It is a formula that has inspired lifelong passions in several former students. One student abandoned his corporate life to sail the Caribbean with his son, and another couple spent their retirement as the co-captains of an Island Packet 38 sailboat, boating past Miami, the Bahamas, and several countries recently acquired by Tom Hanks.
Over the course of Windsong’s 28 years of nautical adventures, Captain Dave Crumbley and his team have still sought to instill both knowledge and passion for the sport they love. With their educational courses, you’ll learn both theory and technique, and you can choose to take a program that can lead to certification with the American Sailing Association.