Why are marginal incompetents teaching ASA courses, or any keelboat lessons for that matter? This makes Hoofers look bad. Students who pay lots of money don't learn nearly as much as they could. And now the ASA instructors are distracted by pirate's costumes and booty.And didn't most of the current "ASA" instructors get their certification here, making them Hoofer ASA groupies..?
For any suckers, er, potential students thinking about taking an ASA course, you can learn a lot more just by joining HSC and taking lots of keelboat lessons. Then you can take them on various keelboats too, not just the J24. The cost is similar, and you get to sail at Hoofers for a whole year. Anyone who didn't already fork over that hefty ASA fee should think twice. For beginning and intermediate sailors, you're not going to learn anywhere near enough in ASA 101 to charter a boat. Better to really learn to sail, then charter next year.
And I'd be very wary of presenting any ASA rating earned at Hoofers to a charter company. Try that and you'll likely end up paying an extra $1000 for a hired skipper to come along on "your" charter. Many Hoofers have chartered boats 35ft and bigger with no ASA ratings, no Coast Guard certification, nothing but good overall sailing skills learned over the course of several years. Charter captains can smell a fake.The best instructors aren't even teaching this year. And the commodore quit, and now we have fleet captains being replaced. Typical.
Good instructors with experience are not teaching as much due in part to the new regime. It would be good if many of these instructors shared why they feel that way. It's a bigger issue than anyone is letting on.
ReplyDeleteI think he's trying to make it like every other sailing club. It's a my way or the highway proposition.
ReplyDeleteAnd Pirates Day is being advertised on Facebook as debauchery. Great.
ReplyDelete'If you haven't already, sign up at the boathouse and prepare for a day of debauchery!'
I'm one of the suckers who enrolled in the ASA class. What a waste of $300. Horrible experience. Marginal instruction.
ReplyDeleteA few details on your experience would be helpful. It's easy to post a quick message saying it sucked, but why? who was teaching it? What could they have done better?
ReplyDeleteAnd how can any sailing be "horrible" unless there was no wind? Maybe it's you that didn't properly prepare for the class.