Hi Folks,
Wilst staring at a Hobie 14 in a garage, we were chatting on the weekend about starting a sailing school. There are several very successful laser schools in the area and so I was thinking "How can we convert some of the laser sailors to cat sailors?" We have a perfect venue for it as well...1500' of perfect sand beach next to a large resort on a small (5km across) warm lake.

Where do we start? I guess we need a few more Hobie 14s...(anyone got one for sale?)
How should we advertise?
Dave

If you were in Ireland, I would say, check out insurance - can be very expensive.
Then, a qualified "Senior Instructor" (insurance here would insist on you having one)

I think that Mary will chip in here and give you all the answers !

It's a great idea to expose more sailors to cats. Rather than starting from scratch, though, you may have more success by hooking up with the existing schools. After all, they already have location, marketing, insurance and a ready group of sailors.

Offer to put together a few "free" classes to see how much interest there really is. Could save a lot of headaches down the line.

Sheldon

Dave,

I'm trying to do something similar in Virginia Beach. I have 6 complete 14s that I would like to use to start a week night series. I don't know about a school, exactly, but I think it would be easier to at least get some interest if people could go out on a real easy boat.

If I can't get enough interest or it just plain doesn't work out, I'll have 6 boats for sale!!

I don't know what the requirements are in Canada, of course, but if you want to know what is involved in the U.S., the best people to contact would be Scott and Dior Hubel at Performance Sail & Sport in Melbourne, Florida. Phone number is 321-253-3737.

They have a full-service sailing center with sales, rentals, lessons, etc., plus they have organized sailing teams at their area high schools.

On the insurance issue, what kind of insurance would we need for a weekly series and who can I contact about it?? We are also looking at renting a building that is on the beach for a kind of "sailing club". I'm thinking that I would need some kind of liability and a waiver for any one using the boats.

You could do it like Scientology... get Tom Cruise to sail in your school, then everyone will want to be a part. Or start small with B-list actors like Mickey Rourke. Then charge a load of money...

The hard part is you have to tie in genetics and sailing catamarans into some sort of martian theory of life...

I think this is a great idea. My wife and I got started sailing last summer because there was a 6-hour class taught on Sunfish for a reasonable fee. The time commitment and $$$ commitment were not too scary, and we didn't need to have a boat, so we signed up. I don't see a lot of programs like this for cats, which is probably a big reason there aren't lots of new people coming into catamaran sailing.

It would be nice to have a continuum for beginners - they should be able to take a 6 hour class, rent a boat and sail at a reasonable fee to get experience, help in purchasing and learning how to set up their own boat, etc.

Jonathan