Learning to sail as a family - great solution

by Dave Caldwell, NY Times/Sail-World on 23 Jun 2010 The sun cast a dreamy orange glow as it settled toward the horizon, and a parade of pristine sailboats began slipping back into the marina at Liberty State Park after a spin around New York Harbor. The Gonzalez family of Chatham, N.J., was on one of those boats, and Tony and Maryury Gonzalez and their three children were more than just passengers.

In a program that could well be copied round the world, with the help of an instructor, all five Gonzalezes — including Ryan, 12, Alec, 10, and Anthony, 7 — had actually piloted the 26-foot boat on their second day of a three-day, learn-to-sail course offered by the Offshore Sailing School. Tony and Maryury had watched their children play sports plenty of times, but this was an athletic activity, a warm-weather challenge, that all of them could do together.

'None of us had a sailing background,' said Tony Gonzalez, who works for Murex, a financial software company in New York. 'We know people who have boats, but we don’t do any of that.'

Offshore is one of several companies in the New York area that offer sailing programs for families — not just children and not just parents. Families can also take courses at, among other sites, Atlantic Yachting at the 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan, the Manhattan Sailing Club in Battery Park City, and the Port Sailing Center in Port Washington, N.Y., on Long Island.

'No PlayStations, no GameBoys, nothing like that — it’s just a chance to get out on the water,' said the Gonzalezes’ instructor, Jonathan Wehrung, a 10-year veteran teacher known as J. W. to his students.

Family sailing lessons have a different vibe than group lessons with strangers. For starters, children are better students, said Miles Pincus, an owner of Atlantic Yachting, which offers, among other programs, a three-hour Introduction to Sailing for curious families.

'Kids are very used to learning,' Mr. Pincus said. 'They’re used to being taught. Adults are not used to that. They tend to take their own route. A lot of adults try to manhandle the situation. It just doesn’t work that way.'

Relatives are also more likely to pitch in for one another than are strangers. 'You stick them in a boat, and they kind of stick together,' said Chris Nihill, owner of the Port Sailing Center, which offers family discounts for several sailing classes, beginning with Basic Sailing 101.

The Offshore Sailing course is not just a ramble. The first 90 minutes of each day is spent in a classroom near the Liberty State Park Marina in New Jersey. The family sails one session in the morning and another in the late afternoon, finishing by 6 p.m. The course ends with a basic keelboat certification test. (Certified sailors can rent boats and take them out on their own.)

The Gonzalezes took lessons on a Colgate 26, which was designed by Steve Colgate, an America’s Cup competitor and founder of the Offshore Sailing School, and the naval architect Jim Taylor. The boat was meant to be low-cost and durable, but also challenging. Foam-filled compartments make it virtually unsinkable and steel railings make it hard to tip.

'The boat teaches the students a lot,' said Rogier Intres, the branch manager of Offshore’s Liberty State Park operation. (It also has a base at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.) 'It’s pretty decent to handle, and you don’t get scared a lot. If you can sail over here, with the current, the traffic in the harbor and the ferries, you can do it everywhere.'

On the Gonzalezes’ days out, the Colgate passed the Dad Test — 'The one thing about this boat is that you feel safe in it,' Mr. Gonzalez said — while still providing thrills for the boys. Alec said: 'I liked how the boat was always tilting in the wind. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is so much fun. This is going to tip over.’ '