I wanted to start a conversation amongst those who have been around a while about the ASA courses. I have noticed so many recommend them to the new or first time sailor sometimes even before buying or trying sailing.
However before I ask my question I need to preface it with the fact that this is not a dig at ASA or any other courses. I believe the ASA courses are great and valuable to a sailor to hone or develop skills. Also please know that I am not a new sailor and not asking for myself or anyone else I’m just looking to get opinions as to if we are helping or hurting our sport so here goes.
Are we deterring people from learning to sail by suggesting immediately that the newest sailors take ASA courses to learn how? Let’s be honest for many of an older generation you likely learned to sail in dinghy’s and small boats. Capsizing, recovering, having parents or friends help and beating the heck out of those early small boats. I myself learned at a summer camp over a week long period and then developed additional skills over many years. But I have noticed a trend lately where someone wants to learn to sail and is immediately told to enroll in ASA classes. Or they buy a boat and “survive” their first outing and are criticized for sail shape, ability to reef, hove to, recover the boat, maintain the boat to a Yachts standards, etc. This seems like it could be intimidating to say the least. After all the boats I learned to sail on were Lido 14s and they leaked so bad you had to bail them in the morning and while sailing. The sails were rags and they basically held air but it was a blast. I never heard of sail shape or various tactics until much later and quite frankly if I had to fully learn the sailing language to even begin (think ropes to lines debate) then I likely would have been disinterested early on. So what say you? Is the immediate suggestion of over $1,000 of courses to learn if you even like sailing helping or hurting the sport? Why don’t more recommend they go hang out at a local club and make a friend that can at least get them started with some basics for free? Are clubs unwelcoming of a “new” or potential sailor to even take them for a ride? It seems with all the clubs across the US that have an aging membership an open atmosphere could promote and encourage more to the sport. Then later on as they want to hone skills classes like those offered by ASA and dozens of other companies become far more beneficial.
However before I ask my question I need to preface it with the fact that this is not a dig at ASA or any other courses. I believe the ASA courses are great and valuable to a sailor to hone or develop skills. Also please know that I am not a new sailor and not asking for myself or anyone else I’m just looking to get opinions as to if we are helping or hurting our sport so here goes.
Are we deterring people from learning to sail by suggesting immediately that the newest sailors take ASA courses to learn how? Let’s be honest for many of an older generation you likely learned to sail in dinghy’s and small boats. Capsizing, recovering, having parents or friends help and beating the heck out of those early small boats. I myself learned at a summer camp over a week long period and then developed additional skills over many years. But I have noticed a trend lately where someone wants to learn to sail and is immediately told to enroll in ASA classes. Or they buy a boat and “survive” their first outing and are criticized for sail shape, ability to reef, hove to, recover the boat, maintain the boat to a Yachts standards, etc. This seems like it could be intimidating to say the least. After all the boats I learned to sail on were Lido 14s and they leaked so bad you had to bail them in the morning and while sailing. The sails were rags and they basically held air but it was a blast. I never heard of sail shape or various tactics until much later and quite frankly if I had to fully learn the sailing language to even begin (think ropes to lines debate) then I likely would have been disinterested early on. So what say you? Is the immediate suggestion of over $1,000 of courses to learn if you even like sailing helping or hurting the sport? Why don’t more recommend they go hang out at a local club and make a friend that can at least get them started with some basics for free? Are clubs unwelcoming of a “new” or potential sailor to even take them for a ride? It seems with all the clubs across the US that have an aging membership an open atmosphere could promote and encourage more to the sport. Then later on as they want to hone skills classes like those offered by ASA and dozens of other companies become far more beneficial.