Offshore Sailing School Resources

The more students you enroll together, the more you save. Let us provide a quote for you with friends or family to take a US Sailing or US Power-boating certification course at resort locations in Florida or the Caribbean. View all courses, available year-round.

Minimum age 7 with adult. Maximum five participants aboard each Colgate 26 sailboat with instructor. These fun 2-hour sailing lessons offer the opportunity to “test the water” and see if you enjoy sailing as much as we do. You must book a minimum of two students together for a minimum of two hours, on a mutually-agreeable date and time. Personal flotation devices will be supplied. Participants are encouraged to wear close-toed, non-slip, light-color, rubber-sole shoes, ie. no sandals, barefeet, nor flip-flops. Bring a light jacket, water bottle, sunscreen, cap with retaining strap, and your camera phone! There is plenty of storage on our Colgate 26 to stow personal effects. Note, any onsite parking charges, food and beverage you may bring on board or purchase ashore, are at individual, additional expense.

You must be able to independently move from the dock to the sailboat and from the sailboat to the dock, unassisted. The 2-hour sailing lessons are taught at the Pink Shell Beach Resort Marina on Ft. Myers Beach, and at the St. Petersburg Downtown Municipal Marina. Confirmation with details on where to meet your US Sailing-certified instructor at the marina will be sent via email after your payment is received.

Guaranteed to Maximize Confidence in Two-Person Sailboat Cruising Adventures! This private big sailboat learning experience gives you the confidence to happily cruise on live aboard cruising yachts – just the two of you. In 4 days you gain two certifications (3 if learning on a catamaran) and the knowledge and skills most long-time sailors never achieve. Seasoned sailors call it “short-handed” sailing. Sailors who know how wonderful it is to share sailing adventures with a spouse, son, daughter, or best friend – call it sheer bliss.

You choose to learn on a 40′-45′ catamaran cruising yacht, or a 44′-47′ monohull cruising yacht. And you have two Florida locations where you can take a course this summer: St. Petersburg and Fort Myers Beach. The course must conclude before August 31, 2024. Download 2024 Summer Private Cruising Courses and call right away as space in this private big sailboat cruising course for two is very limited. No sailing experience yet? New to sailing? Take the Fast Track® course which adds two days of basic sailing instruction aboard a Colgate 26 sailboat before you board the cruising boat. Just $12,995 per couple ($6,497.50 per person) and includes 3 hotel nights while taking the basic learn to sail course, and nearly all your meals while learning aboard the cruising boat.

A two-day weekend sailboat cruising course designed to provide ultimate confidence while docking a large sailboat cruising vessel with proficient ease in various wind conditions. $2,995 per person. Live aboard while learning all day Saturday and up to 3 p.m. on Sunday. To learn more go to Monohull or Catamaran Docking Refresher course, or you can download a PDF: 2024 Weekend Warrior Sailing Class – DOCKING to learn more.

A two-day weekend sailing lessons course for monohull sailors who wish to move into catamaran sailboat cruising, and for those who may have learned on or own a catamaran seeking more training in operating a catamaran while sailing, docking, anchoring, and picking up mooring balls. $2,995 per person. Live aboard while learning all day Saturday and Sunday up to 3 p.m. Earn your Catamaran Endorsement 114 for catamaran live-aboard cruising on your own or a catamaran sailboat charter anywhere in the world! To learn more go to Catamaran Refresher & Endorsement course, or you can download the PDF 2024 Weekend Warrior Sailing Class – CAT ENDORSEMENT.

A three-day big sailboat sailing lessons course designed to help you obtain the IPC (International Proficiency Certificate) for chartering monohulls or catamarans anywhere in the world. $3,495 per person. Sailing instruction is all day Friday, Saturday, and up to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Includes 3-night stay at partner resort where cruising sailboat is based. To learn more go to IPC Prep and Cruising Certification or download this PDF 2024 Weekend Warrior Sailing Class – IPC PREP-BCC CERT.

You can do just that in this new introductory two-consecutive-half-day sailing experience at the fabulous Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Ft. Myers Beach, FL.

Pick any two consecutive days of the week and have fun learning to sail in two half-day sessions for a total of eight hours of sailing lessons. This is truly a rewarding sailing lessons adventure. You learn how to:

• Leave a dock and bring the boat back in
• Use wind power to make the sailboat go where you want it to go
• Steer using a tiller
• Be a competent crew member and use the lines to make sails fill with wind
• Pick up something that is in the water without use of the engine
• Have a whole lot of fun sailing as a team!

To learn more take a look at this flier: 2024 Two Half-Days Discover Sailing – Pink Shell, and sign up today for a Discover Sailing package that will surely get your adrenaline going to learn more sailing tips.

Family Learn to Sail and Fast Track® to Live Aboard Cruising Courses for families are available at our three of our vacation destinations: Downtown Hampton Inn & Suites in St. Petersburg or the Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Fort Myers Beach, Florida; and Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina in the British Virgin Islands.

In this specially-priced learning week-long vacation package, your family of 4* (two adults and two family kids, minimum age 12, maximum age 25) learn to sail aboard a Colgate 26 the first two days. On the third day, you move aboard a beautiful big cruising yacht (monohull or catamaran chosen in advance), and learn to handle a big boat together, as a team, for the remainder of the week.

At the end of one week, your family will be certified to skipper a yacht up to 50′, and then you can apply for your International Proficiency Certificate if you wish to charter in Mediterranean countries. This is the most rewarding opportunity to reunite family members, learn to bareboat charter together, and enjoy countless boating vacations in the future! Call 1+ 888-454-7015 for course availability. *Fifth family child between age 12 and 25 may be added for additional fee. May not be combined with any other offer nor promotional discount.

The best savings on Colgate Sailing Adventures® flotillas are for Offshore Sailing School graduates with US Sailing Bareboat Cruising Certification and the International Proficiency Certificate (IPC). It’s easy to get the IPC when you earn Bareboat Cruising certification. The International Proficiency Certificate is required to charter a yacht in many Mediterranean sailing centers.

There’s a whole lot of history, intrigue, and excitement in the 60 years Offshore Sailing School has been in existence. When Steve Colgate started writing his “vignettes,” Doris said, “We need to get these in a book!” And so they did, along with an amazing tale of how they built Offshore Sailing School into an iconic brand, and turned their lives into a tale of one adventure after another. Renowned author, Herb McCormick, captured the Colgate story in this intriguing biography that so may have said they couldn’t put down.

Not too many companies surpass 60 years with their original leaders still at the helm. Living in southwest Florida, those leaders have become somewhat of a legend. The biography of Steve & Doris Colgate, and the history of Offshore Sailing School was published in October 2021 as mentioned above.

This revealing biography is an in-depth compendium about the Colgates’ lives, their love of sailing and each other, and the building of America’s #1 Sailing School®. They’re still leading the way today.

Case in point: Doris was featured in the October 2019 Gulfshore Life Magazine as one of five impressive “Game Changers” in Southwest Florida. Doris and Steve were both featured in a 7-page spread in Gulfshore Life Magazine’s June 2024 issue. If you are not familiar with it, Gulfshore Life is a very slick, very big, magazine featuring stories about art and artists, philanthropy and philanthropists, theater and other entertainment, fine dining, and more – in Naples (Collier County), Lee County and Charlotte County in SW Florida. Steve Colgate started Offshore Sailing School on the back of a cocktail napkin in November 1964. Doris met Steve in January 1968 when she took a racing course he ran in the Bahamas. They are now both in the National Sailing Hall of Fame! Read more about the evolution of Offshore Sailing School in About Us, Steve’s bio here and Doris’ bio here.

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