Conference unifix::sailing

    
    	Is the school physically on St. Croix?  St. Croix was pretty
    	much pancaked by Hugo, you might want to check to see if the
    	school is still operational (assuming it's on the island).
    
    	Tom--

    My wife and I took just this class early last December for the purpose
    of learning how to sail from the very beginning combined with a
    vacation in a warm climate.
    
    We received excellent instruction literally from the ground up.
    For example, how to tie the few basic knots you'll need: bowline,
    clove hitch, the proper way to tie a slipped reef knot, etc; how
    to bend on, hand the sails, and fold and bag them; how to leave
    and approach a dock with just the wind as power; sail trim under
    all points of sail; extensive man over board technique.  I completed
    the five days with much more skill than I expected to achieve.
    
    Here are the pro's and con's as we saw them.
    
    1. The school will include housing in the package.  When we went
    the hotel used was the Holger Danske which is next door to the school.
     My advice is stay away from this place!!!  It was dirty, holes
    in the screen, bugs in the rooms, and generally not nice.  It does
    have the advantage of being cheap.  There are a number of other
    hotels within 1-3 easy-walking blocks of the school.  The King
    Christian seemed nice.  There are others.  We stayed on a few extra
    days at the Buccaneer (a resort priced to match).  The people at
    Annapolis will provide you with the names of other hotels.
    
    2.  The school uses a 22' sloop called the Rainbow, which is a
    proprietary design I believe.  It's a great boat to learn on, but
    bring at least a light weight foul weather jacket  since you'll get
    very wet going to weather.  We didn't, and even though it's tropical
    if it's cloudy, it can get uncomfortable.
    
    3. They will try to fit four people on the boat plus instructor.
     We were lucky and had only three on ours, so we had more time for
    individual practice.
    
    

re .2:

There is a Sparkmans and Stephens design called the Rainbow. The boat is about 
22'. The Coastal Sailing School in Marblehead has at least a couple. If this 
is the same boat used by the Annapolis school, then the design isn't 
proprietary. The S&S design isn't recent.

    According to a story in Soundings, Hugo damage in the Caribbean
    includes:
    
    St Thomas
    
        46 of 140 bareboats damaged but repairable
        14 severely damaged or destroyed
        27 of more than 200 crewed yachts destroyed
    
    St Croix
    
        90% of 200 boats in Christensted harbor lost
        90% of 200 boats in Salt River Bay lost
        30  0f 150 private boats damages at Green Cay
    
    Puerto Rico
    
        60 of 275 boats still floating at Culebra
        Fajardo hard hit.
        40 boats lost in San Juan (not considered a large number)
    
    BVI's not as hard hit as USVI's - none of 35 crewed boats were

    re .3
    
    I checked my old literature.  Alan is right, it is an S & S design.
    
    re .0
    
    One thing I forgot to mention is that we would heartily recommend
    our instructor.  Louise Baker taught us.  Lou and her husband Marty
    were living in St. Croix making money during part of a multi-year
    cruise to Belize from Long Island where they used to live.  Lou
    has been an around the bouys racer since she ws a kid.  Her mother
    still races Stars (in her 70's).  Lou had great patience, skill,
    and a great way of teaching.  
    
    Some friends of ours went after we did and were taught by Marty.
    Equally favorable comments from them.
    
    

    Last Christmas my wife and I went to the Offshore Sailing School
    at South Seas Plantation on Sanibel-Captiva Island in Florida. A
    great, but pricey resort. The school appears to deliver the same
    content as the Annapolis school. Offshore uses Solings for the
    beginning class as well as for their racing program. I thought the
    school was very good. The only reservation I have is that the water
    around the marina is very shallow and the winds are light. The Solings
    do not have an engine and it takes a long time to tack out of the
    marina and out the channel to deeper water for sailing. The class
    is half days in the classroom and halfdays on the boad.