Over 50 Years of our family giving you more of what you go to sailing school for!SM
2026 schedules and signing up
Use the “book” button below to view schedules in the drop-down. Ready to sign up? Fill it all up and choose your method of payment. Before signing up, we encourage you to read the terms and conditions on our schedule/signup page. You know – so we’re all on the same page, boat, etc.
Private lessons: Available anytime weather permits – even in the winter ‘off’ season! Privates can be for just you or also the rest of the crew. Contact us to discuss or set up.
Start Sailing,SM our learn-to-sail course (ASA 101 & new: 102), has been refined during a family history of over 50 years and two sailing schools into a fun, efficient machine that makes solid new sailors. It’s done in smaller groups than other schools, and with much more time on the water. You’ll get more than just an introduction to sailing – you’ll be able to skipper! Yes: you’ll be ready to take the boat out without us, and we’ll prove it to you with our occasional post-course practice sails without an instructor on board! Plus, you’re pre-qualified to join as skipper in the on-site sailing club!
Don’t have a clue? Want a free preview? We’ll do that for you! Contact us to discuss taking you out for a quick sail so you can see what sailing, and learning how, are all about. No sales pitch; just sailing.
Want the sneak preview NOW? Here’s a post on what it’s like to learn to sail, especially with us, but applicable to many schools.
It’s not hard to learn to sail at our ASA sailing school and club. Enjoy a safe outdoor activity in a private or small group setting. Take our fun, full Start Sailing SM course (Basic Keelboat/ASA 101 and 102): get more time on the tiller, and learn how to sail right the first time! You’ll be ready to join a sailing club… and we have one. Skip the NY Harbor and Manhattan sailing school crowds, and become a real skipper!
Start SailingSM is the most comprehensive – AND fun – learn to sail course at any price. Go from mere Sketcher-bearer to Skipper in three full, honest days, each mostly on the water with an instructor and with a max of only 3 students per boat.* Do your due dil; do the math. Almost all other schools give you only two days of sailing, with 4 students on each boat. Plus, we offer occasional practice sailing sessions where you can sail with other students, and an instructor supervises by radio and coach boat – just another way we give you more.
* Private groups of 4 can sign up together, but for open enrollment in group courses, the maximum is 3 per boat.
It’s simple: sailing is a sport learned by doing – not hearing about it, or reading about it. We give you much more time on the water, and with smaller groups (3 versus 4), much more time on the tiller – the single most important part of your learning experience. Want to learn to drive? Only way is to actually do it! (First lesson: the ’tiller’ is the steering stick.)
We give you very brief shoreside sessions that introduce the sailing concepts before going out and doing them. You can’t do this meaningfully in two days of sailing, as too many schools try to do – including some schools that claim their courses are 3 days long when they only give you 2. You don’t need to spend hours in the classroom doing nothing but listening to an instructor, especially after work in the evening. Most people don’t learn well that way. They learn by doing and watching it be done.
What do some of our competitors think 3 days means? Some think it’s a long drawn-out classroom session or two at night, with no on-water, real-life context, followed by two days on the water. One thinks it means two days of instruction, and then a day of practice sailing (without a proper way to supervise). By their definitions, guess that means we give you FOUR days!
As well as giving you the time you need, we also give you…
- better sailing waters: reliable sea breezes and room to roam, without commercial traffic, strong currents, and thunderstorms.
- better boats: highly suited to teaching, and inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame.
- better methods: more sailing time, and our exclusive Obstacle CourseSM training system
- better instructors: fun, patient, and not teaching out of a book or to a test
Want to learn more about how we are better able to teach you how to sail? See our methodology page, including a link to videos of our students in action on our exclusive Obstacle Course!SM
Classrooms are for college. Your ‘classroom’ for sailing is your boat, and ours is the best we’ve ever used in our family’s history of sailing schools and teaching. (We’ve introduced several to sailing instruction and tried others.) You’ll learn on an Ensign, which was inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame for good reasons: excellent performance in all wind conditions, safe, stable, and roomy. Designed by one of the pre-eminent naval architects, Carl Alberg, it’s a boat that’s not only survived the test of time, but still thriving with large fleets that day sail and race. And, new Ensigns are still being made here in the United States! Most sailboats used by other schools are either not in production at all, or not made domestically.
By the end of the third day, you’ll be able to sail the boat singlehanded. You’ll also be able to stop at a mooring under sail (no motor). You’ll be able to heave-to, reef the mainsail, sail confidently through a tight mooring field of boats, and do overboard rescue drills. Much of this goes beyond the minimum standards for ASA 101 Basic Keelboat, but it’s what we’ve always felt students needed to succeed. And, we’ve been providing these skills to students like you for over 50 years.
Then, you’re ready to progress on your own! Join the Club, and keep sailing the same type of boat you learned on (Ensign class), plus other privately owned boats by invitation of members. Don’t rush into buying your own boat… but if you do (and someone always does), it’s one-stop shopping: join the Club and keep it right there at SYBC! Need a little more confidence boosting after you graduate? No problem. Sail with others in the Club a few times before you skipper yourself, or join one of our occasional Practice Sails supervised by an instructor but without one on board!
Certification: ASA 101, Keelboat 1 (learn to sail, formerly called Basic Keelboat). It’s included in your tuition, not an add-on extra. 101 is a prerequisite for all future courses except 105, which is strictly navigation. ASA 102, or Keelboat 2, is new as of 2024. We’re one of the earliest schools qualified to teach it and certify students for it. We have been teaching the skills for it all along – since before ASA even existed. So, you’ll get all those skills with our course.
Unlike 101, 102 is not a prerequisite for other courses or certifications except for ASA’s racing clinics. To get the 102 certification, just get the dedicated 102 textbook, do some home study (mostly on sail shape and trim), and arrange with us to take the 102 certification exam. Total cost for 102: approximately $100 for textbook and certification. You can decide later whether you want to do 102. But, you’ll already have the on-water skills from your Start Sailing course with us.
We’ve been doing 102 since before 101 even existed – example 459 of how “we give you MORE of what you go to sailing school for!”SM
Prerequisites: you’ll need to pay us, of course, but that’s about it. No prior experience required! Many students have a little, and the rest of you have zero. It’s all good.
Schedules: a variety of types to fit your busy schedule…
- Weekend Plus: 3 weekend days – usually 1 weekend plus the following Saturday. Most common schedule.
- 3 Sundays: typically consecutive
- 3 Fridays: typically consecutive.
- Weekday Getaway: 3 weekdays, typically 2x the first week with day 3 the following, but very flexible. Scheduled on demand (see more below), and don’t wait to see them on the site – they book in the background by people who ask us about it. So, ask us!
All schedules give you more time on the water. We only do about 3 hours of shoreside classroom over the 3 days, so you can spend more time sailing the boat (around 16-18 hours), plus strategic mid-sail breaks so we have your brains and not your bladders. Whenever we can get away with it, we shorten the classroom time and extend the sailing even more. (Almost all other schools give you less than three days of real on-water instruction, and add a fourth student to each boat.)
Tuition: $795
Included: EVERYTHING…
- the full 3-day course (duh)
- Our own superior in-house textbook
- ASA 101 certification, valid for life. (More here on 102)
- So, no: we won’t hit you with surprise add-on fees either as you book or before you get your certification.
(Okay, we don’t include lunch – but we’ll eat and BS with you and maybe go over some charts. And, we have been known to make coffee!)
Have plenty of experience, and really only need a refresher? Just need the ‘piece of paper’ (certification)? Contact us to discuss whether the full course makes sense for you or if a private lesson or “challenge” will do.
Ready to do this? Here you go!..