Daytime-Only Courses

Annapolis, Md., or Greenport, N.Y., only: 3 and 2-day daytime courses are for beginners or sailors with very little experience. Onboard, the boat is your classroom as you learn -- first, to move safely and comfortably, then, to use the boat’s cruising equipment and sails to advance at your own pace under expert guidance. We lunch at anchor or “heaving-to” (what fun!). Student crew docks the boat at the end of each day.

Live Aboard Learning Cruises

For beginning, intermediate and advancing sailors. Experience and enjoy the cruising lifestyle by living aboard while learning. Embark for 7, 5, or 3 days to begin to learn hands-on, or to advance all the skills you need to sail and manage a cruising sailboat. Whether you are brand new, somewhat experienced or a “wannabe skipper,” you and your crewmates take turns at every task and share what you learn to reinforce and advance your skills and the confidence to know what to do, when and why, guided step-by-step by expert instructors.

Passagemaking

Passages sail one-way between ports; e.g., Annapolis -> Miami’s Biscayne Bay -> Key West. Passages are ideal for learning and advancing cruising and offshore skills such as Trip prep/planning, Safety and Emergency Procedures, Damage Control, Coastal Piloting, Nighttime and Offshore Navigation, Sail Handling in variable conditions, Crew, Provisions and Equipment management, Standing Watch, Emergency Procedures. Spring and Fall, passages sail four 1-week legs between Annapolis and Florida’s Gulf Coast and sometimes, Virgin Islands or New England.

Mothers and Daughters & Young Womanship

Young Womanship® hands-on courses for groups of young women, 10-17 years old, and Mother & Daughter courses, for mothers and 10-17-year-olds, provide opportunities to learn and to grow together to build skills, teamwork, and self confidence. Recent studies by Carol Gilligan, AAUW and Ms magazine show that young women begin to lose self esteem in pre-adolescence due to their savvy sense that the power lies elsewhere. Call to schedule your own course.

Womanship® Around the World Sail & See Adventures

Sail & See Adventures are designed to broaden your sailing horizons in new and exotic environs: currently the Greek Isles, New Zealand, Turkey, Ireland, Provence and the Riviera. Land touring is part of every Adventure.

Sail Yourself Safely Home (SYSH)

In 1987, the Richmond, Va., Power Squadron invited Womanship® to Deltaville, Va., to teach female partners who had always sailed with someone else in charge, and doubted their ability to take control, should the need arise. One of the 15 women, in answering the question “Why did you choose Womanship?” responded “My husband sent me.” To “What are your expectations?” she replied “Nothing! I hate sailing.” A smile came over her face 1/2 hour into the clinic and never left. She found that she knew a great deal--we helped her put it together. Then, she helped less experienced students.

Since 1987 more than 1,200 “Chickens of the Sea" have found practical skills and answers to their fears in “Sail Yourself Safely Home”-- 2 or 3-day onboard sessions in boat handling, safety and emergency procedures, held in the familiar waters of yacht clubs, sailing associations, and marinas.

Call 1-800-342-9295 or email us to schedule or coordinate your own SYSH

or call us to order your own copy of the video “Sail Yourself Safely Home.”

Fireside Sessions

Hands-on workshops held indoors, March and April, in Annapolis, MD, and Boston, MA. When winter-bound, give yourself a head start on the sailing season. Firesides are held on 4 Saturdays, from 9-4, on 4 topics: 
Coastal Piloting I & II, Coastal navigation, from learning to read a nautical chart to latitude and longitude, time/speed/distance, set and drift, tides and currents.
Electronics (What you need to know and how to use it).
Knots & Lines: We practice indoors and on boats in the marina, weather permitting. Knots: clove hitch, half hitch, bowline, figure “8” & more; Lines: coiling, snubbing, laying out and heaving.

Customized Courses

We customize a growing number of courses to meet the learning needs of individual couples (or 2 or 3 couples together), families or groups, who want to learn to sail together as partners. We extend this opportunity to Corporations and Boards to learn teamwork, leadership and management skills through the medium of sailing. Fees reflect location, length of course, number of students, and boat size.

Corporate Courses

Womanship’s® award-winning hands-on training combines the unique opportunities of sailing, expert guidance, and a relaxed, collaborative learning environment to build real skill, self-esteem, teamwork and leadership in its students.  

This training model appeals particularly to businesses and associations today.  They choose to enroll staff in order to increase their commitment to their jobs and to each of the members of their work unit, as well as to build a greater sense of self-worth and accomplishment, and the eagerness and ability to advance in their careers and positions of leadership.

Customized to each firm’s specific needs and time-frames, courses may be scheduled in any of our 16 locations, from 1 day up to 10 days.  One popular training option is a series of 1, 2 or 3-day courses conducted over a period of several weeks or months.

Instructor in Training

Opportunities are available for Womanship® alumnae who demonstrate skill and the desire to gain the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience to qualify as instructors.

Womanship® Speakers Bureau & Co-Sponsorships

We are interested in discussing donations of a portion of the proceeds of sessions such as “Get Fit to Sail” to organizations that work for women and children. Please E-mail or call us (1-800-342-9295).

Invite us to speak at your yacht club or group, or sponsor seminars such as “Spring Working Sessions in a Boatyard,” “Teamwork and Leadership Onboard,” “Sail Yourself Safely Home,” “Real Skippers Don’t Yell,” “Safe & Fun Family Cruising,” “Bareboat Prep for Individuals, Couples & Families.”

Interested? Call to plan a seminar at your club, to discuss co-sponsorship to benefit leadership opportunities for women, to receive a copy of the Speakers Bureau Brochure. Call 1-800-342-9295 or E-mail us.