Fair Wind offers the following advantages:

The Best Instructors

Top instructors make a big difference in learning and retention.  All of our instructors are ASA certified and USCG Master Captains.  All of our instructors have been sailing for decades -- in many locations, waters, and environments.  This experience provides a wealth of knowledge far beyond the average instructor.  More importantly, our Captains love sailing and love sharing their passion with you.  We have very high standards for our instructors and only continue working with the best. In fact, you'll find many instructors we won't use teaching at other schools. THIS YEAR ALONE, ASA NAMED 3 OF OUR INSTRUCTORS OUSTANDING INSTRUCTORS, THE HIGHEST HONOR BESTOWED ON INSTRUCTORS BY ASA.

The Best Instruction

Our curriculum doesn't start and end with an ASA text book.  For us, the curriculum only begins with the ASA text.  From there, we use our experience to augment the provided information, assuring that every student, at every level, learns as much as possible.  But let's face it, you can' t learn to sail from a book.  You learn to sail by getting on the boat and sailing.  Our classes maximize sailing time so you really learn how to sail the boat.  Our goal  is to not  just have you manage the boat with an instructor on board, but to have you retain the skill and knowledge so you can do it alone when you are home or chartering.

We also recognize the importance of getting quality time with the instructor.  That's why we have an instructor on every boat, unlike the "sailing factories".  In addition, we keep class sizes small -- typically 2-3 and never more than 4 or 5.  This combination assures you the maximum time learning, experiencing, and sailing.

Finally, we are the sailing experts. Our Instructors and lessons have been written up in Blue Water Sailing Magazine, the ASA Quarterly Journal, Louisville Courier-Journal and other well know publications. You know them, and they know we are the experts.

The Best Boats

We simply have great boats.  The boats we have are the boats you want charter and buy.  More importantly, we own our boats. This means we can perfectly equip them for sail training and maintain them the way we want to. Other schools borrow boats from charter companies, fractional companies or private owners and must lobby boat owners the boat's owners to properly equip the boats for teaching and maintain the boats well. Not here, at Fair Wind our boats are equipped and maintained with the primary purpose of teaching.

In the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay, we feature boats like Catalina, Island Packet and C&C. These boats are all generously equipped and comfortable for the local conditions on the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes.

In the Virgin Islands, our focus is on cruising and preparation for bareboat chartering, so we have the best cruising boats made -- Dufuor, Leopard and Bavaria.  These boats are the right boats for Caribbean conditions and all are used in large charter fleets in the Virgin Islands. Both of our Leopard models were Cruising Boat of the Year Winners. The Bavaria is fast and stable and perfect for the trade winds.

The Best Locations

We operate November - July out of Sailing  Heaven -- the Virgin Islands.  Our St. Thomas location is ideal to maximize your trip and take advantage of the best of both the US and British Virgin Islands.  Sailing simply doesn't get any better than this!

During summer, we operate on the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay too.  Our sailing base on the western Lake Erie provides excellent sailing conditions -- open waters, little traffic and warm water.  In addition, we have easy access to the Mid-West's most popular cruising destinations -- the Lake Erie Islands and Cedar Point. We also operate out of Jefferson Beach Marina on Lake St Clair in Metro-Detroit.

We now have two locations on the Chesapeake Bay with our newest base in the US sailing capital of Annapolis and our Eastern Shore base on Worton Creek Both locations provide ideal settings with Eagles overhead and blue point crabs down below and excellent sailing. From here, we have easy access to some of the Bay's best ports of call, including: St Michael's, Annapolis and Baltimore's Inner Harbor and much, much more..

The Fair Wind Commitment To Excellence

No other school offers Fair Wind's commitment to excellence.  We are dedicated to sailing and sharing our love of sailing with you -- and we want you to have as much fun on your yacht as we have on ours.  Part of our commitment is the Fair Wind Guarantee.  If you do not pass the ASA certification after completing our training, we will work with you -- as long as you like -- until you do pass for no extra charge. 

Join us and we're sure you will agree:

Fair Wind Sailing School -- America's Best Sailing School