ASA 101 · Basic Keelboat Sailing
A two-day course designed to give you the basic sailing experience — with plenty of time on the water alongside on-board instruction and dockside orientation. You'll gain the knowledge and skills to sail a small fixed-keel sailboat in light to moderate conditions.
Apply for ASA 101This ASA certification course provides the necessary knowledge and skills to sail a small fixed-keel sailboat in light to moderate conditions. Sail theory, safety, tying knots, and terminology are just part of what you'll learn. You'll spend the first day building fundamentals dockside and on the water, and the certification test is taken at the end of the second day.
The course includes the ASA Sailing Fundamentals textbook and an ASA log book. ASA 101 alone will not certify you to charter the boat you train on, but it gives you genuine basic sailing experience and the foundation for every course that follows.
Two consecutive days, 9am to 5pm each day, for a total of 16 hours of instruction. Courses run as private instruction for up to 4 students aboard a private boat with your instructor.
Available dates: please call to check availability or book your dates. Our season typically runs from the beginning of May through the first week of October.
On completion, a certified ASA 101 sailor has demonstrated the ability to skipper a sloop-rigged keelboat of roughly 20 to 27 feet by day in light to moderate winds and sea conditions — with a working knowledge of sailing terminology, parts and functions, helm commands, basic sail trim, points of sail, buoyage, seamanship, and the basic navigation rules for avoiding collisions and hazards.
Identify and describe the functions of the boat's parts, sails, and sail controls, and define core sailing terms.
Explain and identify the points of sail and key maneuvers using diagrams.
Use the correct helm commands and crew responses for heading up, bearing away, tacking, and jibing.
Apply the Navigation Rules to avoid collisions, identify the stand-on and give-way vessel, recognize lateral aids to navigation, and act safely around commercial traffic.
Know the federally required equipment and navigation lights for a recreational sailboat, float plans, accident reporting, and the federal blood-alcohol limit for vessel operation.
Without coaching, demonstrate safe, in-control seamanship as skipper through the full set of maneuvers — and as crew.
Tie each of the following without assistance, in a timely manner, and describe its purpose.
Call us at 231.941.0535 to check dates, or apply online.
Classes run mid-May through early October. Private instruction available aboard Jeanneau 350, 380, 410, and 440 models. Contact the office to confirm availability and book your course.