Cruising Boat Courses & Clinics

Treat your friends and family to a premier bay adventure with a sail to Angel Island and an overnight stay moored at Ayala Cove -- but first, prepare yourself for the fore and aft mooring, shallow waters, and tidal currents that can make mooring at Ayala Cove a unique challenge.

Our Angel Island Mooring Clinic prepares you to successfully conduct a bow-and-stern mooring as required by the California State Park Angel Island Harbor Master. Additionally, you will become proficient at utilizing one or two buoys for overnight mooring situations in many worldwide cruising locations.

SF Bay's famous wind, strong currents, and heavy shipping traffic offer sailors one of the most challenging and exciting sailing venues in the world. With the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz in the background, learning to sail in ASA 101 will give you the experience and skills you need to enjoy sailing in a variety of conditions - with confidence.

Learning how to control the shape of your sails will greatly enhance your sailing experience. Whether you are a competitive racer or an efficiency-minded cruiser, this course will teach you the skills to maximize speed and balance on every point of sail within a variety of conditions. After a short discussion about the art and science of sail trim, you will receive hands-on practice and learn when and how to adjust sheets, traveler position, jib lead, halyard tension, cunningham, outhaul, vang, and backstay to optimize your boat's performance under sail.

The more you sail in winter or make long passages, the more likely it becomes that you’ll eventually encounter foul weather. This one-day clinic will introduce you to heavy weather sailing equipment, preparation, and techniques. Taught aboard our Spencer 44 Coho II, your instructor will cover topics such as personal safety equipment, high wind line handling techniques, setting up storm sails and running rigging, types of drogues and sea anchors, and steering in large following seas.

The ASA 105, Coastal Navigation workshop offers advanced chart navigation instruction and prepares students to successfully complete the certification exam. With an experienced USCG captain as your instructor, learn and practice chart reading, tidal current determination, dead reckoning, position fixes, running fixes, danger bearings, set and drift calculations, and more.

This course has no prerequisites! This means no matter where you are in your sailing education, you can gain the skills to become a competent navigator.

Join Modern Sailing this April 6 to 12, 2024 aboard the luxury catamaran Wild Rumpus for an adventure of a lifetime! Sail over 200 nautical miles, stand night watch, prepare meals in a rolling galley, and explore one of the most beautiful and iconic sailing venues in the world, all while earning your ASA 106, Advanced Coastal Cruising certification.

Since ancient times, human beings have looked to the heavens to find our way around on Earth. It was only a few hundred years ago that we developed systems to plot latitude and longitude fixes based on the positions of celestial bodies, and the common practice of celestial navigation by means of a sextant emerged. The basic premise of celestial navigation relies on calculating angles between the observer, the horizon, and a predictable celestial body such as the sun, moon, or visible planets and stars.

Catamarans, otherwise known as multihulls, are quickly becoming the preferred charter boat of the Caribbean and South Pacific. As cruising vessels, multihulls offer a few advantages over monohulls - spaciousness, speed, stability, and a shallow draft that allows you to anchor closer to shore.

Our ASA 114 course will introduce you to catamaran systems and boat handling skills to give you confidence as a multihull vessel sailor.

The Site Orientation Sail is an opportunity for members who were certified to charter at one location to get oriented with the unique aspects of sailing out of the other location.

In Sausalito, sailors will learn and practice crosswind docking in a single slip including crew using the lassoing technique with dock lines.

In Berkeley, you’ll learn how to do downwind dockings in a double slip as well as become familiar with the hazards and unique aspects of navigating in and out of the Berkeley Marina.