Learning to Sail in San Francisco

The best way to learn how to sail is in a dinghy.  It is a truism of the sailing community, and rightly so.  Dinghys allow you to feel how your actions affect the boat in a way that you can't on a big slow to respond keelboat.  Dinghy lessons are also cheaper, and they're way more fun.

There are a multitude of sailing schools in the bay, but Cal Adventures and Cal Sailing Club (CSC) consistently stand out as the best bang for your buck.  Cal Adventures is associated with UC Berkeley and offers an introductory and intermediate course.  The cost is ~$150 for four four hour classes.  The introductory class is in the morning and the intermediate class is in the afternoon, when the wind starts to build.  I've met a fair number of people who went through this program and they all loved it.

CSC is one of those organizations that you would only find in Berkeley.  It is a volunteer run collective, which has its good and bad sides.  The dues, ~$60 per quarter, are unbeatable given the boats you get access to.  The level of knowledge among the club members goes pretty deep.  On the downside, it can be a little slow starting off.  Getting a lesson can sometimes take waiting around on the dock until somebody is ready to give one.  Because of this I would recommend getting started at Cal Adventures and then taking out a CSC membership.

Just in case you don't want to commute to Berkeley for lessons, here are two other recommendations.  Treasure Island Sailing Center is a wonderful non-profit that works with disadvantaged youth.  The people who run it are great and their Thursday night Vanguard 15 and Laser races are epic.  Adult lessons aren't offered as often as they could be, but it is a great organization to support.  In Sausalito Sailing Education Adventures (SEA) is another community run non-profit that does outreach work with low income youth.  I've sailed with a number of people from SEA and they have all been friendly and down to earth.

At this point your sailing adventure can go in a couple of different directions.  You can continue on for a few years at CSC, start taking lessons at a local school like Olympic Circle Sailing Center, start crewing on the local racing circuit, buy your own boat.

Buying Your Own Boat 

As far as I know Jeff Bruton has helped more people buy their first boat than anybody else in the Bay Area.  It was a completely free of charge service that he suggested and I took advantage of shortly after I finished learning to sail at Cal Adventures.  It included inspecting the boat and a test sail.  The only downside is that you have to know him to get it. Fortunately there are lot of other people out there like Jeff.  My personal favorite first boat for the bay is the Santana 22, but I'm biased.  It is cheap, overbuilt, and still has an active one design class for racing.  It is also very forgiving to sail and will let you get into cruising or racing.  I've seen them go for anywhere from free to $5k.  Check the class website, Lattitude 38, and craig's list for listings.

Another boat to consider is the Moore 24.  They have one of the strongest one design classes in the bay, and it is still relatively cheap. 

Consider buying with a partner or two or three.  I know a number of people in this situation, including myself, and for the most part it works out very well.  Upkeep is considerably cheaper and getting steady crew is much less of a problem.  Just make sure you get the details hammered out in advance and have similar or non-conflicting priorities. 

Crewing 

There is a race every single day of the week during the summer in San Francisco.  Racing ranges from low key Friday night beer can races to intense one design racing in the Express 27 and Melges 24.  One of my personal favorites is the Wednesday night Knarr race off the city front.

You can get started by posting your contact info on a crew list like the one on Sailing San Francisco.  Most one design class and yacht club web sites have their own crew lists.  You can also just show up on the docks an hour before the race starts and ask around to see if anybody needs crew.  This may be a bit intimidating at first, but it is widely done and a great way to get a ride at the last minute.

One word of advice here, there is no need to take abuse from your skipper.  If you screw up majorly a little yelling might happen, but abuse shouldn't be the standard for communication while sailing.  Decent crew are in short supply, don't stick around with a jerk.

Sailing Schools

If you lack the confidence to get your own boat or don't want to race this can be a good way to go.  However, you can quickly spend the cost of a boat entry level boat in sailing lessons.   If you have the cash to burn Olympic Circle Sailing Center is rummored to be one of the best sailing schools in the country.  Their courses cost about $900 and run from 4 to 5 days.

The Annapolis Book of Seamanship - This is a great entry level book that covers a lot of basic terminology and general information. It is well written and will give you the basis to dig into some more advanced books and not be lost. It is the book I lend newcomers to get them oriented.

Racing

The two North U books, Racing Tactics and Racing Trim, are good introductory to intermediate level texts. If you have time to hunt them down, the out of print North U. Fast Course and Smart edited by David Dellenbaugh are widely considered to be superior texts. I have had luck finding them used on abebooks.com.

At a more advanced level are Winning in One Designs, by Dave Perry and Sailing Smart by Buddy Melges. Both the writing and the advice are superb. The authors are world class sailors and pepper the text with anecdotes from their own racing experiences.

If you want to get really into things I would recommend a few of Stuart Walker's books like Advanced Racing Tactics, Positioning: The Logic of Sailboat Racing, and A Manual of Sail Trim. These books are more focused, and though loaded with information, aren't as accessible as they could be. Frank Bethwaite's High Performance Sailing is another classic. Often reffered to as "The Skiff Sailing Bible," it has a great section on weather and a lot of performance information that is especially relevant to skiff and dinghy sailors.

Rules

Understanding the Racing Rules of Sailing by Dave Perry, is without a doubt the best rules book I have encountered. Perry really digs into nuance of the rules and gives examples based on appeals that answer those "what if" questions.

After reading Perry's book a few times through, I would go through the ISAF Case Book. The Case Book is a compendium of appeals decisions that have clarified the Racing Rules of Sailing. UK Halsey has a great collection of animated quizes.

Cruising

Hmmm... Somehow all my cruising books ended up in my storage space. Could it have anything to do with how awesome one design racing is?