Introduction

Hawaii Yacht Club offers sailing lessons all year long. Our summer break camps and summer quarterly classes are currently open for enrollment. Each summer break camp week will give your child hands-on experience with five days per week to practice their tacks, jibes, and capsizes. Our summer quarterly classes are open to both juniors and adults for the summer season with beginner to advanced options. 

 

Novice sailors start out in Toppers and O'pen Skiffs. These boats are great options to get started learning how to sail because they are simple to rig, have all the basic sail controls, and are very easy to right after a capsize.

 

As they advance in their sailing journey, we have RS Fevas, Lasers, 420s, and 29ers ready to teach students everything about dinghy sailing. With both single-handed and double-handed boats available, everyone can find what they enjoy and excel at.

 

Sailing is many things. It can be a means of traveling the whole world round, allowing you to stop and live in the comfort of your floating home anywhere along the way. Sailing can be an intense sport with Olympic-level competition. Sailing can be to you whatever you make of it! As they say: “You cannot change the weather, wind or seas. You can change your sails and mindset.”

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Summer Break Camps

These camps are open to sailors of any level from 8 to 17 years old. They will run Monday through Friday with two sessions per day, 9am - 12pm and 1pm - 4pm with 10 weeks to choose from. We will be focusing on beginner sailing skills but will have fun activities planned every class to ensure that all sailors are having fun and learning.

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Beginner Dinghy Sailing Class

This class is where you should start if you are 8 to 17 years  old. Sailors will learn and work on the beginner skills they need to succeed as they progress into more advanced adventures.

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Required Skills to move onto Advanced Class: Small Boat Sailor, "The Little Red Book." For those interested in progressing, ask our coaches about acquiring a Little Red Book so you can begin checking skills off. All skills must be checked off by one of our instructors during class times. 

 

Beginner Skills (performed in an O'pen Skiff and Topper):

• Wind Direction 

• Rigging and Unrigging 

• Knots and Line Work 

• Rules of the Road

• Departure and Landing

• Steering

• Safety Position

• Tacking

• Points of Sail

• Jibing

• Capsize Recovery

• Overboard Recovery

• Getting out of Irons

• Upwind Sailing

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Intermediate Skills:

• Seamanship

• Nomenclature 

• Understanding the Wind 

• Current, Weather, and Land Effects 

• Navigation and Emergency Procedures 

• Proper Sail Trim 

• Proper Boat Trim

• Roll Tacking 

• Jibing 

• Sailing a Windward Leg 

• Sailing a Reach 

• Sailing Downwind

All skills must be performed in both light (5 - 14 knots) and heavy wind (15+ knots).

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Advanced Dinghy Racing Class 

All skills from "The Little Red Book" must be completed in heavy winds (15+ Kts) in an O'pen Skiff or Topper for acceptance into the Advanced Class. In dinghy racing, sailors will focus on building their skills, so they become second nature. Sailors will practice starts, reading the wind, tactics, rules, etc. On days they aren't running drills, they will race to Diamond Head buoy and back. Boats we will center our attention on are O'Pen Skiffs, Lasers, C-420s, RS Fevas, and 29ers, eventually building into spinnakers and trapping.

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Boats

• Topper

• O'pen Skiff

• Laser

• RS Feva

• 420

• 29er

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Safety

Students are required to provide their own lifejacket, a U.S. Coast Guard Approved Personal Flotation Device. The Type III PFD is the most popular and most appropriate for small boat sailing. 

 

Swimming Skills

Students must pass a swim test of 50 yards and be able to tread water for 3 minutes. The swim test will be conducted on the first day of class.

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Students must bring:​

• Lifejacket

• Sunscreen

• Hat

• Water Bottle

 

Registration

Students are officially registered when all the following requirements are successfully complete. 

• Application

• Medical Release

• Payment

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Pricing

$250 per quarter for Summer  sessions.

Members receive a 10% discount on all classes.

Sailors receive a 10% if signing up for multiple classes.

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Schedule

Classes will be held every day that is scheduled. We will attempt to go sailing as much as possible. If the weather does not allow us to go out on the water, we will hold class onshore.

 

Refunds

No refunds are available, except for medical emergencies.

If you know that your child will be missing classes during the session, please speak to us beforehand and we can discuss prorating fees.