Child & Youth Learn to Sail 1,2 & 3 Book Now for Term 1!
After school LTS lessons typically occur 330-530 and 530-730 on Mondays Tuesday and Wednesdays in Terms 1 and 4 for 6 consecutive weeks. We sail whenever we can do so safely & save up those classroom sessions for the windiest days. We rarely cancel so please assume that learn-to-sail is “on”!
“LTS 1” Takes you from complete novice to being able to sail to anywhere you like in sensible wind conditions in a single-handed boat. Along the way you’ll most likely spend some time with assistant coaches in a double handed boat and build your confidence and skills up slowly. You may start as young as 9 with exceptions made for mature “nearly 9’s.” We also offer LTS groups for older youth sailors and try to pool them together into social groupings. “LTS Improvers” lessons build on these skills and introduce more advanced concepts.
LTS 2 students are gaining competence on sailing alone and starting to explore other types of boat, such as O’pen skiffs and Starlings. They are exploring stronger wind ranges and starting to “hike” or lean out to balance the boat and go faster.
LTS 3 is a very broad “pre-race” stage with bigger-picture concepts and development of skills to handle stronger winds. Although we sometimes refer to the lesson groups as LTS1, LTS2 and LTS3, there is really no defined end to each stage of learning. A typical progression might be 2-3 years from absolute beginner to a ready-to-race level 3 graduate. Although Level 3 has a racing element to it, the skills learned are the same as those required to be a safe competent leisure sailor.
Book Now for Term 1!
What type of boats will I sail?
That’s a question of matching the ability of the sailor, to the wind conditions, to the difficulty level of the boat and the weight of the sailor. With all these variables, please trust the coach to make a pragmatic decision!
Our single handed boats are as follows:
Optimists massive weight range, especially ideal for learning if you’re about 8-12
O’pen skiffs also known as “Bics”. Ideal weight 45Kg. Sporty boats!
Starlings. Ideal weight range 40-70Kg. A kiwi “institution”
Lasers (not usually a learn-to-sail boat). Great for skilled older youth and adults all the way to Olympic level.
Our two person boats include
RS Quests (can seat up to 4, or 2-3 adults. Great for LTS with a coach on board)
RS Fevas sporty plastic boats for 2 people, with 2 sails and a genneker. Suit youth / light adults.
420’s which we mostly use for Teams Sailing. Sporty nimble 2 person 2 sail boats with a larger weight range than the Feva. Great class for Thursday night racing!