Seven Seas Sailing

Best sailing school in Buffalo. US coast guard certified captains with ‘old salt’ attitudes guide you through maritime law and safety with hands on/​hands off combination. Allow you to make mistakes, and if safe, allow you to correct your actions. Take as much time as you need to complete the course. Once completed you remain a student and can continue learning as much as you want. For a couple of years I’ve enjoyed sailing unlimited in the basic keelboat fleet. Shockingly affordable way to enjoy Buffalo’s greatest natural resource. I occasionally volunteer on Wednesdays, amazed at how much you can learn simply by scrubbing decks. Planning on taking the advanced course this year (finally). Looking forward to another great season.

We had a great time. Captain Skip was fun and catered to us. At first we were worried about the weather because it was supposed to thunder. But he sailed into the sunshine and made the sail fun for the 4 of us. Would recommend for couples who are new to sailing.

Great time. It was just the four of us, and Captain Chuck made us feel welcome. Very knowledgeable and informative. What a great way to relax and see a different side of downtown

Awesome company. Rained out first day,
High winds the second day, but captain bill made sure we got to sail. Would definitely recommend this company to anybody wanting to sail or take lessons. Very knowledgeable captains!

Skipper Mark and crewmate Megan were the best sailing experts I’ve had to date. Knowledgeable, informative, and friendly, you won’t be sorry you signed up for this sailing adventure. Don’t worry about it being awkward, the Skipper will entertain you throughout the journey.

Capt. Bill is unreliable; it was very difficult to get him to respond to phone calls or texts trying to arrange a charter. He canceled our party literally at the last minute. You will do much better taking a class at Sail Buffalo down the street!

You’d be better off booking a tour with Gilligan. We were quite excited to take a sailing cruise and booked the tour. We packed up a nice little picnic and drove the 45 minutes to the Small Boat Harbor. Once there we find out they overbooked the tour so we get to drive back home for nothing. After several emails and phone calls we finally get a response and we rebook the tour. Unfortunately that day was thunderstorms and a small craft warning. Again several emails, texts and phone calls go unanswered. After that we certainly didn’t feel safe sailing with this clown operation and we ended up having to go through our credit card company to get a refund. Expect headaches, no responses and incompetence from top to bottom with this group.

Some friends and I purchased a Groupon for 2 hours on a sail cruise. Our Captain and «First Mate», his daughter were both entertaining and fantastic. We got a little lesson in how the boat works and the ways of the water. Our 3 hour sail took us through the harbor to directly in front of the Buffalo skyline, a view most of us have never seen. The sun setting on the building made everything glow, it was incredible. Other than some spilled red wine (my fault), it was an awesome experience and I’d highly recommend Seven Seas to anyone.

What a fun bunch of salty old sailors! Excellent ‘Captains’ and a solid bit of instruction and education in an excursion. Will spend more time sailing with them this summer!

Although there’s not a lot of options in Buffalo for sailing, there really doesn’t need to be with this place around. It’s pretty awesome! The Seven Seas Sailing Center offers sailing classes, romantic outings, group sails, boat rentals and good-​looking captains for the ladies ;)!
My girlfriend and I came here for a Sailing Picnic and Excursion for Two. We had a little bit of trouble finding the place (we had to go to the marina right by Dug’s Dive), but the owner inside the little restaurant pointed us to one of the boats and said the captain will greet us there. Greet us he did! His name was Ed and he had a plethora of sailing experience, knowledge and great stories and tidbits about Buffalo. He knew the history of all the buildings around the water front, so our sailing excursion doubled as a Buffalo tour :). And although we needed to bring our own food, you are free to bring a bottle of wine, champagne and some treats to make your boat ride as comfortable as you like it.
The experience was really relaxing, my only quip about it was the damn captain talked so much! There were times when I just wanted to enjoy the silence, the beautiful moments with my loved one and he just kept on yappin’! Anyone know a polite way to tell someone to shut it? I mean, I even stopped responding, showing interest and even stopped looking his way. Nope, he had to continue filling in all the silence! Don’t get me wrong — he was entertaining, but it was a Friday afternoon and we wanted some laid back together time after a long week.
Despite all that, we spent 2.5hours on the boat and it was wonderful. We enjoyed the beautiful Buffalo views, the birds flocking around and all the friendly boats driving by waving us on in full glory. We learned the history of the abandoned buildings along the water front, a little bit about boats and sailing and maybe a little too much of the captain’s life, but that’s okay. I would still recommend this place any day. They also offer sailing lessons for around $ 300 (with guaranteed graduation), which seems like a pretty cool price considering they promise you will learn how to sail. Maybe one day!