South Coast Sailing Adventures

After my original review (which was not entirely positive), the manager of South Coast Sailing Adventures contacted me. They clearly took my feedback very seriously — which is awesome.
She spent a good bit of energy explaining what happened. She tried to call, and then emailed (which is my preference anyway). She provided some reasonable rationale as to what happened, which left me somewhat happy, but then she offered me a discounted rate on the Sailing 101 class, which was probably more in line with what I wanted anyway.
I took the two day weekend class — ½ day classroom, 1 ½ days on the water. Was a very cool, good experience. I feel moderately confident that I can operate a sailboat of this size now (up to 26′). Had a great time on the water, Captain Mike Glass was a pleasure to meet and work with. The in-​class material was good and relatively entertaining, although it would not have hurt to cut it in half. I think the materials tended to be over-​covered. (and it was all in the book anyway.)
Overall, I would recommend this class to a friend. (or a stranger).

I don’t do reviews often but every once in long while i just have to acknowledge a firm and particularly a staff member when they just deliver a level of excellence that makes you feel really smart about spending your hard earned cash. I love sailing and want my kids to have a shot to experience the freedom you get on the water with nothing but you and Mother Nature. I gave my son a refresher keelboat class for his birthday. You’d think I hung the moon. The kid was blown away. He had done the 101, 103, and 104 back when he was 15 but hadn’t really had time to sail much but his 12.5 foot Catalina. I called Lucy and she suggested we match him with a Captain more his age and one who would challenge him. Captain Octavio was simply awesome. He absolutely made his sailing experience one he will forever remember. He did what few instructors know how to do «teach and motivate». It was one of those gifts a parent dreams of giving their kids — something not only they enjoy but challenges them and they can enjoy their entire life. Thank you South Coast and thank you Captain Octavio.

Since we had so much fun sailing in San Diego, while getting our basic keel boat certification, we decided to take the kids out sailing in the Galveston Bay. We chartered a boat with a captain and he was so knowledgable and smart and friendly and… wish we had him as our instructor in San Diego instead! Yes, that’s saying a lot.
Bring your basket of goodies and water. We toured the bay for two hours and it went by quickly. I know it’s not the San Diego harbor so there’s no sea lions to look at and we saw no dolphins but if you just want to have a fun day of sailing come here!
Parking not convenient, but we were allowed to park in the shops parking lot. Overall return factor high.

This review is for a short 2 hours excursion. We didn’t take classes. But it looks as though if I were going to, this would be the place.
The boat was super clean, well maintained and the Captain allowed anyone in our group to take the helm for a while. No complaints at all with the boat or the pleasantry from the Captain. We brought lunch and had it on the boat. We did bring alcohol, in case you want to have a cocktail, it’s allowed.
One of my bosses at work decided to take a few of us out for a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon. Ya know, while I love all the folks that were on our boat ride, the boat was way too small to accommodate the 7 of us and the captain. If you are going to take one of these to relax and enjoy the water and the lovely ride on a sailboat, do it with a smaller group and go for more than 2 hours. It seems like we barely had enough time to get out in the water before we turned around and came back.
On the way back to the marina we saw a pod of dolphins and the Captain was nice enough to do a few extra turns so we could stay with them a little while.
They have no parking designated for customers that we could locate. So we parked in a paid parking lot a block behind the business location. Not really inconvenient but still something you should be aware of when you get there. You can unload your gear and then go park.

Sailing lessons here are top notch! My brother and parents learned here and are now quite accomplished sailors. Went out on a charter with them and the boat was nice and well maintained. The staff was very helpful and even offered recommendations to local restaurants. Would definitely recommend for sailing classes or a charter!

So I’ve never been on a sail boat. And my love is speed boats. However to try something once is always great! Holy cow I loved it!!! Amazing staff! Great people on the boat. Very peaceful, the 4 hours went by too fast. Pack a lunch. Weather it’s a sandwich or a small cooler. You’ll be able to relax and enjoy the ride. Also If you wanna get down and learn. You’re aloud to take the wheel! I’m definitely doing this again!

This is a great way to learn to sail, get comfortable sailing, and meet like-​minded sailors. We have plenty of experience sailing but hadn’t sailed much on Galveston Bay, and it had been a while (too long) since we had owned our own boat. We were thinking about getting a boat but did not know whether we would actually get out sailing. This was a great way to find out. Two things in particular stand out.
First, we had been a member of a different sailing charter group in the area. South Coast is a little more expensive but you get a lot more for the money. The boats are generally in very good shape and if not (stuff always happens on boats) they make it right. If you are qualified to skipper your own boat, this is a great way to get experience.
Second, the organized group sails are an excellent way to make new friends, get the experience you want (whether actively driving and trimming sails, or just going along for the ride). Also, a very cost-​effective way of getting out on the water.
In short, South Coast is everything a sailing club /​charterers should be.

So much fun. I purchased an introductory course on Saliling through Groupon for my husband and me. We’ve been dreaming about sailing for a while and just never just called to take the lessons, well finally I found the motivation. We went out on a 36 foot keel boat with an instructor and 2 others people. Immediately the captain got us involved, I steered out to the bay and my husband helped the captain hoist the main sail and the jib. All of us took turns at the helm, we had great wind that day. We learned some basic techniques like tacking, it was a 3 hour class, no pressure, no tests, just fun.
They put us on an email list and now we get invitations to come to Sailing Club events. We didn’t join the sailing club (yet) but you can still come to more sailing events. For about $ 85 a person, you can go out with a captain for about 5 hrs and when you come back to shore, the staff feeds you. My husband and I went to one of these events at the end of October with some people we work with. You get to share your experiences, and learn new terminology and sailing techniques, again, that is not an official class so it still fun. You can participate as little or as much as you’d like. I am considering taking Sailing 101, just not sure when yet.
This place offers to let you sleep on the boat overnight and they rent out boats to qualified sailors which I also think is pretty cool. I’d like to get to that point someday. The staff members I’ve met are really friendly and easy going.

I bought a Groupon to South Coast Sailing and went this past Saturday. It was a great time and I was super pleased with the instructor (Rick). This was a 3 hour intro to sailing… and for total beginners, naturally there would be a lot of information /​techniques to take in… obviously more than one could learn in a 3 hour time slot. Rick gave us info in a that was easy to absorb. He threw in tid-​bits about sailing terminology and techniques that was interesting and engaging. He also got us going right away with hands on tasks — which, if you are wanting to trying sailing, is the entire point! He had a very easy-​to-​be-​around, easy-​to-​learn-​from personality. Every interaction with a staff member that I had was smooth and friendly — from my initial call to reserve a spot to tying up the boat at the dock. Looks like there are plenty of sailing schools to choose from in the area… but I really recommend this one.