Try-A-Catamaran

Spend a Week Learning and Sailing a Modern Cruising Catamaran!

You have some monohull sailing experience. Perhaps you've taken a NauticEd Crew, ASA 101, or RYA Day Skipper course. Maybe you've even bareboat chartered a monohull in an exotic location. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to charter or own a modern, stable cruising catamaran with tons of space aboard? Well, now you can try it out without a big commitment!

What should you expect on the live aboard cruising catamaran course? We will be sailing on our Leopard 48 sailing catamaran, Calypso, anchoring out and off the beaten path. During your course, you will experience:

And lots of sailing with time to swim or just walk on a secluded beach or lying on deck at night and stargazing far away from any city lights. 

Check out the links above for specific Try-A-Cat learning vacation opportunities.

Teamwork: How to communicate with each other for raising the anchor, then navigating out an unmarked channel using visual reading of the water and detailed chart GPS coordinates. How to balance the chores: provisioning, checking the fluids on the engine, cleaning out the sea strainers, and managing the fresh water and the trash. 


Sailing to our next anchorage is very important to us and we will endeavor to choose the destination based on the best sailing opportunities. Once out in open water we set sails. In light winds we may even set the cruising spinnaker.  Too much wind, then just enough sail to be comfortable. You will each have the opportunity to hoist, trim and helm the boat. In addition we will review emergency procedures and practice what-if scenarios. Learn how to prepare for offshore and night sailing including important safety procedures.


Provisioning: Prior to your arrival we will discuss food likes and dislikes and create a menu plan. We like to balance cooking on the grill with one-pan galley meals; easy meals that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less, making time for swimming, snorkeling, or just relaxing.

Once you arrive, we will go shopping for fresh baked bread, fruits and vegetables. Plus whatever additions you would like to add, maybe a bottle of rum or local beer or soda. Together we will load all the groceries on the boat and stow it before we head out to more remote locations.


Systems: Learning Calypso's systems and managing limited resources. Boats are equipped with a number of complex systems and we will help you understand how to monitor power consumption, water consumption and fuel consumption. This can include running the water maker, bleeding the diesel engine, or cleaning the raw water strainers for the air conditioner. We will focus on whatever you choose and the boat will decide on its own what special training we will practice.


Weather routing and charting: If in range, we will listen to the local cruisers net which provide us with the local wind and wave predictions. In addition, we receive weather forecasts directly from NOAA and Chris Parker of the Marine Weather Center. We will show you how to interpret the data in order to decide where we will be sailing or if we need to relocate the anchorage. By using the weather information overlaid with the local charts we can choose which way is going to be the best sailing and anchoring. You will learn how to plot the chart plotter course from the current anchorage to the next, keeping a log of our position along the way along with the wind speed, boat speed and weather conditions. We may encounter a day of too much wind and waves and choose a dinghy adventure exploring a secluded beach or moving the anchorage to make for a more comfortable night. Knowing and understanding the weather can make or break your cruising lifestyle. It is very important to get in sync with the wind and waves and you can always enjoy an uneventful trip instead of “Mr. Toad’s wild ride.” 

CoBoaters.com can help you find sailing opportunities nearby to help you gain sailing experience!