Offshore Sailing School Still Sailing & Innovating After 55 Years

Published: Monday, February 17, 2020
By: Beth Oliver, Director of Marketing, Offshore Sailing School

With more than 150,000 graduates over the past 55 years, and Steve and Doris Colgate at the helm of Offshore Sailing School from the beginning, the company continues to look toward the future with innovative growth plans.

Offshore Sailing School graduates and guests will set sail in 2020 on more Colgate Sailing Adventures® flotilla cruises than ever before. The company will also celebrate its 20th Annual Performance Race Week event with North U. coaches and 40 participants, as well as launching several new-and-improved sailing courses. The company will test a new “Fast Track to Sailing” course in 2020 as the “ultimate sailing course for beginners and returning sailors.” In six full days of non-stop learning aboard a Colgate 26, a student will be ready to handle mid-size keelboats in any wind and sea conditions with complete confidence. And after successfully passing the tests, the student will receive Basic Keelboat, Performance Sailing, and Coastal Navigation certifications. The first combo-course of its kind in the industry!

One of the most innovative concepts Steve and Doris launched in the industry five decades ago was the notion of organized group sailing vacations. The flotilla concept was born, working with independent boat owners to organize fleets, so Offshore Sailing students could enjoy the sailing lifestyle if they didn’t own a boat or belong to a sailing club.

The flotilla process became much easier once Charlie and Ginny Cary founded The Moorings Yacht Charter Company in 1969 with six Pearson yachts in Road Town, British Virgin Islands. The Colgates chartered the fleet, and the rest is history. Steve and Doris took reservations in a logbook, plotted their course, communicated logistics to would-be adventure-seekers, organized provisions, and got under way in breathtaking destinations such as Tonga, Spain, Italy, the Greek Islands, and the Caribbean. After hosting more than 100 such sailing explorations, Colgate Sailing Adventures® trips are now hosted by former Offshore Sailing School New York Branch manager Nate Atwater, and his wife, Heather Hild-Atwater. Heather grew up working at her parent’s Sail Loft in New York, where Nate took Offshore’s sails to be repaired.

Several of the five flotillas in 2020 are already sold out with wait lists, but as of this article’s printing date, there are a few cabins still available for the Apostle Islands trip in July 2020. With 22 remote, pristine islands to explore, covering more than 720 square miles on Lake Superior, you’ll be getting away, without really going away.

For more information, call Offshore Sailing School at 888-852-1865 or email [email protected]. Visit www.OffshoreSailing.com.