Intermediate Lessons

You have taken your basic Learn To Sail course and enjoy going out on our Flying Scots. But recently every time you leave the dock in your Flying Scot to cruise the Washington Channel and Potomac, you wonder what it is like to sail those other boats - Flying Juniors - DC Sail offers for rent. They look like fun and a tad more performance oriented; and they are.

The Flying Junior, or FJ for short, is a boat of choice for many collegiate racing teams and designed for a crew of two. Most participants of our Summer Racing Series sail in the FJs, and the boat is the only choice during our Frostbite Winter Racing Sereis.

Our Intermediate Lessons focus entirely on this boat type and teach you small boat handling skills by building upon your prior sailing knowledge. After completion of this course you are allowed to rent DC Sail's FJs.

During the morning session of this one day course, you are introduced to the FJ, and in the afternoon you work on boat handling skills. You not only learn how to properly rig and de-rig the boats, you are also introduced to boat handling skills of these more advanced boats and learn about balance and trim. During each morning and afternoon session you spend about the first hour at the dock and the remaining two hours in the boats on the water.

All Intermediate Lessons are taught by US Sailing Small Boat Level 1 Certified Instructors.

Prerequisite: We assume that you have passed our learn-to-sail course on the Flying Scot or have equivalent experience. See the curriculum overview of our learn-to-sail course to judge your skill level, or contact us if you have any questions. If you have not sailed for a while consider taking our refresher course first. We also assume that if you sign up for this course that you can swim 100 yards in clothes and tread water for 2 minutes.

For more information, please contact lessons@dcsail.org.