New England Sailing Center

I recently took my ASA 101 course here and I have to say I couldn't recommend them enough. Tess is a talented instructor, she not only teaches the material effectively but she also instills the confidence in her students to be able to apply the course material when not being coached. I will be back for my follow up ASA courses.
Jul 18th, 2023

The two day sailing class was not worth the money. The owner was not very welcoming or friendly and the class was meh at best. The teacher, Tess was excellent and if it werent for her I would have had a terrible experience. Being on the water was nice but Id say the focus was more on training the new person than teaching us. Also they market it as a 2 day sailing class with 6-8 hours on the water. We got an hour and 1/2 instruction over the two days, if that, and perhaps 4 hours total on the boat, which was 1/2 of what they promised. Really very disappointing overall. Dont recommend.
Dec 28th, 2022

Cant review their capabilities for sailing instruction so this review is about their planning, administration and customer experience. Many months ago we booked a combo ASA 104/114 course on a 2022 Lagoon 46. We specifically chose this boat because it is comparable in size to the one that were having built and wanted to increase our confidence. Three weeks before the course began we were notified by Gina that the boat never made it up from the BVI because it couldnt get out of its existing charter contract until November. It felt like they should have known sooner (it would have taken a few weeks to get up from the BVI anyway) and instead, they failed to tell us as soon as possible. Gina gave us the option to change to even earlier dates last-minute on a different boat, switch to an unknown/non-affiliated 38 catamaran or we could cancel. We are from out of state and unable to change our flights so we asked for specs about the 38 I had to email twice and then also had to follow up by phone (almost a week had passed), which was frustrating that they werent responsive after their poor planning. When I finally connected with Gina, she had no knowledge of the 38 boat and couldnt share details. She didnt even know what year or model it was just that she is pretty sure its never been chartered before. We decided to pursue a refund, which was to their credit processed quickly, but they insisted on subtracting the cost of the ASA books ($150). When I pushed back - because when we eventually book elsewhere with another company, well receive a whole new set included in the price - she said there wasnt anything she could do. I dropped the issue but feel like it was their mistake and quite frankly it feels petty to be charged for the books after all that. So normally I wouldnt even bother leaving a review, but after their very clear and poorly communicated mistake and still refusing to refund the $150 (while Im now out the cost of travel and a last-minute rental during high season in RI), I thought it was prudent to warn others about the type of business they run. There are too many other sailing schools out there to waste your time with New England Sailing Center.
Sep 1st, 2022

Evan is the absolute best!! Highly recommend classes here. It is family owned and they are knowledgeable, kind, and able to adapt their teaching to any experience level.
Feb 8th, 2022

Awesome class great instructor, good people.
Jan 13th, 2022