Steve & Doris Colgate’s Offshore Sailing School has announced five new, exotic sailing vacation trips in keeping with the growing interest in adventure and transformational vacations. “Recent travel and leisure industry research indicates that adults, families, millennials all want to experience something on vacation. They want to learn a new skill, experience a new culture, expand their knowledge, and create shared memories that fulfill one’s sense of purpose,” said Offshore Sailing School’s President & CEO Doris Colgate. “They want to DO something, learn something, not just visit a place.” The renewed interest in adventure travel dovetails with the company’s 50+ years of consecutive sailing instruction at its schools in Florida and the British Virgin Islands and providing hosted sailing vacation trips. In fact, Steve and Doris Colgate created the popular flotilla trip conceptdecades ago and have personally led more than 100 of these fun and fascinating cruises from ports around the globe.
Colgate Sailing Adventures™ are organized for Offshore Sailing School alumni and friends to keep them involved and excited about the sailing lifestyle. In 2019, the company’s sailing flotilla vacations will visit the Caribbean Windward Islands embarking from St. Lucia to Grenada, and return; Mallorca Spain, cruising in the Balearic Sea; and sail from Agana to Dubrovnik in Croatia, roundtrip. These special sailboat vacations are open to all sailors with sailing certifications or requisite experienceand will visit places one might never go to on own. Based on sailing resumes submitted by participants, a skipper and navigator are appointed aboard each boat in the fleet.
All three Colgate Sailing Adventures trips in 2018 are sold out and have Wait Lists for trips in Belize, the Greek Islands and Tahiti. Previous groups have sailed inThe Abacos, Bahamas, the Amalfi coast of Italy, Tonga, Turkey, all over the Caribbean, New England, San Juan Islands,and the Apostle Islands, to name just a few.
Nate & Heather Atwater continue as Colgate Sailing Adventures cruise leaders. Nate worked for Offshore Sailing School as an instructor and manager in New York and Florida in the early 90’s. He met his wife Heather when he took the school’s sails for repair at her father’s sail loft, Hild Sails, on City Island, NY. More information on the 2019 Colgate Sailing Adventures may be found here. Offshore Sailing School’s popular Fast Track to Cruising® certification course is the perfect solution for anyone who doesn’t yet know how to sail. This weeklong course is offered year-round in Florida and the British Virgin Islands and provides three US Sailing certifications, with options to live aboard for the week or stay ashore.
Based in Ft. Myers, Fla., Offshore Sailing School currently operates six resort-based locations in Florida at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva Island, the Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Ft. Myers Beach, the Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village, and the downtown Hampton Inn & Suites St. Petersburg; and in the British Virgin Islands at The Moorings base on Wickham’s Cay in Tortola, and Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina on Scrub Island. In addition to sailing lessons and comprehensive sailing certification courses at Learn to Sail, Performance Sailing, Bareboat Charter Cruising, and Passage Making levels; the company runs Performance Race Weeks and sailboat racing clinics, women-only courses, family courses, corporate team building programs, group regattas, and flotilla cruises all over the world for graduates and friends. Powerboat cruising courses are also taught on Moorings yachts from Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The company’s fleet includes Colgate 26 sailboats, and 40’-54’ cruising yachts and catamarans.
