The Sail Into Summer Holiday Promotion is a great way to share sailing with friends, family and colleagues this holiday. Based on the Sail into Summer opportunity for new students last summer, this holiday program allows members to gift a Basic Sailing class without the full cost of Sail Chicago Membership to non-members for the 2013 sailing season. A pdf gift certificate will be emailed to the sender after purchase along with the recipient’s name. An email will be sent to each student to register for orientation and classes early next year.

 Before getting out on the water, students will also attend a Pre-Sail where they'll learn basic sailing concepts, find out more about Sail Chicago, and receive all the course materials. The on-the-water basic sailing course is held on our Colgate 26 sailboats at Monroe Harbor in downtown Chicago and is designed to introduce people to the sport of sailing. Even if you haven't ridden on a sailboat, this course offers the opportunity steer the boat under the watchful eye of an experienced instructor — students will be sailing the boat in their first lesson.  The classes hold a maximum class size of four students and meet once per week for four weeks or twice per week for two weeks.

Over the course of four, 4-hour lessons, students learn to read the wind, rig the boat, get underway, set the sails, maneuver the boat upwind and downwind, tack and jibe, and return to the mooring.  Students also learn the fundamentals of sailing theory, safety on the water, boating “rules of the road”, sailing knots, and weather.