First Class Sailing

[libertyman]

My son lives in London and is looking for somewhere to do his Day Skipper shorebased course. He is thinking of signing up with First Class Sailing who are based somewhere around Liverpool Street I believe. Does anybody have any experience of this company to share or for that matter any alternatives to consider?

 

[Freeflow]

I used them a couple of years ago and they were very good. Excellent instructor, reasonable facilities (albeit a bit nomadic around Central London) and helpful administration

 

[Angele]

They have quite a clever business model. They run theory classes in various places in London, in the offices of a variety of large organisations (banks, accountancy firms, lawyers, etc), so their overheads are lower because they don't need their own training facility.

I did my Day Skipper and YM theory with them when I was with my last employer (and they gave the courses in our offices). Most of the attendees were my colleagues (as in working for the same employer, rather than people I knew personally), but a handful were external.

As with all courses, it is all down to the trainer you get. The two I had were perfectly decent, but that was many years ago so I have no idea whether they still train for First Class.

I'd say a good choice for your son if he can find a course in a convenient building at times that suit. The price compared well with other RYA training organisations. (IIRC, we got a small discount off the cost per attendee for providing the premises in which the course was run).

I did my VHF course at the London Corinthian Sailing Club at Hammersmith. They also run other RYA shorebased courses, so worth looking at them as an alternative.

 

[Aardee]

My son lives in London and is looking for somewhere to do his Day Skipper shorebased course. He is thinking of signing up with First Class Sailing who are based somewhere around Liverpool Street I believe. Does anybody have any experience of this company to share or for that matter any alternatives to consider?

Whereabouts in London is he?

 

[afs67]

My son lives in London and is looking for somewhere to do his Day Skipper shorebased course. He is thinking of signing up with First Class Sailing who are based somewhere around Liverpool Street I believe. Does anybody have any experience of this company to share or for that matter any alternatives to consider?

Another possibility is City Sailing. Same type of operation as outlined by Angele. Run by the same person as set up Capital Sailing who, IIRC, originated this type of nomadic location.

 

[libertyman]

Whereabouts in London is he?

He is in Central London so anything based in the City will be good.

Thanks for the positive feedback and suggested alternatives which I shall pass on.

 

[ChattingLil]

http://www.meetup.com/City-Sailing-Club-London/

try this person - Paul Bew. We met him at the Boatshow and liked him. He runs a flexible classes in and around the city.

 

[Allergy]

+1 re: Paul Bew

 

[Elessar]

My son lives in London and is looking for somewhere to do his Day Skipper shorebased course. He is thinking of signing up with First Class Sailing who are based somewhere around Liverpool Street I believe. Does anybody have any experience of this company to share or for that matter any alternatives to consider?

First class sailing are based in shamrock quay. They do lots of in office courses in London. You can either organise one in your own workplace or find out if there is one nearby.
For practical courses their boats are brand new this season. They have a base on the east coast too.

http://www.firstclasssailing.com/Southampton-Sailing.html

 

[the lloyds]

I declare an interest, as I ran the admin/sales for First Class Sailing for some time. I am now running off to world cruising. They /We have a really excellent lot of instructors who go the extra mile. FCS have a lot of different London locations so can offer more flexibility than some of the others mentioned.

As Elessar mentioned, they can also offer the complete package from Comp Crew to Ocean theory together with all the RYA short courses.

They would be an excellent choice.