Presumably you posted that comment to ensure a holiday from the forum over the Christmas season? How many rules does that break to post in Scuttlebut? Way off any relevance on here. (And also the “good sense” has been convincingly demolished by “fact checkers”)
One thing I have learned here in my relatively short time is not to respond to conspiracists no matter how much your fingers itch.
But 5 CC to one instructor won't be much better. Its a student teacher ration problem. I don't know what the economics are to know if 5 per teacher is giving bad value for money and the school is getting rich from it or if they'd still make a reasonable profit with 2 students but would guess judging by the cost of the boats and the coding for commercial use etc etc and paying staffs huge wages to pay their huge mortgages its probably the minimum they can get away with unless you want to pay double for a better ratio.
You could pay for 1 on 1 if you wanted. Obviously won’t be cheap (although I don’t think sailing schools usually pay “huge wages”). But in amongst your poorly constructed debate there are a few snippets that potentially are of value to the OP and anyone else pondering the same issue:
I paid for 1:1 on my boat a couple of times and it was excellent value for money. I preferred the courses for general learning with a sylabus, but when I bought a new boat (almost double the length of the old boat) and wanted help with handling, and when I wanted my partner to gain confidence at the helm (aka parking and mooring) I can't think of anything better than a calm RYA person on board for the cost of a couple of ropes. I don't want to say cheap in case they increase prices, but it wasn't far off!
And in any case, is there a price you wouldn’t pay to help keep your fantastic boat in top condition? I’d pay for boat handling instruction, but I’m not convinced that an instructor used to monos is going to be any better informed than me. It might happen though, we rule nothing out.
not sure why you feel the need for that
5 to 1 is the limit by the rules for Recognised Training Centres. I can't remember the last time I ever coached a course of 5.
I really enjoy sailing all sorts of different boats. The challenge keeps everything fresh. Different handling characteristics. Different engines, rigs , electronics. And most importantly, many different people.
that’s not quite what he said! He described himself as having owned a GP14 on a reservoir a long time ago. Now he could be a modest GP14 inland champion, or he could be someone who bought a boat and sailed it round the local reservoir half a dozen times only on nice days. I suspect he’s probably somewhere in the between. However, as a former dinghy sailor who learned on insland waters, there’s quite a leap from sailing round in circles (probably with a safety boat not far away) to sailing from A to B with tidal heights and streams to think about. He may never have used an engine, never have anchored, never read a chart, etc.
he almost certainly won’t find someone willing to charter him a boat without qualifications (or maybe a very good, verifiable “CV”) - other than perhaps the broads.
i think there is an argument that if you are an experienced gp14 sailor then moving up to a sailfish or a coribee (purely as examples) is not a giant leap and he may well follow that path without instruction. Especially if he was to do it somewhere non tidal like the lakes (given his reservoir background). However, I inferred (and I accept that I’ve jumped to some conclusions here) that when he said “own a proper boat” and that he was in his 60s he might be looking for something a bit more comfortable and looking to the sea.
I don’t doubt you’d have fun and be good company. Whether you’d be any better than me at parking the good ship Chiara in a tight marina berth on a windy day is kind of where I was heading with that. Straight off the bat, I doubt it. Though equally, you'd pick it up quickly. I can promise that the open sea on that same day is a lot more fun than berthing.
Sailing seems like a great activity for shy people. You don’t have to put up with all the gregarious folk on your own boat! Fortunately there are instructors around who know enough about teaching to work with candidates of all different personalities. Worth saying again though that not all schools/instructors are equal!
The shy nervous few that I know; whilst being very nice people; are hopeless sailors.