Most people think advanced sailing means more in-depth knowledge and skill in sail trim, heavy weather sailing techniques, or downwind sailing techniques. But a true advanced offshore sailing course should go far beyond sailing skills. What you should expect to learn—and what we teach at One World Sailing Academy—starts before we even leave the dock. Before departure, we conduct a safety orientation with an overview of all onboard safety systems, including their location, operation, and proper use. We also establish...

What Serious Sailors Need to Know In Southern California, there are plenty of sailing schools. Most of them focus on basic and some intermediate sailing, with a noticeable drop-off when it comes to anything truly advanced. I challenge anyone to find an advanced sailing course in Southern California that takes place on a true bluewater cruising vessel. I’ve looked, and I haven’t found it. If your goal is day sailing, or maybe chartering a coastal cruising boat and sailing around...

So what does it actually take to prepare for offshore and blue water sailing? In my mind, there are two paths—and both of them can work. One may be more efficient than the other, but they’re both valid. Let’s start with the first path. Path One: The Long Way The first path is the one that a lot of people take—and the one I took myself. It usually begins with some basic sailing instruction. Maybe a beginner course, and then...

A majority of modern sailboats being built today are production sailboats. These boats are designed to be accessible, comfortable, and efficient for what most people actually do with them—day sailing and coastal cruising. And many of them do that job very well. But the kind of sailing I’m talking about is different. Offshore sailing and blue water cruising place a completely different set of demands on a boat. It’s not just about sailing performance—it’s about endurance, self-sufficiency, and the ability...

In previous articles, I’ve described the difference between coastal cruising, offshore sailing, and blue water sailing. This article is meant to further define those differences so they’re clearly understood. Let’s start with day sailing. Day sailing typically involves short trips that are specifically designed just to go sailing—for the pure enjoyment of it. You leave and come back the same day, often returning to the same harbor you departed from. It’s a very minimal level of commitment. The focus is...

Blue water sailing gets talked about a lot, but most people don’t really understand what it means—or how different it is from coastal cruising. At a glance, it might seem like it’s just sailing farther offshore. But the reality is, blue water sailing and coastal cruising are two completely different experiences. Coastal cruising is often described as shorter trips, but “short” is relative. A coastal passage could still be hundreds of miles. It could involve an overnight sail or even...

There’s usually a story behind why someone wants to learn how to sail. For a lot of people, it starts way before they ever step on a boat. Maybe it’s something from school—history, exploration, discovery. Maybe it’s movies, or growing up near the ocean and watching sailboats out on the water. There’s just something about it that sticks. A quiet thought in the back of your mind: I’d like to learn how to do that someday. That’s the foundation. That initial...

From the sharp cliffs of Catalina Island to Channel Islands National Park, and even further south to the desert shores of the Sea of Cortez and the vibrant jungles of Mainland Mexico, the destinations One World Sailing Academy visits offer a striking and ever-changing variety of hiking experiences. So vast, in fact, that even after more than a decade of sailing and exploring these regions, there remain hundreds of miles of countless trails and inland routes still left undiscovered. Catalina...

Over the past several years, there has been an explosion of interest in bluewater cruising and the idea of exploring the world under sail. In my view, this shift started well before the pandemic and was then accelerated by it, as people began to question traditional routines and seriously consider alternative lifestyles. The conventional path—steady job, predictable routine, weekends off, a couple weeks of vacation each year, buying a home, building a career and family—was once deeply appealing. After periods...