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If you've ever considering deepwater sailing but were not sure how to jump start your sailing career, our Swan Program is for you.
Our Swan Program was specifically designed to introduce people to the world of offshore sailing by providing hands-on crew experience under the watchful eye of an professional skipper on a proven boat. During your tenure onboard, you’ll learn to keep watch, make log entries, navigate, use the radio, steer the boat and perform tasks that are essential to safe offshore sailing. The Swan Program offers a fixed price for everything you’ll need aboard—you just pay for your travel to and from the boat. The Swan Program sails south from New England to Bermuda and the Caribbean in the fall, and north from Bermuda and the Caribbean to New England in the spring. Summer trips are also available.
After your first Swan Program experience, you’ll have the skills to sail on other boats. Please view the video below to learn more.
This always fills up quickly with OPO members as it is a short full two days on the water plus two days at the show including accommodations aboard right next to the show.
Huntington NY to the Annapolis Boat Show - Arrive Sunday evening Oct 10th and depart Oct 11th aboard the Swan 48 Avocation with Hank Schmitt skippering both legs. Spend two nights aboard dockside next to the show and see the show Thursday and Friday (depart Friday am) - $1,200 all included except travel and meals ashore.
Annapolis Boat Show to Huntington NY after seeing the boat show - Arrive Friday Oct 15th and see the show Friday and Saturday and then sail back to Huntington NY aboard Avocation and travel home after 2 day sail Tuesday Oct 19th. $1,200 all included except travel and meals ashore.
There are only two Swans sailing in the NARC Rally this October 30th to November 17th. But Andrew Burton will also join us with his 4 cabin Baltic 47 "Masquerade."
Crew Arrive in Newport Thursday Oct 28th and fly home from St. Maarten November 17th.
The cost is $3,500 all-inclusive except travel to and from the boat and meals and drinks ashore outside of the rally socials schedule.
We have three big Swans departing from the Canary Islands Nov 21st 2021. Arrive Nov 14th, up to one week early for any of the 3 trans-ats.
* Andy grew up sailing in the Pacific Northwest waters around Victoria, British Columbia. An avid dinghy racer, he started teaching at his father’s sailing school when he was 14 and at age 16, sailed aboard a wooden Hilliard-designed ketch from Victoria to San Diego, beginning a life-long appreciation for offshore sailing.
Since then he has logged more than 350,000 miles as a delivery skipper and owner of Adventure Sailing, a company he started to introduce sailors to offshore sailing using the Nautor Swan charter fleet in the 1990s and early 2000s. He is an excellent navigator using traditional and modern methods and is familiar with the waters of the Mediterranean, Caribbean, both coasts of North and Central America from Alaska and Nova Scotia to the Panama Canal, and Cape Town, South Africa.
Having completed seven trans-Atlantic passages and three Panama Canal transits, he has captained boats offshore as diverse as a production 31-foot sloop designed for the Caribbean charter trade, catamarans, and a 110-foot motor yacht.
Masquerade is a Finnish-built Baltic 47, one of the best production boats of her size in the world.
She has just undergone an extensive refit that included new refrigeration, a couple of new sails, new running rigging, a complete rig inspection that included replacing a couple of shrouds and re-heading the rest, and a complete B&G electronics package with a 12" Zeus plotter at the helm and 20/20s at the mast.
Accommodations consist of four cabins; the captain's cabin aft to port and three double cabins each with a comfortable upper and lower berth with lee cloth. The forward head has a manually operated toilet while the aft head features an electric toilet.
The galley, nav station, and roomy saloon complete the interior.
The more you know, the more you'll get out of your passage with Adventure Sailing.
No offshore experience is required, but if you have it, we will help you hone your skills.
In order to get the most out of your time at sea with us you should possess basic sailing skills such as how to "hand, reef, and steer." Especially, you should know how to steer a compass course. Most of our time at sea we won't be using the autopilot. Sitting in the cockpit watching "Otto" steer the boat does nothing to hone your skills, but steering in waves certainly does!
