From the get-go, the Sailing Academy communicated with me and scheduled my ASA course with professionalism, efficiency, and courtesy; this continued through completion of the ASA course. My instructor, Captain Phin, was professional, courteous, efficient, and thorough. Captain Phin answered all of my questions plus the questions of other students during classroom teachings and onboard. Captain Phin adapted to the broad range of student proficiency and experience levels. Overall, I was very satisfied and my passing scores are reflective of the knowledge I received.

Phin is an exceptional instructor. He is very professional, extremely knowledgable and quite personable. He takes the time to answer questions fully and does not gloss over anything. He never said "that's not on the test" or did anything to discourage our learning. I also appreciated the consistent focus to our learning and his multiple offers for hands-on training.

I came to ASA 103/104 hoping to learn new skills and to get hands-on experience sailing a larger boat. The Sailing Academy delivered on one goal but not the other. My instructor was a knowledgeable sailor and shared many useful tips, large and small, that were appreciated and that I’ll remember for years. He explained concepts clearly and effectively. I learned a lot of academic material during the week and came away better-prepared. That said, my second goal was to get meaningful hands-on experience at the helm of a larger boat. This unfortunately didn’t happen. My “helm time” during the entire week was less than 1.5 hours. My instructor had an unsurprising preference for one of my classmates and offered her the majority of the time at the helm throughout the week. He also offered some time to my other classmate, but virtually none to me. I was particularly disappointed in our trip to Annapolis. During the outbound trip, the only reason that I had a chance to helm briefly was that my classmate noticed that my instructor had not offered the wheel to me, and she offered it to me. On the return trip, the instructor offered the helm to her as we left Annapolis. He then offered it to the other student, but not to me. As we approached Herring Bay from Annapolis, my classmate noticed again and made a comment, but it was too late to matter. Clearly, she saw (and verbalized) the imbalance in hands-on experience - twice. I’m sure that I could have complained during the trip, and I presume I could have had helm time if I did. But that’s not my style and I didn’t want to make the group dynamics uncomfortable for the other students. I really don’t mind if an instructor has a favorite student. And my classmate was young, attractive, energetic and enthusiastic, so I totally get it. That said, every student, even the less-favorite student, deserves to have a fulsome learning experience - both academic and hands-on experience. With only three students in the class, there was plenty of opportunity for all of us to have a great hands-on experience, but this unfortunately didn’t happen.