Sailors' Reviews

Here are some comments from Messenger Sails clients who did Sea Trials:

Dan A., May 2008

Thank you for offering such an amazing adventure, so much was packed into three days!...Sailing on the ocean was just unbelievable, I would like to do more...hope to sail with you again.

David S., July 2007

I really enjoyed the Sea Trials this weekend. My interest was in the educational aspect more that the adventure aspect. It turned out that it exceeded my expectations on both counts.

Andrew B., July 2007:

I'm still absorbing everything that happened on the Sea Trial, and will be for a long while. The Sea Trial is a great concept, it is very thoughtfully planned and was suberbly executed by you. It brought Chart One to life, on one of America's mightiest rivers. The bar crossing and the beat to the radar buoy in a strong breeze, under your quiet but expert supervision, was a major extension of my sailing experience.

Steve H., June 2007:

Thanks again for such a great trip. Local sailors serious about learning to cruise could not invest their time or money better.

James R., June 2006:

I'll expand on this later, but for now I can start with the following: Spending a lot of time navigating at night was a blast. It really reinforces the importance of maintaining a heading, using visual references for navigation, staying aware of your current location relative to the chart, and working together as a crew. I say this even though I have no plans to go night sailing anytime soon. Navigating at night forces the student to do things that he/she might be too lazy to do otherwise. You can bet I will never look at day sailing in the same way again. The size of the boat teaches respect for winches/controls one might otherwise be inclined to give little thought to. On the boats I've sailed in the past it was easy to unwind a winch in preparation for a tack, holding the line until the tack was ready. This is a bad practice that a larger boat wont tolerate. Messenger is a good platform for this class. Having the opportunity to use radar, GPS, etc was good experience. Engine and general boat tutorials were good as well. Reading about this stuff is never the same as seeing it done/doing it. A little radio work would be a nice addition.

Keith N., August 2006:

For me, someone who hadn't spent more than a couple of hours at a time aboard a large sailboat, "Sea Trials" was the perfect experience. Not only did I participate in the logistics of five people over three days but through rotation of the helm and navigation duties, I logged an impressive amount of hours in a wide variety of conditions. Some of the non-tangible experiences were a fiery sunset from a quiet marina, leaving the Columbia River buoy and the coast behind with nothing but sun, sea and wind ahead (even if it was just for a little while), and piloting under the Astoria bridge in early morning fog. Since my goal was a chartering certification, I completed my trip feeling that I now have the experience to charter a boat with confidence.