OCC School of Sailing and Seamanship

Took the OCC sailing class here three times. Love it! You get a lot of time out on the water and learn a little bit of rope tying and nautical law.

After taking sailing lessons in San Diego during our vacay we continued up towards Orange County to stay in Newport. We decided to look into the OC yacht club for future reference and stopped by for some info.
They had lots of small kiddy boats in the dock so I would love to bring my kids in for a camp and discuss lessons with an instructor. The lessons I had in San Diego were terrible and I could have gotten better lessons from a mannequin. So I look forward to trying out other schools.

This place has extremely poor customer service. I was not able to transfer a class despite emailing them and calling them. It took the program director 3 weeks to respond and that was after another email was sent.
I’m very disappointed to find out how closed off and cold they sounded over email and the phone. Instead of working with you to get you to take their classes, they slap their policies into the email and that makes up their reply.
Most successful businesses want to attract and retain customers. But in this facility, there is no effort to build a customer relationship. They decided it was of more value to keep the $ 120 I paid than to work out a solution and get me to take other classes. What they also don’t realize is that sailing is a recreational activity that you bring your friends to. So if I don’t take classes here, neither will my friends.
Fortunately, there are many other facilities, given this is southern California.

From the Unilocal photos you’d get the idea they only hold classes for kids. That’s not true. They are a school that teaches mainly adults how to sail.
The instructors are awesome!!!
Start off with the 14′ Lido beginner course. You’ll get a feel for the wind, the sails and sailing terminology.
Then take the advanced Lido course, which is fun because it is held in the afternoon when the wind picks up.
After that, take the 32′ Shield courses. These boats are sleek. You’ll learn how to do figure 8s with them without using the rudder. And how to dock them without using a motor. (They don’t have one!).
Just to be out in the water, I repeated all the classes several times. In every class I always learned something new.
It’s totally fun, educational and useful!!!
(I saved a friend’s boat from crashing on the rocks from what I learned at OCC Sailing Center.)

I told them I would update the review and delete the first extremely negative review since they are working with me. I was not allowed to retake a class I missed. During the testing portion I got a question wrong that I challenged, and it turned out that the answer key was wrong. I did deleted my previous reviews naming specific examples and people. They are working with me, however they said it was a mistake that my other classmate (Anthony) got to take the entire class over again… oops. Their own manual says they allow for such things during times of extreme hardship. During the class session I was in, I was riding my bike at got hit by a hit and run driver. They seemed to think this was not enough of a «hardship». I’m not sure what would qualify as a hardship, but one would think being hit by a car might qualify. We will see…

A great place to learn to sail. I came back from a trip to New England with a desire to sail after seeing the USS Constitution and other pieces of America’s maritime history (something we are oblivious to in California for some reason). Googling for sailing lessons in Orange County, CA turned up OCC’s sailing school, and since the classes were inexpensive I just signed up. Beginner classes are $ 145 for 16 hours of instruction, most of which is on the water. This is a great value considering the going rate for sailboat rentals starts around $ 50/​hr for something comparable to OCC’s Lido 14s.
I have taken many of their classes with several of their instructors and found them all to be knowledgable, experienced and enthusiastic. They are all sailors themselves and would be sailing even if it wasn’t their day job. After taking a few classes I made friends with a local boat owner and started crewing with them on weekday night beer can races, and while every boat has a learning curve and skills require practice to perfect, getting on the big boat after learning to sail at OCC I felt basically competent and comfortable even around the much more experienced crew. It is also good to learn to sail dinghies like OCC’s Lido 14s, even if you have sailed on larger cruising boats, because the skills exercised sailing these boats are considerably different than what you need to sail the typical cruising boat.
Sailing is a great sport for all ages, if you are considering taking it up don’t hesitate, just enroll in a class and see if you like it. It is surprisingly easy to learn the basics and if you like it and want to sail regularly or take up racing, OCC is the place to meet people and start building the social network you will need to make that happen.

Great place to learn to sail.
Friendly staff is very knowledgeable and helpful
Highly recommend them if you want to learn

UC Irvine uses OCC’s dock for their sailing classes. I have taken classes 2 with UCI’s instructors and boats who rents the space but pays for their own insurance. For $ 95 I get 18 hours of instruction and more than half are out in the water. I’ve taken a class with Annie, but Jim is really great. UCI offers classes only to students, staff, faculty, and alumni or affiliates (UC’s) and you sign up through the UCI Anteater Recreation Center.

Beginning Sailing is $ 139.00. You get about 12 hrs of actual sailing time and 3 hrs of instruction in a classroom. Pretty good deal. The boats are also new. The staff are all friendly and teach you alot in a short amount of time. I would recommend this class to anyone.

Great instructors, very reasonable prices. Ton of fun and they really teach yuou how to sail.

wow, i’ve only had one class and it was AMAZING! i am addicted and will not stop until i’ve sailed the big boats! seriously, sign up through occ, it’s only $ 20…you really can’t get a better deal.
ps. some freaking military special ops guys were there learning how to operate the power boat!

I have nothing but good things to say about OCC’s school of Sailing and Seamanship — They have given me a wealth of knowledge. Because they are a public school, people donate boats to them for a tax advantage for example, Pyewacket was donated to the OCC School of Sailing & Semanship last July by Roy Disney. The former Walt Disney Co. vice chairman presented his gift to College officials in Honolulu, Hawaii, following his 16^th and final Transpacific Yacht Race.
Launched in 2004 at a cost of around $ 7 million, the Pyewacket is among the fastest and most advanced racing sailboats in the world.
Great School! — Great Staff!