Here traffic doesn’t mean cars.  In the New York harbor, traffic is the floating kind: ferries, motorboats, sailboats, and the occasional kayaker. I’m sitting on an Offshore Sailing School boat as Travis Johnson, an instructor, pulls out the buoys he’d set for the sailing club’s races. Besides being slightly concerned about the water quality just sprayed up, I’m mostly struck by how otherworldly it feels to relax on the open water amidst landmasses brimming with millions of people. I thought it would be fun to find out more about the Offshore Sailing School that offers sailing lessons out of the marina at Liberty State Park in Jersey City. But secretly, the idea of getting out on the water myself seemed even more fun. And I was right. It was really fun.

I first found out about Offshore two years ago when looking into different places that offered short sailing lessons. Then I realized that the sailboats with the red logos dotting the water landscape I’d see from Liberty State Park were also part of their fleet.  I’d narrow my eyes, following their path. Biking amongst the expanse of green at the park offered an escape; but not as much as I imagined being on a sea of blue water would. 

So last Sunday morning I went to find out who inhabited these floating vehicles of fun and escape. And how exactly does one join their ranks? Tyler Pierce, the director of Offshore’s Northeast Region, greets us. The school, founded by Steve and Doris Colgate, also has outposts in Florida and the Caribbean.  Pierce is an accomplished sailor having sailed all his life including literally around the world. He’s been with the Offshore team for 18 years and explains that they first offered sailing in Jersey City in 1995 from the area by the Colgate clock. Coincidentally, there is a distant relationship between Steve Colgate, an award-winning sailor, and the founders of the Colgate brand. Today, however, the main connection is the people who mistakenly call the school’s offices looking to complain about their toothpaste.

Offshore moved it’s Jersey City location to the marina when it was completed in 1997. Today they teach roughly 300 students how to sail and cruise boats out of the location. (They also teach classes out of Chelsea Piers). Most of the students live nearby. “This location is more of a commuter course location where people drive here,” Pierce explains. Though people do come from Boston and Pennsylvania, people go to more tropical locations for destination sailing.  People won’t find many palm trees up this way, but they will still temporarily escape on the open waters, without having to go far. The school offers three different courses from Jersey City, a Learn to Sail Class, a Performance Sailing Class and a Cruising Class (how to man a larger, sleep-aboard sailboat).

To find out how one goes from novice to sailor, we’re tagging along on the first day of the Learn to Sail Class. The class will go for three full days over two weekends and costs $995. (FYI, a new 50% discount has recently been added for college students in the tri-state area). According to Johnson, a range of people sign up for the Learn to Sail course. Some have never stepped on a boat while others have sailed occasionally. The six students in this particular class represent the range of students. Kim Espinosa and Annie Sykes, coworkers in Newport Tower, signed up together. Espinosa has always found the water relaxing and freeing though she hadn’t been on a sailboat before, while Sykes has sailed some with her husband who is a member of the Offshore Sailing Club. The class was perfect for both: Espinosa would fulfill a long held desire to learn to sail and Sykes would know how to handle the sailboat on her own without her husband’s explanations. The average per class is about six to ten students, though only four students go on a boat with an instructor.

The students spend the first two hours of the day in class learning the basics before spending six hours sailing. The classroom is in the red lightship in the marina, which was once used as a floating lighthouse off the Outer Banks. Our eyes soon adjust from the bright morning sun to the dimmer interior of the boat. Though it’s a windowless room, what could be more fitting of a classroom location than a decommissioned boat? The students all have out the textbook they received prior to class (and which they should have read beforehand) and instructor Matt Cross begins the day’s lesson.

We had planned to perhaps sneak out during this part, the lecture part of sailing, after all, was not the perk of this assignment. But between the PowerPoint slide instruction and referencing the model boat set up in the front, the class breezed by pretty fast. They first cover the sailing lingo, like deciphering what it means to “Trim the sheet until the luffing stops.” Or what someone means when they yell, “Jibe ho!” I could go on referencing the old English sailing slang still used today, but you get the point. After learning about other necessary things like how to use the wind, and steer, and how to tie knots, the group is prepped enough to emerge from the Lightship and put their new knowledge to work.

The six students divide themselves into two groups of three and an instructor goes with each group. The students stand on the dock next to the boat, the Colgate 26 designed by Steve Colgate, as the instructor explains its parts. They’ll sail until about one o’clock, break for lunch and then sail again for another four hours in the afternoon. The next two class days, over the following weekend, will follow the same schedule. The last day’s afternoon, however, the students will have the opportunity to take the boat out together sans instructor. That, along with a 40-minute written test that will grant them basic keelboat certification, is the real test of their newfound skills.

This first Sunday morning, as they step onto the sailboat, the instructors lead every step. The first group embarks, distancing themselves from the marina and venturing into the open water. We hop on a boat with Johnson, the instructor helping out with the sailing races, so we can see the new sailors in action without getting in their way on their boats. Johnson explains that Offshore also has a sailing club, which recent graduates can choose to join. After completing the class one is prepared to be able to take one of the Offshore’s fleet of nine sailboats out with another member- at least two club members are required per boat.

Members can also compete in the races Offshore sets up on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Membership in the club, which is opened from May through October, isn’t cheap at $1,475. But compared to the price of a boat, the cost of maintaining it, and paying for a slip- it begins to seem like a deal for sailors in the area. Graduates finishing their courses this summer also have pro-rated options for joining. People with a basic keelboat certification or who can demonstrate proficient knowledge of sailing can also join the club without having to take the class.

This morning, two boats compete in the races. They navigate the wind and loop around the orange buoys set a distance apart. A longer race had the boats sailing around Governor’s Island and back. Members can take the boats up as far up as the George Washington Bridge and as far south as the Verrazano bridge.