ECY’s classes are all live aboard and have professional, dedicated, and compassionate instructors in an environment exceptionally well suited for learning all aspects of sailing. Our local sailing waters start off in the heart of the sailing destination of Pensacola Beach, allowing you to walk to restaurants, shops and beaches right from our marina. As your skills build, you will sail from sweet Little Sabine Bay, out into sounds & bays that make up the Intra Coastal Waterway, then out into the Gulf of Mexico. Learning to sail and navigate all of these bodies of water develop all essential skills to managing a sailing cruise on your own. And all of them close enough to allow you to return to our marina at the end of each sailing day, allowing you to maximize practice time in and out of the marina, the instructor to go home and you privacy on board each night.

Our sailing school specializes in private, live-aboard sailing classes for couples, friends, and families. By “private”, we mean that you and someone you choose will be the only students staying aboard the vessel and in your sailing classes. We recommend choosing someone that you intend to sail with after graduation as your primary class partner – spouse, son, daughter, good friend, brother or sister – someone that you choose!

Private Lessons for Couples, Families, and Friends
We specialize in teaching YOUR sailing party — people you intend to sail with in the same class. Our classes include couples, families and friends in private classes allowing for a team approach. We also schedule classes with sailors that would like to learn to ‘single hand’, enjoying the water out on their own.

Small Class Size + Flexible Scheduling
Our year round, scheduled by appointment classes were designed to have only two students per instructor (upon request, we accept up to four students per class). This maximizes each student’s hands-on experience on the water and provides direct attention from the instructor, both on the water and in the classroom. We also welcome ‘Ride Alongs’ to help prepare the crew for sailing with their newly trained skipper.

Extra Sail Time
Learning to sail is both a lot of work and a lot of fun. At ECY, we feel that the time dedicated to meeting the ASA standards for each course should be supplemented with enough time to enjoy the sail and practice each skill enough to master it. Not only do we offer a small class size, we have extended each of our classes to allow our ASA certified instructors the time we feel is necessary to provide a thorough training experience – and for our students to enjoy the sail.