Maine Coast Sailing for Veterans
On this six-day sailing expedition designed specifically for veterans, our 30-foot open sailboat serves as both home and learning community.
Ideal for those seeking a fresh challenge in a unique marine environment and a collaborative team setting, this expedition offers participants the chance to explore the rugged shoreline, intricate rivers and granite, spruce-covered islands of the eastern seaboard’s wildest region. In a phased teaching progression, instructors introduce beginning, intermediate and advanced skills in chart and compass navigation, small boat seamanship, weather observation and anchoring. Regular group discussions allow for reflection on each day’s progress, and ensure that leadership and onboard responsibilities are shared so that every crew member is integral to planning the next day. Through living and working closely together, students practice more than seamanship. The habits learned and strengthened through this sailing expedition help veterans with a successful transition back to their families, communities and careers.
UPCOMING COURSES
This course is not currently accepting enrollments. Please check back frequently, as this is subject to change.
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Once a course has reached capacity, three waitlist positions become available. To join a course’s waitlist, click “Join Waitlist” to begin the application process. A $500 deposit is required. This $500 deposit includes a $150 non-refundable application fee and a $350 tuition payment. The $350 tuition payment is refundable only if you cancel your waitlist application or if an open position does not become available. If a position does become available, the applicant will be applied to the open position and the Application and Cancellation Policies of the Regional Outward Bound School will be followed, including forfeiture of the $500 deposit if you cancel 90 days or less prior to the course start date.
Waitlist applicants are encouraged to complete all required admissions documents while awaiting an open position. Positions may become available up to two weeks prior to the course start date. Applicants may only apply to one course. We recommend applying to a course with open positions instead of a course that is accepting waitlist applications. If you have questions, please call 866-467-7651 to speak with one of our Admissions Advisors.
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When a course has reached maximum capacity, meaning all spots and the three waitlist spots are occupied, a course will read “Course Is Full.” This means applications are no longer being accepted.
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Throughout this journey, I was constantly amazed at the support, encouragement, teamwork, and initiative displayed by my crewmates, and it inspired me to look within myself and embrace those qualities as well.
Traditional 30-foot sailboats encourage teamwork and leadership like no other classroom. On an open boat with no cabin and no engine, participants live closely together using only wind and oars as propulsion. As they rotate responsibilities during this expedition, participants learn the crafts of maneuvering under sail, coastal navigation, rowing and living aboard a small open boat. At night, students sleep on deck under a tarp, taking turns at anchor watch under brilliant night skies.
Students learn to:
- Adjust sails properly for sailing at different angles to the wind, and to execute sailing maneuvers like tacking and gybing, which turn the boat through the wind.
- Navigate using a chart and compass to arrive accurately at the day’s destination, using techniques that include taking bearings, dead reckoning, triangulation and sounding.
- Move the boat under oars, coordinating all of the rowers' movements so that the oars splash as one, and precisely maneuvering in and out of secluded anchorages.
- Live (cook, eat, sleep, work and learn) as a team aboard a small open sailboat.
The coast of Maine, with its intricate and indented shoreline, is a unique segment of the North Atlantic seaboard. It is renowned among sailors for its picturesque beauty, iconic lighthouses, abundant bays and harbors, rocky islands, and quiet coves. Our cruising area covers nearly 200 miles of the Maine coast, with countless rivers, bays and islands to explore. The rocky, spruce-covered islands are the summits of a prehistoric mountain range, and generations of inhabitants have made their livelihoods here. Evidence left behind on the islands reveals the historic presence of indigenous Abenaki camps, pre-colonial fishing communities, post-colonial timber and farming operations and early 20th century granite quarries. Cold, nutrient-rich waters flow from the Canadian Maritimes, and make the Gulf of Maine home to a wide range of sea birds, seals, porpoises and whales.
Course Stories
Throughout this journey, I was constantly amazed at the support, encouragement, teamwork, and initiative displayed by my crewmates, and it inspired me to look within myself and embrace those qualities as well.
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