Advance Your Sailing Skills

Advance your sailing skills with expert instruction at Portage Yacht Club. Our private, one-on-one coaching is designed for experienced sailors looking to refine their techniques in rigging, racing, spinnaker handling, and trailering. Whether you’re fine-tuning your race starts, perfecting spinnaker maneuvers, or optimizing boat handling, our knowledgeable instructors provide hands-on, customized training to help you sail smarter and faster.

Our instruction focuses on an immersive, on-the-water approach—maximizing your time in the boat to develop instinctive control and advanced sailing strategies. Whether you’re sailing a Hobie, a Laser, or a larger daysailer, we can help you master efficiency, safety, and performance.

Looking to rig, trailer, or optimize your own boat? Our team can guide you through best practices to ensure you’re getting the most out of your vessel. Advance Your Sailing today—call us to schedule a session.

Rigging, Racing, Spinnaker & Trailering
Course Duration Hourly
Sailboat Assembly & Rigging 1-2 Hour(s) $75
Racing Per Skill Level $100
Spinnaker 2-3 Hours $100
Trailering 1-2 Hour(s) $75
Sailboat Assembly & Rigging

Trying to figure out what goes where with your boat? If so, then the friendly staff at Midwest Sailing invites you to schedule an assembly and rigging lesson.

We have experience in many small boat designs including the Flying Scot, Interlake, Laser, Sunfish, Snipe, Hobie Cats, 470, Mutineer & Buccaneer. We also have helped people with Catalina 22, ComPac 16, Sol Cat 18, Islands 15, and Hunter Trailerables.

Racing

Having difficulty getting your racing game together? Our expert staff can help identify your needs as well as coach you on techniques aimed at improving your boat handling skills and race course acumen.

Spinnaker

Looking to enhance our sailing skills? One of the most enjoyable aspects of sailing is flying a spinnaker. It can turn that often, slow, uneventful, downwind ride into an unforgettable experience. Our staff has years of spinnaker expereince and would enjoy sharing this knowledge with you.

Trailering

Having trouble figuring out the best way to get your mast up and down as well as trailering your boat? Over the years we have taught many little tricks to make the trailering process quick and efficient for our customers. We can save you time!

Useful Links
Learning How to Race
General
  • Knot tying demo
  • UGA – How a race works
  • UGA – New in old sport
  • UGA – Points of Sail
  • You Against the Course
  • Sail Controls – Not for Laser
  • Tacking a two-handed boat
  • Shroud tell tales
  • Telltales
  • Gaining strategic advantage
  • Trim for speed
  • Racing 101 – Shifting gears
  • Racing 101 – Taking on headers
  • Gust Management
  • How much Heel
  • Apparent wind and gust/lull management – math
  • UGA Steering without steering
  • Lifts and headers – 1
  • Lifts and headers – 2
  • Shore effect on wind
  • Tactics – Fisher
  • Tactics and Strategy
  • Tactical Tips
  • Sail fast with less hiking
  • Focus on angle
  • Reading wind on the water
  • Downwind technique
  • Tactics – The lee bow
  • Ease for speed
  • Keeping Clear Air
  • Rules – Rocking and rolling
  • Visiting Skipper as Crew
  • Crew work – communication
  • Hand-over-hand sheeting
  • Rooster Sailing
  • Steve Smith
  • Flying Scot
  • Int. Sailing Academy
  • Be a good skipper
  • Teamwork 1 – FS/IL
  • Teamwork 2 – 2012 College Champs
  • Teamwork 3 – with real time commentary
  • Teamwork 4 – Thistle acc
  • Teamwork 5
  • 2016 Clinic Outline – Rick
  • 2017 Clinic Outline – Rick
  • National Coaching
    • Starting
  • General starting technique
  • Starting – Favored end
  • UGA Four starting strategies
  • Starting line technique
  • UGA Line sights
  • Starting and More
  • Starting – Sailing backwards
  • Start – Overhead Drone Shots – FS
  • Rabbit Starts
  • Basics of Starting
  • Managing Risk
  • Get a Transit
    • Finishing Interlake Flying Scot
    Sunfish
  • Sunfish Tuning Guide
    • MC Scow
  • MC Scow Tuning Guide
    • Laser
  • Telltale Placement
  • Marking your outhaul
  • Vang
  • Laser Tuning Guide 1
  • Laser Tuning Guide 2
  • Laser tuning guide – spreadsheet metric
  • Spring tips
  • Body position downwind
  • Incorrect lull response
  • Correct lull response
  • Preventing death rolls
  • Starting and boat speed
  • Downwind
  • Laser Rigging Tips
  • Vang downwind – 1
  • Vang downwind – 2
  • What the vang really does
  • Vang Sheeting
  • Cunningham
  • Cockerill 1
  • Tacking
  • Roll Tacking
  • Mainsheet trick #1
  • Mainsheet trick #2
  • Mainsheet trick #3
  • General Hiking Technique
  • Nick Thompson on hiking
  • Nick Thompson on Gybing
  • Pinching
  • Footing
  • Gybing – 1
  • Gybing – 2
  • Overhand Gybe
  • Reaching
  • Waves
  • Mark II Sail Trim Guide
  • Sail fast less hiking – 1
  • Sail fast less hiking – 2
  • Sail fast in light air and chop
  • Feeling slow in light air
  • Light air and sail trim
  • Laser Start – 15 knots
  • Laser Webinars
    • Organizations
    Class Associations
  • Interlake Class
  • Flying Scot Class
  • Laser Class
  • Sunfish Class
  • MC Scow Class
    • Boating Links
  • Handbook of Michigan Boating Laws and Responsibilities
  • Boat US Online Boating Safety Course
  • Life Jacket Regulations
  • Fishing Rules and Regulations
  • Navigation Lights
  • Navigation Lights from USCG
    • Other Sailing Links
  • Sailing Illustrated – Tom Ehman, Jr. CEO and Editor-in-Chief
  • Proper Course– Racing Blog
  • Race One Design
  • Yacht Clubs of the World – Sail Clubs from all over the world
    • Learning to Sail
  • Physics of sailing # Basic sail trim
  • Physics of sailing: Real and Apparent Wind
  • Points of Sailing
  • What Makes a Sailboat Go
  • Boat Parts and Where to Sit
  • Learning to Sail 1
  • Learning to Sail 2
  • Six essentials to sailing
  • Tacking 1
  • Tacking 2
  • Gybing 1
  • Gybing 2
    • Racing Rules
  • Racing Rules in Brief – From US Sailing
  • Sailboat racing rules review 2017 – 2020
  • Basic Racing Rules
  • The Racing Rules of Sailing – From ISAF
  • Changes and Corrections
  • US Sailing Prescriptions
  • Racing Rules FAQ
  • Racing Rules of Sailing – Look to Windward
  • UK Sailmakers Rules Quiz – Animated Quiz on the rules

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