Captain Dave is the kind of guy that not only oozes knowledge of sailing, the route, and…read moresurroundings on your trip, but he also fit into to group seamlessly and doesn't feel like an outsider... and that makes it feel like you're on the water with a bunch of friends and one just happens to own a boat. First, we had to reschedule our trip from last year as I was hospitalized and unable to make the original trip. My wife contacted Dave and they refunded us initially without hesitation. These are not only professionals, but people with kind, large hearts. The policy could have easily taken our money but we were able to reschedule and not have to pay any additional fees or money given our extenuating circumstances. The boat is clean, well-kept, and the comms and instructions were passed along early and with plenty of detail to leave no room for misinterpretation. Payment and scheduling were easy (as my wife told me, at least) and expectations were set as to what was (and was not) provided in the cost. As far as the value and trip itself, it's money well spent. We've done dozens of chartered routes along the coasts as well as in the Caribbean when we travel. Captain Dave was easily in the top 3 in terms of overall experiences and how effortless the day felt. It wasn't too long or too short, and Dave made sure to capture plenty of moments and memories for us instead of all our photos missing one (or more) members of the group. We also got to stop at 2 of the islands and swim around for a bit at each of them before returning back to the docks. There were 6 people in our group and we had plenty of space for all of us, 3 backpack/YETI soft coolers, and about 4 bags of food/snacks. There is also a shaded area if you forget sunscreen and/or just need to get out of the wind or sun. If you're curious or wondering if you may enjoy an experience like this, my best advice to you is just book it and don't overthink it. It surpassed all my expectations and was a blast of a way to spent a hot, sunny Saturday in the summer. Given the other reviewers' experiences, it doesn't seem like anyone has had a bad experience with any of the captains either. If you have anywhere near the experience I did, you'd be okay with paying double what we did for the day... it's just that much fun. Thank you to everyone at Classic Sail for the kindness, understanding, and above all - the awesome product/experience. You've made a few new fans in the Boston area!!!

What a great experience! We sailed with Captain David on a beautiful day in early May. Because my…read morepartner has such a strong desire to learn to sail, he asked a lot of questions to learn about the vessel and different verbiage. David enthusiastically answered every question, while also giving us lessons on different sights around the sail. Highly recommend - hope we can make it back another day!

Had my wife's 40th Birthday aboard the Secret Love - We had a blast. The captain and crew were very…read moreaccommodating from the menu to just making sure everyone was having a great time. Nothing like pulling up near logan airport and feeling like you can reach out a grab a plane - definitely a unique experience. If you are looking for a great way to celebrate any milestone keep the Ship and crew of the Secret Love in mind.

We hosted our son's graduation party on Secret Love and had a fantastic time. The captain and crew…read morewere professional but fun and the food (as well as its presentation) was fantastic. We chose to have an open bar and three food stations, as well as seven passed hors d'oeuvres and two yummy desserts. The three hour tour took us around Boston harbor, allowing our guests a unique view of Boston while being entertained by planes arriving into Logan directly above our heads! Exciting! I highly recommend Secret Love for your next group outing!

I selected this company based on good reviews, but wonder if things have changed during the…read morepandemic and encourage you to proceed booking with caution as my experience trying to get on the boat was terrible and they held 50% of my total payment illegally. We originally planned to set sail, however, due to inclement weather reports on the day of the charter, we jointly decided to reschedule for another time and did not set the reschedule date at that moment because my party size was large, 15, and I needed to repoll the group on another feasible date. My group worked together to select a reschedule date, which the company made for a Saturday. The Tuesday before, we found out that one of our co-workers has COVID. As a result, all of us were potentially exposed. Out of concern for the safety of the crew and captain, I reached out by text message on Wednesday to inform them of the situation and figure out how to proceed. My coworker who had COVID also tried to contact you to find a resolution but could not reach them by phone. We received an email stating they unable to reschedule on this charter, and could do a cancellation that would result in a partial refund. They did not offer the option to reschedule to a fee, and said short of canceling, the charter would be scheduled to take place on Saturday with full awareness of the situation I expressed. I responded saying that we would like to proceed with Saturday in this case. I again emphasized that we had been exposed, and they cancelled without calling or communicating. After repeated calls and emails from Saturday to Wednesday, and finally a warning to report to the FTC for poor business practice, only half of my payment was returned. Nothing in the contract allowed them to retain it. So- beware. If you book, make sure you are going and don't expect your money back if you need to make a change for anything reasonable like being honest about a COVID exposure

This is a harbor tour on a sailboat. The summer of 2009 was their first year in business and they…read moredon't sail in the wintertime. The sail boat, called the Tupelo Honey, can carry up to 12 people. I'd lived in Boston for several years but had never been on a sail boat there. I had previously been on boat cruises around the harbor. We were back in town for a visit and I saw an advertisement for this harbor tour. I absolutely love sailing and wanted to try it out. I called a day before we hoped to go on a sail and asked if they had any times available. Generally, the cost is about $25/person. But because we didn't have a large group, only two of us wanted to go, there was a minimum price to take the sailboat out. That was $140.00, which was fine with us. We had an absolutely fantastic time! The captain and other crew member were very hospitable, friendly and really easy-going. They asked us if we wanted to stay near the buildings to see the scenery or to go further out into the harbor and let us make the decision. I would definitely do this again and it was well worth the money. It couldn't have been better. Call at least a day in advance to make sure that they have room to take you out for a sail. Their website says that you can take a T-Boat (affiliated with the MBTA subway, the T) to a nearby pier and walk.

Captain Riccardo and Judah did a great job with us. They worked hard, got us on fish and scored…read more Awesome job, looking forward to getting back on the water with Trinarcia again. Thanks for a great day on the water.

I get nervous in the water whether it's on a boat or swimming...only because I can't swim and I…read morehave anxiety. My family and I had so much fun on Rick's boat. His boat is clean and steady. We went lobster fishing. The boat is so steady, it wasn't rocking around too much. Rick gave us each a job to do. One was to record how many lobsters in the trap, which were keepers and which we had to throw back because it was either female (breeder) or too small. I had the job of measuring the lobster for size. Rick taught us that if it's a breeder, you clip the tail to indicate that it's a breeder. My sister in law was recording the number caught in each trap. My brother in law helped with steering the boat (he has a boat too.) My husband helped with gathering the lobster trap with a pole. I didn't know pig skin is used as bait. Although I was nervous, Rick kept me busy with putting bands on the lobster claws. I became an expert at it. At the end of the day, Rick put our catch on the grill. Let me tell you, grilled lobsters are the best! Especially when it's fresh out of the ocean. There was also a small crab in the catch too. I had forgotten about being nervous in the boat. Definitely book a trip with Rick, he makes boating fun! Even for people with anxiety being in the water. I want to go boating again with Rick this summer! I'm not anxious with Rick. He's great! Maybe this time I'll learn to fish!

I highly recommend Boston Electric Boats. We had a great experience…read more We went on Father's Day and had a great time. Patrick was fantastic to work with and very accommodating. Timmy was very professional. We will definitely be back.

Awesome 3 outings so far with Boston Electric Boats. Great to have this as an affordable and…read moreavailable activity on the harbor for a group. Super easy to drive, Bluetooth music works and sounds great, parking in lot or garage nearby is straightforward. Bring your own food and drinks and enjoy the water rain or shine for a few hours with their covered deck.

Charlie, Hannah and Eric were amazing. Great fun, great service and lots of fun. This is worth your…read moretime in Boston!

My son and I took the Harbor Cruise on the Patriot yesterday to see the Tall Ships in Boston…read moreHarbor. The boat holds a maximum of 25 passengers, and therefore, is a very calm environment for the tour. It is also a comfortable boat. Eric, who was manning the wheeel, got us as close as possible to each ship and navigated safely in a busy harbor. The crew was great. Do yourself a favor and book a cruise with them!

ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! There are so many reasons why Don and his business are terrible, that I think…read moreit's easier to bullet them out for you! - Booked and fully paid for a six-hour trip 1.5 months in advanced. - Don then ignored all messages, texts, and emails up until 2 DAYS BEFFORE THE TRIP, at which time HE WAS TRYING TO CANCEL THE TRIP! - We had 12 folks total, with some flying into Boston for this day! - After saying cancelling is not an option for our group, Don refused to give us our original trip of 1 pm - 7 pm. He would only give us 10 am - 2 pm because he had other parties booked for our time that he'd rather not upset. - When we booked, it stated food, beer, and liquor beverages included in our package, then Don tried to say this was not included once I got him on the phone. We had to fight back on this too. Just an awful experience. We finally decide to do the four-hour trip between 10 am - 2 pm vs our original six-hour trip between 1 pm - 7 pm because it was that or nothing, and the group had been looking forward to this day for months! Then Don shows up late on the day of the trip. And then he docks early and tells us to get off the boat before it's even 2pm. Also, the food was maybe enough for 6 people, not 12. And there were NO liquors as we were told there would be after our fighting about all the other wrong things happening -- just a cooler of beers. Perhaps he was saving the food and liquor for the parties he preferred to take on the water (his words, not mine). Apparently one party was a repeat customer and the other party was a bachelorette party so, forget about us booking 1.5 months in advance - we were just super unimportant. Don knows he messed up and admitted to such. He said the only way he would take us on the water (even though HE TRIED TO CANCEL and gave us a hard time) was if I promised not to give him a bad review. I did promise to not give a bad review IF for the two days leading up to our trip if he actually did what he said he was going to do. Well, he did not, so here is my review. And on top of all the things I've already listed about him being late for our modified trip, not giving us the appropriate food and beverages, not communicating, etc. he was also just a straight jerk to us, his dog, and his staff. DON'T BOOK THIS GUY!!!!

Based on Phone Call:…read more Called to inquire about a boat rental - Owner seemed incredibly skeptical after I mentioned having grown up on a boat but not having any recent driving experience. He wanted proof of boat operation knowledge. How does one prove knowledge over the phone? He asked if I know how dock a boat. Yes, I do. Sigh. It's not rocket science to drive a small motor boat. He basically decided within a 3 minute conversation that I am not capable of driving his boat. I assume plenty of goofballs have made him this way, but now we won't be renting from him. Pretty disappointing. I

If you are an adult looking to learn to sail you have much better options, Please don't waste your…read moretime or money at Courageous Sailing. If you want to learn the basics of sailing at a fraction of the cost of courageous just check out Community Boating on the Charles River, it is only $275-445 for the entire year. With this you will have access to Mercury, laser, 420 (race boats), ideal 18, sonars & windsurfing. With courageous the learn to sail is scheduled for 2 weekends (4 days) with Community the classes are being held all the time and you can take them whenever you want, so you can avoid cold rainy days, and take the classes with different wind conditions (light, med, high) as many times as you want for no charge, unless its an advanced class which is only $50. When I took my learn to sail at courageous it was cold, rainy with fairly large waves. One of the people I took the class with actually started to cry. This is a non issue with Community because if the conditions are awful just come another day. After 1-2 years at community, if you like sailing you can go to a real adult school if you want to level up your sailing skills. Note the internal ratings at community and courageous have little to no value at other sailing organizations. If you are serious about sailing you need to build up your ASA certifications especially ASA 101,103 and 104, there are many ASA schools and you can take classes at different schools all across the country, Caribbean & world. Once you are ASA certified these credentials will follow you to other ASA schools & organizations. Once you reach ASA 104 you can apply for a type of international license. Also note that community has a much nicer facility and dock with actual restrooms with a shower. At Courageous they have portable toilets, no shower and 2 outdoor sinks which almost never have soap. These are the same sinks the staff preparing the cookout food uses. Also note that the traffic on the Charles is much safer vs the harbor, in the harbor you will run into huge tug boats and huge freight ships. On the Charles the boats need to pass under the bridges, so the biggest boats there are duck boats and some small/medium sized tour boats. Actual ASA alternatives to Courageous are First Reef Sailing in East Boston, one of the owners is Capt Paul Sullivan 5 time outstanding ASA instructor, they have the best learn to sail boat in the Boston Area Colgate 26, unlike Courageous the motors actually work & are reliable. If you are a student you can get a Colgate membership for 2K which I think they allow you to share with other members so better boat & may be less expensive vs Courageous also once you achieve 104 status (can do in one year) there is no range limit you just need to be back by sunset. They also offer memberships on cruisers & catamarans, these cost more like 10 K but you can also share those memberships. These are new boats almost everything works on them unlike courageous, And you can go on multi day to week long trips. Another ASA alternative is Reef Runner in Friendship Maine, one of the instructors there is 4 time outstanding instructor, its pretty close to Arcadia National Park. They are less expensive than Courageous and they quality of the instruction is vastly superior. Once you pass a class in an ASA school your log book will be signed by the captain, you will also receive an official stamp for your log book from ASA and the results will be uploaded to ASA so all other ASA organization globally will see your rating. Another tip is no matter where you sail keep a log book on the miles & a brief description of the trip

Primary fleet is a bunch of old Rhodes 19 boats that are falling apart. It's incredibly…read moredisorganized and understaffed. Focus on the youth program, which is really good, however the adult program suffers by lack of attention Even the larger boats 4 J80s frequently mean maintenance and are under maintained. They wait for people to donate boats to them so the cost is low, but you get what you pay for.