My friend is a member of Boston Sailing Center and I love that he can take me along. Sailing in…read moreBoston Harbor is a wonderful experience. The COVID summer of 2020 limits vacation options. The COVID measures are good. Masks until you are out and about.

I took a 5-Day Learn to Sail Lessons, I was with just one person so it was almost a "private"…read morealready. The staff on reception are very helpful. The boats are clean and in good working condition. We have 3 instructors total, Chris was amazing!!! Brad was funny and made us comfortable on our 4th day (Whole Day) Sail and taught us practical methods so we could sail on our own comfortably.

Amazing! So fun! Saw parts of Boston that we wouldn't otherwise see any got to raise the sail!read more

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!

This is a review just for kayaking:…read more On a beautiful Sunday, we wanted to kayak. We first went to another sailing pavilion that was unfortunately closed and then tried Community Boating. The office / guest services area inside is pretty well staffed and they have bathrooms and lockers so seemed promising. Unfortunately after you pay it becomes clear the main intent of this place is sailing. If you want to do anything else, do not come here. I had to chase multiple people down for us to get assistance with getting paddles and we had to go out into the water on our own with little to no direction. In the end, we didn't even get to spend the full 2 hours you pay for out on the water because it took so long to get setup on our own. Don't come here for anything but sailing!

Love this place, and love that Boston supports it. Great time getting out on the water with my wife…read morein a 2-man kayak. It'd be nice to be able to go further than between the bridges, but for a quick spin it was perfect.

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.

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.

My family were on the Cocoa and Carols Holiday Cruise in Boston. Great atmosphere including music…read morebeing played by live band. Cocoa station was a nice set up. Views of City were nice as well

pretty chill~ could always see airplanes flying above us. Nice crew people who introduced the…read moreplaces we passed by.

Awesome experience. If you want to learn to sail, this is the place to go. Expert instruction,…read morepatient coaching, and a safe place to learn.

Amazing experience learning to sail with First Reef! I had zero sailing experience prior to the ASA…read more101 course, Captain Paul was very clear and thorough in teaching the various subjects. This class had 6 students and we were split into two groups for the sailing portion of the days. After looking into the different sailing schools around here, my husband and I landed on First Reef and we are both very happy that we did. We will also be taking the ASA 103, 104, & 105 courses here.

Summer break trip to Boston and of course we had to try the tall ship cruise by the Boston harbor…read more This is a 1.5 hours time cruising out into the harbor...passing the airport, terminal, Castle Island, and around the Spectacle Island. We went for the late afternoon time slot because it rained a little bit in the morning. Luckily no more rain in late afternoon and while the weather was cool and cloudy, we still enjoyed the ride. Nice view and relaxing. Our boat wasn't packed with people so I think that also made a difference where folks were spread out sitting around the tall ship. The captain and 2 crews were professional and friendly. They offered a complimentary drink if you would like one. Note that this is not a historical tour. But if you want a relaxing ride to enjoy the harbor view, give them a try.

We had a group of 4 people. Fortunately, we lined up early to board so we were able to sit…read more Unfortunately, the boat doesn't have seats for everyone so people had to stand for the 2.5 hours. The distance we traveled was not too much so overall we wouldn't recommend as we were expecting to leave the harbor area.

We had a good experience with charles river cruise in our recent trip to Boston. The boat dock was…read morenext to a shopping mall with access to restroom, dining options and various shops. The receptionist was friendly. The tour guide was phenomenal. Bearing a great, easygoing and a bit sarcastic personality, she was engaging, knowledgeable, funny and honest about her delivery. I learned a few things about the city and the famous schools from her personal opinion. Very steady and peaceful ride. Clean and well-maintained boat with a bar. Be mindful it's hot inside the boat with the scorching sun in PM so bring water, sun screen and hat, dress lightly. It was our second day in town our bodies still adjusted humidity and heat, I felt I was about to get a heat stroke. It'd be nice if they consider AC operated boat in the future.

We took the 90-minute Charles River Tour Cruise on Friday, August 1st--our first time using Charles…read moreRiver Boat Company. The views were nice, but the experience turned sour quickly due to a lack of passenger care and extremely poor customer service. Halfway through the ride, we were filming the scenery at the front of the boat when, without warning, the captain blasted an incredibly loud horn as a "greeting" to another boat far in the distance. It was completely unnecessary, and the sudden, deafening sound startled everyone around us. I almost dropped my phone into the water. We went inside for the rest of the trip because we no longer felt safe or relaxed. Later that day, we emailed the company with our concerns and offered to send them the video showing exactly what happened. They didn't care. Instead, the Director of Operations, Gibson Cushman, dismissed our complaint, quoted Coast Guard rules (irrelevant in this case), and refused a refund. He offered a credit for another cruise, which felt like a cop-out since we're not local. His response made everything worse--tone-deaf, defensive, and full of excuses. He even tried to blame us, saying passengers should expect loud horns at any time. I had ringing in my ear for 48 hours--if we'd known something like this might happen, we could've worn ear protection. Overall, it was a stressful and disappointing experience. Their focus clearly isn't on guest satisfaction or safety--only on covering themselves. We won't be returning and wouldn't recommend them to others.

The family and I had an amazing time on Artemis sailing with Captain Rick and his wife Deb. What…read morean amazing experience to sail on such a beautiful yacht and with such wonderful people. If you've never sailed or are an experienced sailor, you will truly enjoy this great experience and discover Gloucester and the surrounding area. This sailing yacht is super stable, fast and fun. Make new friends, new experiences and memories! Sail Artemis!

From the owner: Set sail for an unforgettable experience aboard ARTEMIS, a 65-foot high-performance sailing yacht…read moreoffering luxury sailing tours along the stunning coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Meal included. Maximum of 6 guests. Daysails, sunset sails and more. Enjoy 3-hour or 4-hour excursions for 1-6 passengers featuring breathtaking coastal views, smooth sailing, and farm-to-table meals that elevate your journey. Departing from Historic Gloucester, you’ll have the chance to explore ports like Marblehead, Salem, and Beverly, soaking in the beauty of New England’s waters. With 45 years of combined boating experience, Captain Rick & Deb Miles ensure a safe, comfortable, and truly special adventure. Whether you’re looking for relaxation, exploration, or an elevated sailing experience, ARTEMIS is the perfect choice. Contact us today to plan your custom voyage and experience sailing at its finest! Learn more at Artemissails.com