J World Performance Sailing - San Diego - San Diego, California

Stephan T.

Jodie and I took 2 days of performance/privat sailing with Wayne Zittel aboard a J105. Wayne was an excellent teacher in the classroom and at sea. Extremely experienced and knowledgeable but also a great communicator. We will work with him again and would recommend him to anyone looking to be a better sailor.

Brett D.

J/world is a top notch sailing center. I've been sailing in various capacities for over 30 years since I was a kid. I hadn't been sailing consistently enough for the last 5 and wanted to brush up on some hard skills before chartering a catamaran in the Caribbean for my honeymoon. Huge shout out to Wayne for being so welcoming, Suzie in the back office for arranging everything, and of course Austin for some truly top notch instruction all weekend.

I opted to fly down from the Bay Area to San Diego specifically to get instruction from J/world. The schools in the bay either require an expensive membership prior to instruction, or don't disclose the boats they use, and general information is lacking on their websites.

Not J/world. They put everything out there and take great care of all their boats - all J/boats of course. For any new sailors - J/boats are some of the best built modern production racer or racer/cruisers on the planet. No beat up 40+ year old rigs held together by duct tape here. You will be learning on modern, extremely strong, high quality, and properly laid out sailboats that are very well maintained.

J/world was able to customize course instruction for me based on my knowledge and skillset. They did a great job evaluating my abilities and providing great knowledge/coursework reviews while revisiting, refining, and pushing my boat handling skills.

Despite having a long standing history of sailing, I probably learned and accomplished more in two very full days with J/world than I did in all prior instruction.

I can't recommend these guys enough, I look forward to coming back for more advanced training, and my wife is excited to get dialed in on the basics!

Conroy W.

This team is incredible! Everyone was so patient, knowledgable, professional, and kind.

I did the "zero to hero" path of going from no sailing experience to earning a bareboat charter certification in 10 days! It was intense, but totally doable. I took the classes in Puerto Vallarta which is an *amazing* place to learn, since the bay here always has great wind, and the coast has lots of amazing little towns to explore.

If you've ever wondered if liveaboard sailing is for you, I highly suggest doing a multi-day cruise with them. You'll get a realistic feeling for what it's like to be on the water for an extended period of time. Believe me, it's even better than you imagine it to be 🙂

If you're just interested in the mechanics of sailing, their basic keelboat classes are unique in that they use tiny little JBoat sailboats which are essentially the equivalent of Ducati motorcycles, so you feel every single shift in the wind or adjustments you make to the rigging. It's a seriously good way to begin internalizing the principles of sailing which are the same whether you're on a 24 foot racing boat, or a 70 foot catamaran.

This group follows the US Sailing certification course which I have no complaints about. If you want to switch to ASA or RYA later, I think you can always test out of those levels, so don't get caught up too much in which certification route to take, just go out and spend time on the water!

Thank you to Suzie, Paul, John, and Wayne for being so amazing, and for helping me take such a significant step towards my dream!

Kenneth R.

Wonderful experience with J World Performance Sailing. My instructor Randall was excellent, professional, wealth of knowledge, patient and communicated soundly as we maneuvered through various scenarios. Signed up for a 2 day training session, Advanced Boat Handling. On the water 90% of the time, worked on different sailing techniques that really helped my understanding and assisted me in being more confident. One thing that I really wanted to do was sail with a Spinnaker, never did that before, Randall ensured me would do that and that we did. Pre and Post Briefings before and after sailing were very helpful. I'll be back.

John O.

My sailing buddy and I came back for the second year yo do the performance sailing week either J-World. Last year was great. April 2024 was better again.
This performance week is a perfect blend of class room information and discussion followed by 4 -5 hours o the water in a J-80. If you want to bring your sailing and boat handling skills to the next level then maybe this is exactly what you need. Wayne and his team at J-World are superb at helping everyone to improve their sailing techniques. We also found that the comradery among the participants was excellent.

John T.

Took the Learn to Sail, Performance Cruising, and Intro to Sailboat Racing courses in San Diego this winter. Learned so much from the instructors David and Collin and had a lot of fun on the water. I think that anyone who wants to learn more about sailing or racing should consider taking classes with J World. I am already planning to take more courses in the future and I am looking forward to applying what I’ve learned when I get on the water this summer.

Nicholas H.

Just finished the Yachting Cup Clinic and Regatta; the best week of sailing and sailing instruction that I have attended in the last 35 years. I have circled the date for 2018 as I am tempted to return to do it again next year. Thanks to our instructors and the quality of the other students in our boat, it was a super five days.

Don L.

I am very experienced sailor, mostly racing, and have come back to racing after kids. I took the 5 day J 80 class. Patrick, Paul and Jenna were the very best. They are calm ,kool and great under pressure. We had 6 students with great, fun racing. I had some new J80 racing already under me but learned a lot. The pre sailing lectures are prefect. The location is great, close to slip, so much fun with Navy and downtown views but not to busy to effect racing, added benefit .
Don