Instructional Catamaran Charter in La Paz
A private sailing vacation in the Sea of Cortez with hands-on instruction
Introducing Go Now™
Go Now combines a private Sea of Cortez catamaran charter with hands-on instruction from Capt. Marc Hughston, one of the West Coast’s highest student-rated instructors, with extensive catamaran and Sea of Cortez charter experience. You’re on a real charter vacation with family or friends, with Marc teaching throughout the charter and helping you understand how a week aboard actually works.
- Enjoy a private Sea of Cortez catamaran vacation with family or friends.
- Take an active role in handling the yacht and making the week’s decisions.
- Build practical experience you can use on future catamaran charters of your own.
How involved you get is up to you. If you want to spend much of the week working on catamaran handling, anchoring, navigation, systems, and planning, Marc can lean into that. If you want a more relaxed vacation, the instruction can fit around the trip. Other people in your group can join in as much or as little as they like.
Co-developed by NauticEd and The Moorings, Go Now is designed to help you gain practical experience for future charters as you enjoy a sailing vacation in truly exceptional destinations. Santana Sailing, a NauticEd Flagship School in La Paz, implements Go Now with catamarans from The Moorings in La Paz.
The Catamaran Experience
For new boaters or sailors coming from monohulls, a cruising catamaran can feel very different. The wider beam, twin engines, close-quarters maneuvering, and more complex onboard systems all take some getting used to.
During the charter, Marc can get you involved in the parts that matter for future catamaran trips — handling the boat, anchoring, sail trim, systems, dinghy operations, and managing water and electrical power over the week. At the same time, you still get the space and comfort that make a catamaran such a great option for a vacation with family or friends.
Ready to explore a Go Now™ charter?
Tell us a little about your goals and trip ideas. We will follow up to help you explore the right fit. No commitment required.
What is a Go Now Instructional Charter?
It’s simple: a bucket-list destination, ideal sailing conditions, and a rewarding experience with expert instruction. You will advance your skills and see new possibilities open up while enjoying a real Moorings yacht charter.
Go Now charter is your private yacht vacation with instruction built into the week. It is not a by-the-cabin sailing course, there is no fixed curriculum, and it is not an intense training course. Marc teaches through what the charter actually requires, while everyone in your group can participate as much or as little as they want.
The goal is to enjoy the Sea of Cortez while getting a better feel for how chartering works before you take on a boat of your own.
- Learn from Capt. Marc Hughston, with extensive catamaran, instructional, and Sea of Cortez experience.
- Plan the day and make real cruising decisions.
- Handle, maneuver, anchor, and manage a cruising catamaran.
- Learn the rhythm of a full charter week before taking one on yourself.
Why La Paz and the Sea of Cortez?
A Top Sailing and Vacation Destination
Easy travel from the West Coast, a peaceful waterfront city, and the coves, beaches, desert islands, and marine life of the Sea of Cortez have made La Paz one of our favorite places to sail.
Current nonstop service from Los Angeles (LAX) makes La Paz especially accessible for Southern California sailors. The Moorings operates from Marina CostaBaja, a full-service charter base before you head out into the islands.
Once you leave La Paz, the charter becomes more remote and exploratory. Much of the week is spent around desert islands, quiet coves, beaches, and anchorages rather than developed marina stops. Anchoring is a major part of the week, and choices about weather, anchorages, distance, and where to spend the night become part of running the boat.
The Moorings rates La Paz as a Level 3 destination for independent bareboat skippers, its highest experience category. That makes it a particularly useful place to build experience with those decisions while Marc is aboard, before taking full responsibility for them yourself.
From West Coast Sailing to a Sea of Cortez Charter
Take what you already know and put it to work on a full charter week.
If you live or sail in Southern California or elsewhere on the West Coast, much of what you already know comes with you. What changes on a weeklong charter is the scale of the boat and the responsibility that comes with living aboard and managing it day after day.
Marc and Santana Sailing works with sailors in Long Beach and throughout Southern California, as well as in the Sea of Cortez. That gives him a good feel for the transition from local sailing into a larger cruising catamaran, unfamiliar waters, overnight anchorages, yacht systems, and the decisions involved in running a charter for a full week.
If you want to build more experience before the trip, Santana Sailing can also work with you locally in Southern California.
Who Should Book a Go Now Instructional Charter?
Go Now can work for first-time charterers and experienced sailors alike. The common thread is wanting to understand catamaran chartering better without taking full responsibility for the yacht from day one.
Aspiring Bareboat Charterers
For new boaters and sailors who want to charter on their own in the future and want experience with how a full charter week actually works first.
Sailors New to Catamarans
For monohull sailors or boaters who want to become comfortable with the handling, systems, space, and routines of a cruising catamaran.
You Want a More Exploratory Charter
If the idea of leaving the marina behind for desert islands, quiet coves, beaches, and nights at anchor appeals to you, La Paz is a strong fit. Much of the week is spent away from developed stops, with the yacht becoming your base for exploring the Sea of Cortez.
Families, Couples, and Friends
For groups who want a real Sea of Cortez vacation even if only one or two people want to be highly involved in the instructional side.
What Happens Next?
Start with a conversation.
Tell us a little about your boating experience, group, preferred dates, and what you want from the trip. Marc can talk through the instructional side and help determine whether the La Paz Go Now experience is a good fit.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before you inquire. There’s no commitment — just a conversation about what might work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a private catamaran charter or a group sailing course?
It’s a private catamaran charter for your own family or group, with instruction built into the vacation. You charter the whole yacht – it is not a by-the-cabin course, flotilla, or fixed-curriculum sailing school.
Capt. Marc shapes the instruction around your experience, goals, and how involved you want to be. One person may spend much of the week working with Marc while everyone else joins in occasionally or simply enjoys the Sea of Cortez.
Do I need previous catamaran or sailing experience?
No. You do not need previous catamaran experience simply to take the charter with Marc aboard.
If you are new to catamarans, you can get comfortable with the handling, twin engines, anchoring, onboard systems, and day-to-day routines of a cruising catamaran. If you already sail monohulls or smaller boats, Marc can spend more time on what is different about chartering a larger catamaran.
What will I actually learn on a Go Now catamaran charter with Capt. Marc?
What you work on depends on your experience, the weather, and what happens during the charter. You may spend time planning the day, choosing anchorages, adjusting the itinerary as conditions change, navigating unfamiliar waters, handling the dinghy, and getting comfortable maneuvering a larger cruising catamaran.
You’ll also see the less obvious side of chartering: provisioning, yacht checkout, managing water and electrical power, onboard systems, cooking and living aboard, and dealing with the small problems that come up during a week on the boat. Marc teaches these things as they happen, rather than working through a fixed lesson plan.
Is La Paz a good charter destination for Southern California and West Coast sailors?
Yes. For sailors in Southern California and elsewhere on the West Coast, La Paz can be a natural step from local sailing into a full week aboard a cruising catamaran.
The Sea of Cortez also offers a very different kind of sailing vacation: desert islands, quiet coves, beaches, marine life, and nights at anchor away from developed marina stops.
For Santana students, there is another advantage: Marc understands the boats and sailing experience many Southern California sailors are coming from, as well as the larger catamarans and charter routines they will encounter in La Paz.
Can I train with Marc in Long Beach or Southern California before my Sea of Cortez charter?
Yes. Santana Sailing provides on-water instruction in Long Beach and Southern California, so you can work with Marc locally before heading to La Paz if additional practice would be useful.
That might mean sharpening boat-handling skills, working on a specific experience gap, or simply spending more time on the water before moving into a larger cruising catamaran and a weeklong charter.
Why do a Go Now catamaran charter with Capt. Marc Hughston?
Marc brings together catamaran experience, years of instruction, and extensive Sea of Cortez sailing and charter experience. He is also one of NauticEd’s highest student-rated instructors.
That combination matters because chartering is about more than handling the boat. Choosing where to anchor, watching the weather, planning the next leg, managing the yacht over several days, and knowing when to change the plan are all part of a successful charter week.
Marc teaches those decisions as they actually come up.
The Moorings rates La Paz as a Level 3 destination. Is it too difficult for a first instructional charter?
Not necessarily. The Moorings Level 3 rating is particularly relevant to someone planning to skipper a bareboat independently.
A Go Now charter is different because Marc is aboard with you. That lets you gain experience with anchoring, weather, route planning, changing conditions, and other Sea of Cortez charter decisions before you are responsible for handling all of them on your own.
For many sailors, that is part of the value of learning here.
What kind of catamaran will we charter, and what does it cost?
Go Now La Paz charters with Marc are built around a Moorings catamaran, subject to yacht and date availability.
The right boat depends on your group size, cabin needs, dates, budget, comfort preferences, and what you want from the charter. There is no single fixed Go Now price because you are booking a private yacht charter rather than a packaged sailing course.
NauticEd helps work through the available yacht and charter options, while Marc and Santana Sailing provide the local instructional experience.
Is Go Now a Santana Sailing program?
Go Now is NauticEd’s instructional-charter program. In La Paz, NauticEd helps arrange the yacht charter through The Moorings and coordinates the Go Now trip, while Capt. Marc Hughston and Santana Sailing provide the instructional charter experience.
The result is a private Sea of Cortez charter vacation with a qualified instructor aboard, rather than a separate sailing-school course.
Training You Can Trust
Our Commitment to Your Sailing Competence: We really want you to have the skills - we know that you do too. So when you continue training with us through Skipper Large Keelboat level, you will be ready to charter a boat on your own or we’ll invite you back for more training, free of charge. That’s our commitment.
See all the details at Commitment To Sailing Competence. Limitations apply.
American National Standard - Sail
Our training methodology meets the U.S. Coast Guard's prescribed On-Water Recreational Boating Skills Standard – SAIL, the newly released 2017 American National Standard for on-water instruction in entry-level recreational sailboat operation.
Professional Sailing Instruction
Santana Sailing's instructors are extraordinarily well-qualified: experienced, mature, trained to American National and International Standards, and assessed to the highest standards and expectations in recreational sailing.
Trust through verification: please feel welcome to read Santana Sailing's student reviews ›
NauticEd Flagship School
Santana Sailing offers fully-accredited NauticEd Training and Certification. NauticEd is the international leader in sailing education and certification, which affords our students the best educational resources and certification in the United States as well as abroad when sailing internationally.
Phone: (949) 939 8123
Email: setsail@santanasailing.com
Mailing Address: 65 S Pine Ave Ste 114, Long Beach, CA 90802
Marina Address: 450 E Shoreline Dr, Long Beach, CA 90802