I've been super interested in sailing since moving to San Francisco and running around the marinas/Embarcadero.

Did some digging and found a sailing school that I haven't asked about classes (yet) https://www.spinnaker-sailing.com

There's even a school that offers boatbuilding lessons in Sausalito -- a bit too far/much of a time commitment for me! https://www.spauldingcenter.org/current-offerings

My sailing buddies and I are always asking each other, “why is sailing dying”? Sailing is a very self selecting sport. People generally love it or leave it very quickly. We are in the “love it” camp, and we are always super excited to take people that are curious about sailing out sailing. I would strongly suggest not taking classes. Just get on a boat. It is hilarious how easy it is to find a sailor that will take you out. And if you enjoy that experience, people are always looking for crew to help them sail their boat. So I’d suggest your next step would then be that. You’ll learn so much faster going out for Wednesday night races at your local club. You’ll learn both how to sail and whether you even enjoy it. A lot of places even have a “crew seat” where you literally show up, not knowing anyone, and people see you sitting there and ask your qualifications and if they have room on their boat and are comfortable with the match, take you, a complete newbie and stranger, out sailing.

Classes make it easy feel like you’ve learned “levels” of sailing or to feel like you could rent a boat in the Caribbean. But, they hide a lot of what sailing is really about. Maintenance, rigging, de-rigging, showing up for no wind, learning the rules of sailing, etc, etc. They also miss out on one of the most amazing aspects of sailing: community. Learning from other sailors is key. You’ll borrow parts from (and lend to) other sailors. You’ll help organize races for them and they for you.

Sailing is a beautiful, beautiful lifelong endeavor that I wish everyone could be exposed to and pursue if they’d like to. Look up your local yacht club or Hobie / beach cat fleet or other sailing club and just ask if you can get a ride. Show up early, listen and do what you’re asked, be polite, stay until the boat is totally put away, and repeat. Try different boats with different clubs and people eventually.

Eventually, maybe take a class (RYA not ASA) to formalize your knowledge or fill in the gaps. You’ll clearly know what they are at that point. Eventually maybe buy your own boat, or do as many people do, just keep crewing. Truly good crew are really rare and boat owners will love and appreciate you.

I think you’ll love it.

There are many sailing schools around SF, but one that stands out is https://www.cal-sailing.org/ - as it's by far the least expensive and low-commitment option to get on the water, and they have dinghies in which you'll learn very fast (but also get wet). Instructors are regular volunteer club members and mileage may vary, so make sure to go out with a few different ones.

Another good way to get started is to find crewing opportunities for casual racing on https://www.latitude38.com/crew-list-home/. Many skippers will take no-experience folks out for fun. (It may take a couple of attempts to find a skipper/crew you enjoy hanging out with)

My buddy has a 36' Pearson in the Berkeley marina, sometimes we bring folks out with us.

You can also join the Berkeley Yacht Club (BYC) without a boat, it's not too expensive. There's a bar and social events, good way to meet sailors with boats in the marina and go sailing on a variety of them. They hold races in the bay pretty often, and are sometimes desperate for able bodied ballast.

Spinnaker might be great - I don't know them - but if you're in the market for sailing lessons in SF Bay I can highly, highly recommend Club Nautique out of Alameda[1].

The quality of instruction is very high, with a focus on safety and building a strong foundation of knowledge. Especially if you ever might want to charter in remote locations or sail across oceans, it's really an excellent foundation.

[1]https://www.clubnautique.net/school/introduction-to-sailing/

If you have the space the best way to learn how to sail is just buy a cheap dinghy and take it out as much as you can. While you’re looking for a dinghy just read a book on theory. Something like a laser is the ideal platform to learn on and you can go out in the bay and check out Angel island and other fun stuff like that. If you want to get more experience with things besides pure sailing then just crew someone’s boat for free. When you’re done, sell your dinghy, get your money back, and buy yourself a sloop. This is pretty much how I learned how to sail.

School is fine too but you’ll realize that you’re mainly just paying for access to the dinghy anyways. The instructor isn’t going to teach you anything that’s not in a book or that you won’t learn crewing someone else’s boat.

Hope you have fun though with whatever you decide

I never ended up on a real-sized sailboat. But, I had fun on a little Sunfish as a teenager. They are nice because you can reasonably learn to sail them over the course of a couple days, and if you flip the boat over you can probably right it without too much drama. Just don’t bonk your head.

Other people have echoed the same advice, I’ll add to it.

Take enough of a learn to sail class that you understand the basic theory —- I took one at my local yacht club.

Then, find a racing fleet! Racing boats need crew weight to help the boat sail towards the wind (so you can be useful while you are still learning), and not all the jobs require as much sailing knowledge as others (my first job was to pull the free end of the line while someone was winching in the sail).

Skippers value consistency —- the boat can’t race without a crew, so literally just reliably showing up is a valuable thing.

Cal Sailing is a good way to get on the water and learn the basics. You can learn dinghies, keel boats and windsurfing. After you're comfortable with basic keel boat crewing, you can probably get a ride on a boat in the Friday night beer races at the BYC. I started at Cal Sailing and eventually raced at the Rolex Big Boat Series at the St. Francis.

Larry Ellison started at Cal Sailing and Lowell North was dinghy chair in its previous incarnation as a UC Berkeley club.

Goofy fun place.

Cal Sailing Club is a great way to start. You'll learn more quickly on dinghies than keelboats and the skills will benefit your entire sailing career as you move on to bigger boats.

Also check out the Friday night races at Berkeley Yacht Club. Skippers always need crew so it's pretty easy to get a ride. Just hang out at the gate between 5 and 6pm with your gear and say hi!

https://www.berkeleyyc.org/racing

There is an after-school boat building thing that just started up in crane cove Park too

There are a ton of opportunities at South Beach Marina