If you have dreams of sailing around the world, you don’t need to look far in this region, with North Shore Reaching Sailing School just a skip away at Meyer’s Pier in Belleville.
Teaching sailing courses for all levels – and an American Sailing Association (ASE) and Transport Canada Certified Sailing School – owner and chief instructor Andy McCabe is also a multi-year, award-winning ASA instructor.
“We were incorporated in 2017, started teaching in 2018, (and) this is our eighth season coming up,” explains McCabe.
Despite the American reference, the school is 100 per cent Canadian-owned and operated.
McCabe founded the school in 2017, originally at a privately-run marina in Brighton, which was “a great launching point” when first starting out, and with the McCabes living just 10 minutes away.
Sailing has been a passion for McCabe since he was a teen. After a 35-year career as a paramedic, this school was his post-retirement venture.
The ASA teaching is to accommodate the majority of clients who come from all over the province and beyond and have dreams of sailing off to distant horizons worldwide, and this is considered one of the top two sailing education standards recognized internationally, explains McCabe.
McCabe says deep ties remain with the community.
“Everything we do is local …”
This includes when it comes to employing local staff – the school’s other instructor also calls Brighton home. What’s more, McCabe says this applies to provisioning local, supporting area supermarkets, or when parts, repairs or maintenance are needed for the boats, as just a few examples.
Below you can hear more from McCabe about services, the move, and how the school continues to prioritize community.
