About Us

Welcome to Boat Life Academy

We’re Lucy and Matt, and we founded Boat Life Academy to give you the confidence to enjoy your first year of cruising.

We met as teenagers at flight school. Learning to fly an airplane is easy compared to learning how to cruise! Sure, there’s a lot that goes into flying an airplane. You have to learn weather, systems, radio usage, navigation, and then put it all together. However, schools and universities across the globe expertly train and equip pilots.

The cruising community doesn’t have a formal, accredited degree program or an intense in-person system. As a result, new boaters and cruisers are left to piece together each skill by themselves. It can feel like you are reinventing the wheel.

Loneliness was another problem we faced when learning to cruise. We couldn’t share our five-year plan with our coworkers, and even if we could, not everyone understands or “gets it.” We founded the Boat Life Academy, so you don’t have to go alone. Take a course, learn a skill, and connect with other learners. We’re here to support you every step of the way.

We left the world of higher education and career-type jobs for the same reasons that many people do. We knew there had to be more to life than endless commutes and work meetings. We wanted to live our lives before we were too old to enjoy it. So we traded the security of our careers for the adventure of going sailing.

However, the first year of cruising is grueling, and it can feel overwhelming without learning a few skills and having a strong community to cheer you on.

Today, we’re meeting more and more cruisers who sold it all to live their dream. We love it, and we love making new friends. But many new cruisers are stressed and unprepared to deal with weather, navigate successfully, and keep the faith when the boat humiliates you once again.

Most of Boat Life Academy’s courses are designed to help new cruisers master the first year of living on a boat. The purpose is crystal clear—to help boaters enjoy it a little bit more. We aim to give people a place to learn what they need to know without any BS.

In addition to courses, which include engaging videos, text, photos, and easy quizzes, we’re also building a community of like-minded boaters who want answers to their questions. The Boat Life Project community provides the mentorship element of teaching. It’s a safe space where you can ask anything. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll figure out how to find out for you. So let’s leave the trash talk to those other groups and forums!

 

With a bit of structure and a little fun, we think we can make you more confident taking the helm and setting course for anywhere you’d like to go. 

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