Tampa Bay · Ruskin
Veteran-owned ASA school at Little Harbor Marina on Tampa Bay's Ruskin shore, teaching 101 through Advanced Coastal plus celestial navigation in classes capped at four. The lead instructor is a four-time ASA Instructor of the Year.
Flagship was founded in 1998 by the late Captain Gardner Lloyd, an ASA Instructor Examiner, and stays veteran owned and operated from Little Harbor Marina on the Ruskin shore of Tampa Bay: the quiet southeast corner of the bay, with open water minutes from the slip.
The pathway runs deeper than most Florida schools carry it. Basic Keelboat (101) is a three-day course, Basic Coastal Cruising (103) four days, Bareboat Cruising (104) four days and three nights aboard, and Advanced Coastal Cruising (106) runs as a liveaboard cruise of five days to two weeks. Past that sit Coastal Navigation (105), Celestial Navigation (107) with its endorsement (117), and docking (118). Classes cap at four students and usually run two or three, on instructor-owned cruising boats.
The instruction is the credential. Lead instructor Captain George “Nordie” Norwood holds a USCG 100-ton Master’s license, ASA Master Instructor status, four ASA Instructor of the Year awards, and thirty years flying fighters for the Air Force. The school’s signature is its multi-day offshore training cruises in the Gulf, with departures already scheduled into 2027, and veterans get ten percent off through ASA’s Veterans Sailing Education Program.
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