Expanding Colgate school sells folks on sailing, SWFL
"The "Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel" soon should be a familiar phrase to people attending Steve & Doris Colgate's Offshore Sailing School at its newest location that opened last month in lower Manhattan.
Indeed, even office workers and residents of high-rises near North Cove Marina and Brookfield Place in Battery Park City, should know the name.
That's because the Lee County's tourism brand is emblazoned along with the school's name and the outline of a dolphin on the red, white and blue sails of the school fleet of Colgate-designed, 26-foot sailboats there. It's but one way the school promotes Southwest Florida to visitors from around the globe.
The school currently has eight year-round or seasonal locations. It's been a great ride for a business that launched in New York City, and offered instruction for awhile in Puerto Rico — but ultimately Lee County for its home, beginning in 1975.
Company Chairman Steve Colgate, a veteran competitor in the Olympic Games and America's Cup trials, said he still loves the business he founded 51 years ago.
"Teaching people to sail is very rewarding. They turn onto sailing and onto its lifestyle in a very short time," Colgate said.
The sailing lifestyle is an aspiration for Rick Lingsch, 60, who took a Colgate course in 2014. He runs a technology company, and divides his time between Naples and Georgia. Ultimately, he like to live and travel part of the year aboard a sailboat.
"Going from knowing nothing to having some level of competence was amazing," Lingsch said, adding: "It was a lot of work, but they gave you a lot of good (instructional) materials in advance."
"We sell a happy product," said Doris Colgate, company president & CEO — and Steve's wife. They met when she was a student in his sailboat-racing class in the Bahamas, in the late 1960s.
"Florida," she added is the perfect year-round place for sailing instruction."
The Colgates established their first Florida school at the South Seas resort on Captiva Island, partly because "we felt we should have a location on the mainland U.S. where people could drive as well as fly."
They also needed a lodgings property big enough to set aside a 20-room block for their students' overnight stays. South Seas' manager knew of the school's good reputation, and was supportive from the start.
After Hurricane Charley in August 2004, the Colgates added a second Lee County location, at the Pink Shell resort's marina on Fort Myers Beach, and continue to base a teaching staff there.
Whenever feasible, the Colgates engage in promotions with the resorts that house their students.
"They're clearly smart business people. And, they are tireless promoters of the community," said Tamara Pigott, executive director, Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau.
Greater New York City now is home to three Colgate schools that run from April through October.
That's fortunate for Lee County tourism: In 2014, New York was the top feeder market for its domestic visitation, and usually ranks in the top five cities sending guests that use paid lodgings.
Said Steve: "We hope a bunch of of people who learn to sail at our New York locations will come down to our properties in the south, and take more-advanced courses."
AT A GLANCE
Name: Steve & Doris Colgate's Offshore Sailing School
Founder/chairman: Steve Colgate
President/CEO: Doris Colgate
Headquarters: South Fort Myers
Year-round locations: South Seas Island Resort, Captiva; Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina, Fort Myers Beach; downtown St. Petersburg; The Moorings on Tortola, British Virgin Islands; and Scrub Island Resort, Scrub Island, BVI.
Seasonal locations: Liberty City Marina, Jersey City, N.J.; Pier 25, Tribeca, New York City; North Cove Marina at Brookfield Place, Battery Park City, New York City.
Staff: 45 full- and part-timers
Website: Offshoresailing.com
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