Capt. Genevieve Evans is hoping to make the sailing charter industry more transparent with the help of her sailing school, Go Sail Virgin Islands. Evans started sailing early at Flathead Lake in Montana in her youth. Eventually, her sailing experience led to a career as a captain. While Evans has sailed throughout St. Thomas and different parts of the United States, she felt called to the U.S. Virgin Islands. “I worked for other schools for about 10 years in several locations — California, Belize, lots of different places — but I just kept coming back to the Virgin Islands because of beauty and consistency,” Evans said. Apart from realizing the beauty of the Virgin Islands, Evans also noticed how many of the schools she had worked for were being run — and she wanted to make a change. Evans differentiates her sailing school from others by offering extremely advanced instructors, modern yachts for students to learn on, and improved communication before the course begins. Students looking to take classes at Go Sail Virgin Islands have several options, including solo traveler, a couples cruising course, and customized family charters. No experience is necessary to take these classes, but Evans’s school sends online work prior to the course’s start. Students can receive American Sailing Certifications and International Bareboat Certifications through Evans’s courses, but advanced courses that focus on long-distance navigation, docking, catamaran certifications, and coastal navigation are also available. “We encourage active learning, we’re honest and give feedback, we emphasize hands-on skills and encourage questions,” Evans said. “We develop these relationships with these students for life, so it isn’t this one class and done — we’re really developing a relationship.” Allowing students to use modern yachts for their classes is a perk Go Sail Virgin Islands offers that others often don’t. This is due to a professional relationship Evans has with charter companies throughout the Virgin Islands. Her sailing school uses charter boats maintained by charter companies and that are often less than three years old. Another perk for Go Sail Virgin Islands students is discounted bareboat charters — for life. “That goes back to the relationship that we have with the charter company, so we are working with the charter company to rent the boat for the class, but we’re also saying, ‘Okay, this new certified sailor would like to too,’ and they’re willing to give us that extra discount,” Evans said. While Evans continues to educate and help students actualize their dreams of becoming sailors, she hopes Go Sail Virgin Islands can demystify the charter industry too. “There are lots of different avenues for people to rent and bare boat charter, so I think people should understand the difference between an owner, facility-offered bareboat charters, what a broker is, and what services they’re getting and how that benefits them,” Evans said. “We want to be the best sailing school in the world and offer people [the chance] to sail anywhere.”