If you are looking to learn how to sail in the Bay Area, you can take classes and private lessons from a variety of top quality schools. There are many different types of classes whether you are a beginner or if you are an expert on the waves, these schools offer assistance and help wherever assistance is needed. The follow are some of the best schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Captain Kirk’s San Francisco Sailing

Private sailing lessons are available in this club and Captain Kirk’s San Francisco Sailing has three incredible yachts. The boats include a 50-foot Santa Cruz, a 50-foot Gulf Star, and a 36-foot Soverel. Likewise, they offer two custom racer-cruisers perfect for learning on. Pick-up and drop-off locations are: Pier 40 San Francisco, Pier 39 San Francisco, and in Sausalito.

www.sfbaysail.com

Lake Merritt Boating Center 

Located in Oakland, CA, Lake Merritt offers a safe and fun environment for learning how to sail in small style boats. The Lake Merritt Boating Center offers lessons for sailing and rents out sailing dinghies, small keelboats, catamarans, canoes, and kayaks.

www.sailoakland.com 

Modern Sailing School and Club

The Modern Sailing School and Club rents out 30 to 44 foot sailboats and offers lessons through their school that helps amateur boaters become proficient behind the wheel of any boat. Each boat holds up to 6 passengers.

www.modernsailing.com

Spinnaker Sailing of San Francisco

This boating school offers lessons and sailboat rentals with boats ranging from 22 to 42 feet. The Spinnaker Sailing School of San Francisco is located at Pier 40, South Beach Harbor.

www.spinnaker-sailing.com

Tradewinds Sailing School and Club

This sailing school rents out 22 to 65 foot sailboats and is based in the Marina Bay Yacht Harbor which is based in Richmond, CA.

www.tradewindssailing.com

Trawler School

Located in Alameda, CA, the Trawler School of Boating offers unique courses in handling single-screw trawlers and lets guests learn how to use radar on the boat they are sailing.

www.trawlerschool.com

This week, I recommend that you go check out the “Quent Cordair Fine Art” gallery on Napa Valley’s Riverfront.

There is some amazing pieces to be admired here, which make this gallery a “must-visit!”

The Quent Cordair Fine Art gallery was opened by artist Quent Cordair in the year 1996.  As a prime provider of cotemporary Romantic Realism in drawing, painting, and sculpture, Quent Cordair Fine Art has greatly developed to serve a worldwide client base of both personal and corporate collectors!

Romantic Realism is an act, which renews the high esthetic standards and styles of pre-20^th century ateliers.  It breathes new life of comprehensibility, beauty, romanticism, and stylization to contemporary subject matter.  The gallery has a collection that displays different themes, which celebrate moments of being successful, happy, and joyful!  The subject matter includes figurative, narrative, allegorical, still lives, seascapes, and landscapes.  Represented are award-winning sculptors and different types of artists of worldwide renown.  They also show the talents of rising artists who have unique vision and accomplishment.  Commissions are available for portraiture, murals, garden, and architectural projects!

Quent Cordair Fine Art (also known as “QCFA,”) is open six days a week.  You can also make a private appointment if the scheduled hours of operation are not convenient for you!  They gallery and it’s website are both an invaluable resource for private art collectors, interior designers, AND landscape designers.  For additional information, you may call them at (707) 255-2242.  Alternatively, you can visit their website by clicking here!

Interested in more great things about Napa Valley’s amazing riverfront?  Read some more of Donald Buresh’s real estate blog at www.donaldburesh.com!

With spring just around the corner, it is a wonderful time of the year that we can get out and enjoy the sights and smells, beautiful flowers, trees, and nature itself!

But, it’s also a good time to appreciate beauty, and what better place to do that than at the Napa Riverfront’s own “ARTwalk.”

Napa’s ARTwalk creates an exciting and appealing environment for the public by integrating outdoor art with public areas.  The ARTwalk does a great job at preserving and enriching Napa’s cultural environment, and also promotes participation from the public and interaction with artwork and their artists.  They keep artwork on view for twenty-four months, and during that time the members of the community and tourists alike are encouraged to nominate one of the pieces of art for a “People’s Choice Award.”  The annual winner of this award also receives a prize of a two-night long getaway in Napa.

To make your visit easier for you to understand, there are downloadable brochures available for you to use that you can get here.  The brochures include a guide of the art locations, information about the people who created the artwork, as well as links to the ARTwalk’s audio tour, which enables a self-guided viewing of the art display from the sunrise until the sunset!  Thanks to technology, you can use the audio tour by simply scanning a QR code off of the brochure using your iPhone or any other device that supports a QR code-scanning app!  The ARTwalk is a great art destination in Napa, and it helps to stimulate the Downtown economy through increasing its pedestrian activity.

For more information about Napa’s riverfront ARTwalk, you can visit their website by clicking here!

Interested in finding out more great things about Napa’s riverfront? Visit waterfront and riverfront property expert Donald Buresh’s website here!

There is great news for the homeowners who made it through the recession and have spent the past several years hoping to see their home values rise again!

Napa County home prices rebounded in 2013, increasing 27.7% from 2012 levels, according to Bay Area Real Estate Information Services.  The median home price for Napa County homes rose to $454,500, compared to $355,750 in 2012.  Homes spent an average of 89 days on the market in 2013, while the average was 118 days in 2012.  With the foreclosure crisis winding down, the number of distressed property sales in 2013 declined to just 11.7% of the market, compared to 25.66% in 2012.

“There are very few short sales” and bank-owned properties for sale now, said Randy Gularte of Heritage Sotheby’s International Realty. With those distressed properties removed from the market, “Now it’s a matter of a normal buyer/seller market,” he said.

Unlike during the pre-recession era of 100 percent financing loans, Gularte said today’s buyer “has skin in the game.” “Qualified buyers are buying houses. I think it will help us solidify the market.”

San Francisco broker Jeff Appenrodt of Laurel Realty, who recently hosted an open house for a home in the Napa Yacht Club, said he has many clients from San Francisco and the Bay Area who want to buy in Napa.

The broker said buyers are drawn to any property close to city areas such as Napa or St. Helena, and with enough space for grapes, whether for aesthetic or business reasons.

“I have a client in San Francisco who is buying all kinds of property in Napa,” he said. That client has purchased somewhere around $5 to $6 million of property in the past six months, both land and homes, he said. “That area is on the rise” and his clients are looking to buy, said Appenrodt.

Are you interested in buying a home on the waterfront or riverfront in the Napa Valley? Contact Donald Buresh today at (707) 548-2545!

Read the full article from the Napa Valley Register by clicking here!