The American Sailing Association was founded in 1983 with a simply stated mission: to teach people to sail safely and confidently. To achieve that goal, the ASA set out to establish standards against which to measure a sailor’s level of knowledge and skill, the first such unified standards in the U.S. to apply to sailors in keelboats. Today, the ASA is an association of sailing schools, charter companies, professional sailing instructors, and sailors, with over 400+ affiliated sailing schools located throughout the U.S., as well as in the Caribbean, Europe, Central America, and Asia. They offer online courses as well as the IPC certificate (equivalent of the ICC certificate of competence).