I started sailing with Victor in 2012. Since then I have joined him on several occasions in both AZ and also in San Diego. His instructor skills are far superior then most instructors I have dealt with over my career. His knowledge and patience with students are exactly what is needed in the industry . The IYT program he teaches is accepted worldwide and Arizona is very fortunate to have him. I have no reservations at all recommending Victor and Tiller and Kites.

Victor is an excellent instructor. I took my first lesson back in 2017. I now see him all the time because I sail quite often at Lake Pleasant and he is always available to answer any of my questions that I continue to have about sailing. You will not find a better instructor or friend in the sailing community here at Lake Pleasant!!! Cheers Victor!!!

Victor was the perfect instructor for my wife & I. He took the time to find out what we wanted out of sailing and started us down the right path. I highly recommend Tiller & Kites!

Victor is a top-notch instructor. He is very friendly and down to earth. He has only one goal: to make his students excel. The courses are superb and completely hands-on. Tiller And Kites is certainly my sailing school of choice as a beginner and advanced sailor. I strongly recommend to give him a call if you are thinking about learning boating, sailing, racing and yachtsmanship.

Tiller and Kites went far beyond my expectations of my learning to sail experience. Victors instruction is very easy to follow and he can easily adapt to your level. My first impression of Victor was his passion of sailing and desire to share his knowledge with others. Time well spent, and I would recommend him to anyone that is just starting, or needs to refine their technical skills.

Tiller & Kites is the best sailing experience! I had an amazing time learning & enjoying the art of sailing. Victor Felice is an excellent instructor! Highly recommend!!!!

Thanks Tiller and Kites and especially Capt. Victor for an awesome Day Skipper course - four days of learning and fun. Myself and my two adult sons gained the confidence in this 4 day course to navigate a sailboat and learn the finer points of sailing. We had a great time learning on the J24 and were treated to spending a day on the C37 (you wont find this with any other company here in AZ). I am excited to take what Capt. Victor taught us and build on that as we work towards achieving our bareboat certification.

As a beginning sailor with limited experience, this course was thorough and well constructed with a combination of both theory and hands-on training. I am better prepared to safely operate a sailboat in the conditions that I am likely to encounter.  It also gave me a better understanding of what areas I need to work on to become a competent, capable and confident sailor.  Victor is a great teacher who has a tremendous passion for sailing.  I would recommend this course to anyone that interested in getting involved in sailing or that would like to learn the proper ways to sail.

If you want to learn to sail in Arizona, this is the place to go! Well maintained fleet and and amazing instructor. Victor will take you as far as you want to go!

I learned how to sail with Tiller and Kites this summer, and I loved my experience! Victor was a great sailing coach. He was thorough with his instruction and taught me how to sail confidently. I had a lot of fun learning to sail with Victor and other crew members on board. Sailing is a great sport, and I hope to continue sailing in the future with my newly learned skills. I would highly recommend Tiller and Kites to anyone wanting to learn how to sail in Arizona!

Love Tiller & Kites for the help with the Melges and getting it ready for a road trip back to Michigan for some racing this last summer. Victor and Bruce are super helpful and make great repairs and enhancements to the boat. Also helped sell the Holder recently. Thanks Tiller & Kites and we are glad to have you close by.

With 50 years of sailing experince under my belt, I recently completed the IYT ICC, Flotilla Skipper and VHF certifications at Tiller and Kites. I founnd the course to be well run and organized, and would recommend tapping into Victorexpertise as a sailing instructor and mentor, whether an experienced skipper or first time sailer. As a side note, Victor has one of the most impressive fleet of boats Ive ever seen.

My wife & I chose the Tiller And Kites dinghy course mainly because it is IYT-accredited and recognized globally. The course was great and weve since become Tumbleweed members sailing every month. Victor is a great teacher and got us sailing in no time!

If you want to learn how to sail here in Phoenix, then your options are these: 1) take a 2 day ASA 101 course with 2 or 3 other strangers on the boat - taught by one of the two other outfits at lake pleasant, 2) look for an AYC/ASF learn-to-sail program over 3 or 4 weekends on Tempe town lake, or 3) do it right and come and see Victor at Tiller and Kites.Four days of one-on-one instruction, fun times on a sweet J24, and a Mediterranean, personable, and knowledgeable teacher... you can’t go wrong! Very highly recommended.

Had IYT training and certification done through Tiller&Kites. Very accommodating, quick responses and the main thing - very knowledgeable about all the things related to certification. Victor is best - highly recommend!

I have spent many hours with Victor on the distinctive Mermaids in the Tiller and Kites fleet and he is an excellent sailor, racer, and Instructor. The IYT sailing courses are top notch and Victors passion for teaching sailing makes learning a fun and enjoyable experience. Whether you are brand new and want to start sailing, or want to get into racing, or have dreams of far off shores, or just want to fine tune your skills, I highly recommend Tiller and Kites. For new sailors or experienced sailors, T & K can help with the all important next step - how to continue sailing. Victor has sailboats for sale at the shop or if ownership is not for you the Tumbleweed Sailing program may be the way to go. This unique program gets you sailing on very nice boats at a fraction of the ownership cost. This is the only place in AZ you will find that and since AZ sailing is year round it is a real value. And last but not least, when my boat needed repairs Tiller and Kites took care of it every step of the way from the estimate, parts sourcing, insurance claim, and excellent repairs. In short - if you need ANYTHING sailing related, Tiller and Kites is the place to go!

Victor and Bruce at Tiller and Kites do a great job. They are friendly, knowledgeable and offer an array of excellent and creative products and services. They are very well respected within the sailing community and have gone out of their way to keep us happy and on the water.

VICTOR IS AMAZING HE HELPED ME LOAD MY CATALINA 30 ON A TRAILER AS PROMISED. RENTED ME THE TRAILER TO TRANSPORT MY BOAT TO TEXAS, SHOWED ME AND ASISTED IN REMOVING THE MAST AND PREPORATION FOR THE MOVE, HE IS A MAN OF HIS WORD. VICTOR IS AMAZING, I WISH I HAD MORE TIME TO LEARN FROM HIM. I CANT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR HELPING ME FUFILL MY DREAM. THIS IS JEFF CRAWFORD I AM USING MY SONS COMPUTER.

Great group of sailors and I would do business with them any time. Highly recommended!!!

My learning to sail experience at Tiller and Kytes was incredible. If you want to just learn to sail obviously there are a few other sailing schools to choose from out there, you will get the standard 4 day classes which are usually joint classes on mediocre sail boats with other students.My daughter already had her basic keel ASA certification. I bought her a small Prindle Catamaran, Victor Felice who runs the school specially brought in an instructor to teach her so that she was safe and ready to go on her own boat. Not only did they teach her on one of their nice Catamaran’s they also looked her boat over and coached her what she needed to do to make it work well on the lake. It was important to me to know my 15 year old was safe on the lake in her own boat.I was so impressed I started to sail myself and signed up for the IYT Day Skipper – Crew boat myself. Both Myself and My daughter were sailing and having one on one instruction on different boats at the same time. I sailed on a really sweet looking cool J24. My experience, Victor was very knowledgeable and made the sailing fun. After just two lessons with Victor I knew this was going to be a lifelong passion I bought my own 27’ Catalina sailboat. We did the remainder lessons on my own boat and since then I have since gone on to get my Small PowerBoat & Rib Master Certification. This has done wonders for my own self confidence. I now own and play with my own sailboat every weekend at Lake Pleasant! Something I wasn’t aspiring to at the time.These courses were well worth it for the money, in Hein site I would have expected to pay more for what we got. In comparison to the course my daughter already took and looking at the “other “outfits “to choose from I would highly recommend this school. Better boats, better knowledge, Better certification which is recognized worldwide. You Better watch out thou, you may wind up discovering a lifelong passion like I have” totally awesome experience all around!!! Thank you, Victor you are an amazing instructor!!

Great school for any level of Sailor. They also sell boats and work on boats at reasonable prices. Best of all, if you get in a pinch, they will always lend a helping hand and their expertise.

Like many others, I decided to pursue a childhood dream and build a boat. The process took 4 years and I learned so many things about wood, fiberglass, boat parts, and rigging. The problem is that building a boat doesn’t mean you know how to competently sail a boat. This is where Tiller and Kites comes in.The boats at Tiller and Kites are wonderful! Quite an assortment and very well maintained. After taking the IYT Skipper course, I feel great about taking my 17’ vessel out solo, and I’m confident in my ability to make good decisions.The instructor was fantastic. Very professional with a great sense of humor, and his credentials are top notch. It is clear he isn’t just passing the time, but really loves sailing! He cares about the success of his students and I was thrilled he took the time to follow up after my course to see how my first venture out on my own boat went. In building yet another boat, I now have friends and resources in the sailing community, and people to ask questions to and be pointed in the right direction for whatever my sailing needs may be.I highly recommend Tiller and Kites to anyone who wants to learn well and have a good time doing it.

Last Spring, I took Tiller & Kites International Yacht Training (IYT) Day Skipper course. The course was thorough, comprehensive, and well-designed. Victor had us at the helm (and every other position on the boat) from day one. It truly was hands on training. Not only was Victor extremely knowledgable, but he made the course a lot of fun. I would highly recommend this course to anyone looking to start sailing, improve skills, or just have a blast on the water!

1st be aware there is a $6 fee just to get on property to visit the store or even to view the lake (Ive never seen Lake Pleasant), no exception.2nd, call ahead. I showed up on a Saturday afternoon to look at a sailboat (Melges 24 theyre selling) and to discuss potentially chartering a J/24 for racing or going in on their Viper 640 lease program. Really wanted to get a feel for the business and what the options were etc... The AZYC advertises theyve got racing beginning in a week if one wants to participate. I called T&K to see if they could come to the gate and lead me in to look without paying the fee, Id driven an hour from my home. Theyve got multiple extensions depending on which aspect of their business one wants to discuss. No answer at any of the multiple options. I got an immediate text message suggesting theyd call me right back. Two texts actually, one for each of the two extensions I called. No return phone calls during their business hours. Did have a text message conversation the next day on Sunday.

Tiller and Kites is the only way, in my book, to go sailing. Reserve boat, show up at dock, climb in and sail away. I spend my time sailing not boat hauling, trailering, loading, repairing and storing, among other non-sailing chores. I owned a boat and I know. Thank You Victor and Bruce. Decker

If you live in Arizona and want to learn how to sail, or you need a certificate in order to charter boats/yachts in other locations, Tiller And Kites is the place for you. Knowledgeable instruction matched with a clean, well-maintained, up-to-date fleet of boats, Victor is perfectly suited to help you achieve your goals, be it racing on Lake Pleasant or cruising far aways seas.

Tiller & Kites is a sailing school operated by Victor Felice and friends at Lake Pleasant AZ. I took Victors International Yacht Training (IYT) course to obtain my IYT Day Skipper certificate, which was terrific. Ive also taken the American Sailing Association (ASA) course, and Victors is better. Its more challenging, more instructional, more fun, and has connected me with more opportunities to sail. For example, after learning on the T&K boats, I signed up for Victors Tumbleweed Sailing program that allows me to book a Catalina 25 for a half-day sail up at Lake Pleasant whenever I want -- which is more convenient and less expensive for me than owning my own boat.

Great sailing school! Took the day skippers course and significantly increased my knowledge of sailing. Friendly staff, large fleet, well organized!

Nice sail school. I was 2 days sailing in Lake Pleasant with them. Thanks guys!

Awesome fleet of boats, extremely knowledgeable sailing instructors, great racers, anything you need for your vessel !! Victor and team are ready and able to assist both residents and visitors alike in discovering the fun of sailing in the desert oasis !! These guys are also incredibly well connected in the global sailing world and have helped me in situations across the country and offshore.

I loved sailing with Tillers & Kites - the classes are top notch, the staff is friendly and the prices are reasonable. Victor is always helpful and friendly and a great teacher . I highly recommend .

Great boats and great care for the sails!

Friendly, fun, highly knowledgeable staff!