ASA lessons all at once or piecemeal?

[Boondoggle]

New member and hopefully a new sailor along with my wife. Several options near us for the ASA classes and a couple of them offer them as stand alone courses (101 then 103, 104, etc) as well as 101 through 104 in one shot (six days)

I can see advantages to both options. Take them separately and get experience in between makes sense. But, all in one shot can be more immersive and makes building on and remembering skills easier

I've got boating experience but no significant sailing experience and my wife has neither. I'm hoping to retire shortly and have leaned heavily toward sailing versus a powered cruiser.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[wholybee]

It is important to have some sailing time between classes to practice what you learn. ASA even has prerequisites of a certain number of hours on the water before taking the next class.

That said, some classes I think naturally work well together. I took 101 and 103 together as one class that was 5 days, not staying aboard. Then a a few months later after sailing as often as I could between, I took 104 as a 3 day class staying aboard. Then a few months later I took 105-106 as a 5 day stay aboard class.

If your goal is cruising, 105-106 are the classes that really build those skills. Everything until then is just day sailing.