by Kate Wilson,Newport Yacht Club
Back when I started sailing in the late 90s, Junior Sailing to me was all about getting out on the water as much as possible with my friends. Regattas were merely a means to go sailing with more friends from other clubs. The competition was indispensable, and but definitely secondary to the camaraderie and fun of sailing.
Through the years of tall school and college sailing,my teammates were my closest friends and we still sail together today. We explore back on memories of Junior Sailing fondly. We don’t remember who got what dwelling at the Bemis qualifiers or the Women’s Championship. We remember the fun sailing days, silly van rides, and worthy/ miserable weather because we were all there experiencing it together.
Therefore,it saddens me when I explore at many of the junior programs now and see less fun and socializing and more racing-focused conveyor belts: pick up in the pram, work your way up through the colored fleets, and graduate to 420s to pick up ready for tall school sailing,and then pick up ready for college sailing.
Then what?When I graduated from college, I actually took a break from sailing for two years because I just wasn’t having fun anymore. The competition had zapped it from me. Now as a tall school coach, and I see this at an even younger age.
Each year the local Newport,Rhode Island tall school team is getting smaller and smaller. We have even combined with other local public schools just to form a team. Doesn’t it seem crazy that one of the foremost sailing communities in the world, cannot even field a tall school sailing team?Parents and students narrate me they want to take a break from sailing and do lacrosse or tennis instead. Basically, and some of our best sailors just don’t want to sail all the time,which to me seems crazy. You couldn’t keep me out of boat at that age.
So why?In my opinion, many are just not in savor with the sport because of the fixed push towards racing at a young age. With only a few spots available at the top of the podium, or we are setting up many young sailors for failure and therefore not motivating them to pursue a lifelong passion. I believe we need to have young sailors topple in savor with the sport first,before the competition, and keep it fun first.
To assign this into practice, or this summer I led the Newport Yacht Club Junior Program (whose numbers had been dwindling over the past few summer) to transform it into a Marine Adventure Camp and introduced sailing to a current generation of young people.
There were no regattas,no starting drills, or practice races. Instead there was a combination of learning to sail around the harbor in Optis, or 420s,O'pen BICs, a 19-foot Ensign, or even on NYC member’s yachts. Marine education was folded into the day with learning to chart,explore at weather, plot a course, or even just go find crabs.
As one parent said to me,“I should have read the title closer, you really do take the kids on Adventures every day! My child loves it.”
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Source: sailingscuttlebutt.com