A-Cup Partnership Focused on Youth Sailing

Since 2008, a Bay Area nonprofit called SailSFBay has been quietly working to unite the Bay Area sailing community behind the goal of growing participation in sailing. During the group’s January 17 meeting, hosted in the Oracle Team USA compound at Pier 80, Tim Jeffrey of the America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA) and John Craig from America’s Cup Race Management (ACRM) made a very exciting announcement: The ACEA will partner with SailSFBay for community outreach, especially events and programs that get more young sailors out on the water.

A variety of other sailing initiatives were discussed by industry leaders in attendance: Kame Richards detailed his efforts to work with the city of Alameda to create a dedicated community sailing center on their waterfront; Dave Santori of the Golden Gate YC spoke about the dramatic rise in high school sailing at their club and elsewhere in the Bay Area; and Cree Partridge of Berkeley Marine Center described the continued progress for the new SF2SF ’round-the-world race, slated to start in 2015.

Having the world’s most prestigious sailing event take place on San Francisco Bay this year creates a wonderful opportunity to increase participation at all levels of sailing. If you’d like to get involved in that effort, consider attending an upcoming SailSFBay.org meeting and/or joining the group.