Benicia Yacht Club Restarts Youth Sailing Program

The Benicia Yacht Club Youth Sailing program set sail in summer 1998, born from the passion of member sailors and racers. What started with a few donated El Toro dinghies quickly grew into a thriving fleet of Vanguard Optimists and 420s, training hundreds of young sailors along the way. For years, the program hummed with the energy of dedicated volunteers and active families. While we’ve hit some choppy waters in recent years — navigating the challenges of the pandemic and shifting family priorities and schedules — our legacies of community and adventure remain, including our dedication to providing opportunities for the youth in our area to learn to get out on the water safely and sail.

We had similar experiences as other clubs during the COVID pandemic but had not fully recovered to the participation level we previously had attained. This was in part due to the program’s leadership moving on and there not being a succession plan in place to pick up and run the program and the challenges of finding instructors; best practices have shown homegrown instructors are the best source for continuity for staffing programs.

The catalyst for the resurgence of the Youth Sailing program came with the participation of the S.F. Sea Scouts in our Thursday Night Beer Can Racing program over the last two summers. Their presence and participation generated a whole new level of energy, with many who had volunteered previously to support Youth Sailing at BenYC coming out to help prepare and serve dinner, and racing along with them.

Many of the BenYC volunteers had the same feeling I did and were willing to come together to bring the Youth Sailing program to life again. We now have a steering committee of over 15 people with outstanding skill sets and experience coming together to launch a program this summer, and with a vision for the future for bringing more people into sailing.

One of the critical steps we have taken is to reach out to other programs at yacht clubs and independent sailing programs, as well as well-connected leaders in the sailing community, to learn about what they see working and not working for them. All have been incredibly generous with their time, advice and support. We see a great community out there and we want to contribute to its sustainability and growth. As we say on the water, “A rising tide will raise all ships.” We are lucky that we have more than 20 boats from Optimists to DeWitts and 420s that are in good shape and being prepared and serviced to be on the water this summer, as well as chase boats and other needed equipment.

We also have access to a couple of small keelboats that may find their way into our program. We have some great experienced administrators helping to review insurance needs, finances and best structure under which to conduct our business. We have lots of interest from the community in Benicia and surrounding areas, so I believe we will fill classes; there is a need in our region. But most critical right now is finding qualified instructors. As mentioned above, we had lost the ability, during our hiatus, to “grow our own.” This is what keeps us up at night!

We certainly need US Sailing Level 1 and above instructors, but we are also willing to train and help others with good experience on the water and a commitment to our program attain certification through training (and financially). As the steering committee, we work as a community, and hope the right person can be a contributor of ideas and thoughts to the group as well as having key strengths to deliver for the program in the classroom and on the water. This includes a keen awareness for safety, patience for teaching younger kids — 8- to 10-year-olds in some classes — and the ability to make good decisions and express them to the students and the volunteers. The successful candidate will find a rich environment in which not only to teach sailing but to engage with a generous group of sailors and participate in broader activities in our community. We need people who like to create something new and will help us lay a new cornerstone to our program.

Ultimately, we want to have a year-round program with summer courses during the week when school is out, and open sailing opportunities on the weekends for those who successfully complete the courses. With enough demand we would like to run weekend programs during the school year as well, and also continue to host open-sail programs. We don’t want to have kids who just learned to sail needing to wait a full year to get back on the water the next summer. We have heard from parents of the kids as well as other adult club members who are interested in learning to sail, and we are looking at ways to teach them and provide access to boats.

If you or anyone you know can fill these deck shoes at Benicia Yacht Club, drop them a line at [email protected].