Cal Sailing Club Begins Summer Open-House Sundays
The view of white sails out on San Francisco Bay on a sunny day causes many to wistfully wonder what it might be like to be on one of those boats or windsurfing boards. To satisfy that curiosity, the Cal Sailing Club (CSC) holds open houses each month at the Berkeley Marina, offering free introductory 30-minute sails to the public onboard sailing dinghies or keelboats.
Enthusiasm for sailing runs high for those just completing their first sail, raising questions about how to further engage with the sport and gain access to boats they have just sailed on. Cal Sailing Club offers memberships at $150 per quarter, or discounted to $450 annually, which includes instruction on all craft operated by the Club. This instruction leads to increasingly advanced certifications that allow for access to the larger and more complicated boats in the CSC fleet of 26 sailing dinghies, six keelboats and 80 windsurfing boards.
Sailing lessons for beginners are offered Monday and Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Windsurfing lessons are available on Saturday and Sunday mornings. For those whose competitive juices need an outlet, dinghy races are held most Sunday mornings from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Any CSC member can crew, but only members with a Junior Skipper rating, or higher, and who have passed the racing rules test, can skipper.
Another important component of membership is the modest work requirement of two hours per quarter, which can be performed in a wide range of tasks ranging from cooking to member registration duties. The work projects are all organized and managed by volunteers, and give every member an opportunity to socialize with like-minded members.
We chatted with new members Turi McCarthy and Gideon Pearsall, who are drawn to the Cal Sailing programs as a “low cost way of gaining the skills needed” to operate their own boat they’re planning to buy soon. Several women who joined our conversation felt the sailing dinghies were too complicated to learn, so they opted to begin their learning process on a windsurfing board instead. The open house on Easter Sunday drew 187 adults and 30 kids (minimum age is 5), so those planning to attend should arrive well before the 1 p.m. start time. Life jackets are provided, and windsurfing instruction by the Club is a fun way to pass the time while waiting in line!
The open houses are scheduled from 1-3 p.m. on the following dates:
Saturday, May 2
Sunday, May 31
Sunday, June 28
Sunday, August 2
Sunday, August 30
Sunday, October 4
Prospective members are encouraged to sign up online at: www.cal-sailing.org.