Give Them the Wind and Watch Them Grow at Benicia Yacht Club
“Give them the wind, and watch them grow” is the motto put into action for youth sailing at the Benicia Yacht Club (BenYC). A vision, enthusiasm and a passion for youth sailing were needed by Steve Corwin to restart the Benicia Yacht Club youth sailing program, dormant for three years, at the beginning of 2026. Recognizing that there were not enough families with kids to support a youth sailing summer camp from club membership alone, Steve reached out to the community by inviting interested families to learn about the benefits of a sailing summer camp for kids at an open house on February 23.
A total of 25 families attended, along with Latitude 38, and all but one of those families registered their kids for summer sailing classes. Several of the parents, with varied maritime backgrounds, signed up as volunteers.
With just over three months before on-water instruction was to begin in June, Steve faced some challenging priorities, with fleet restoration and instructor staffing being the highest. US Sailing Level 1-certified instructors were required for insurance purposes, together with the training in sailing instruction they would bring to the program. Because most instructors were already committed to other programs, Steve needed to create a new group of talent to draw from, so he decided to conduct his own US Sailing training course for instructors, using boats and teaching talent borrowed from South Beach and Golden Gate Yacht Clubs, together with his own staff of volunteers. This level of interclub cooperation exemplifies the support for sailing that Bay Area yacht clubs happily provide one another when a need arises.
The mothballed fleet consisted primarily of Opti prams, some donated Lasers, and two RIBs for instruction and on-water crew management. This fleet would allow the program to get started with younger sailors, but larger sailing dinghies from the RS family were needed for older kids with higher skill levels. Steering committee volunteers are organizing funding resources, including California Boating and Waterways, to allow for the purchase of such craft for next season.
At the end of each week’s classes, a graduation BBQ is held on the front lawn of the BenYC clubhouse for sailors and parents. Sailors are given US Sailing’s Red Book, which together with a $50 registration fee, formally enrolls the sailor in US Sailing’s certified program for skill advancement. As an incentive to join the BenYC, parents of registered sailors are given guest memberships in BenYC with full privileges for five weeks from June 22 to July 31. The infusion of new families into an aging club demographic has been a complementary benefit to the sailing instruction provided by the classes.
Community outreach is ongoing through local social media resources such as Strait Talk, Facebook and Instagram, as well as the development of a sailing club at Benicia High School through the initiative of current instructor Hudson Ludwig. Exposing kids with disabilities to sailing is a goal of Steve’s, with his first two-day sail planned for 10 kids with Type 1 diabetes with Diabetes Youth Families, while also ensuring that all of the kids in the program have fun learning to safely sail on and near the Carquinez Strait, with its challenging wind and currents!