St. Francis Hosts Kids from China
Traffic is bad all over, so what sort of parent would spend an hour and a half (each way) driving a kid to a sailing school? The answer is not many, but a few of the 13 million citizens of Shenzhen, China, shipped their kids all the way to San Francisco for a week of "summer" sailing on the Cityfront.
All the kids attend English-immersion schools, so for a pack of young Homo sapiens accustomed to August air temperatures in the 90s and water temperatures in the 70s, there were no language barriers to arriving at the consensus, "It’s cold here." They were warned, but it’s hard to believe. Day one kicked off with a swim test.
Past exchanges have involved New Zealand. This expedition to America is a first. The woman in charge, Hongyan Guo, brought a group mixed in age and ability. Knowing what she knows now, Hongyan says, "Next time, I’ll take the little kids to Mission Bay, San Diego, and bring the big kids here." If you don’t immediately apprehend the why of that, you’re probably new to sailing, and welcome in. It’s about relative temperature and wind strength, south vs. north, and it’s a big difference, and that’s how we roll. At home, these kids sail on Daya Bay, fronting the South China Sea, and young Hongli Liu relates, "We train in light wind only, so this is a chance for us to learn a lot."
In 12 years, the China Cup International Regatta (CCIR, October 26-31) has grown from an idea to an annual event attracting some 1,500 sailors from 38 countries. CCIR also has a youth training component, and that is how these six kids came to be enrolled along with 12 locals in an August Cityfront camp at St. Francis Yacht Club. Most were new to dinghies, so that was a learning point. On day four, they sailed J/22s under the Golden Gate Bridge and then to Angel Island for a picnic and a swim.
Day five wrapped the week with a regatta, and there were winners and there were prizes. The last big contest of the day was a relay sculling race, adding one kid per lap until "ridiculous" was achieved. How else do we hone the killer instincts of the next sailing generation?