It seems that across the board, Junior programs are doing well. The difficulty it seems is transitioning these young folks into life-long sailors. Some question if the junior programs are too heavily focused on racing and not enough on having fun. (Case in point - our local Junior Sailing Association, that has a big hand in directing the individual junior programs, sponsors regattas etc, seems to be completely stuck on the Optimist as the training boat. If you have ever watched (via Youtube or otherwise) a regatta for the OpenBIC you will realize that we are forcing our kids into sailing the wrong boat (absolutely no affiliation to BIC!). The OpenBIC and other similar boats from RS provide kids with a much more "fun" platform to sail on - particularly for those kids that won't / don't want to climb the area / national / Olympic championship ladder.
Regarding getting kids on big boats, we have an excellent "Big Boat" program as part of our Junior Program. We are lucky to have a couple of Senior Members who let the kids (with Instructors on board) sail these boats (one a J/105 the other a J/109). Following a series of practices, navigation classes, safety classes, these kids enter a number of kids-only regattas (several Clubs in the area have Big Boat programs - sanctioned by the JSA of Long Island Sound) ), which culminate in an overnight race. If you don't have a "Big Boat" program in your area, you might want to try and initiate one. I am sure the JSA of Long Island Sound will gladly share with you their policies / procedures etc to reduce the learning curve Jonathan _____ From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Della Barba, Joe Sent: Friday, November 01, 2013 1:10 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Re: Stus-List Getting young people into sailing? The Corsica River Yacht Club's stated purpose is junior sailing and that is how we got our property granted to us. We do not require membership to take our classes and actively recruit kids for our sailing programs. I am about on my third kid I have got recruited into sailing with us right now. Joe Della Barba Coquina C&C 35 MK I www.dellabarba.com www.cryc.org
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