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Junior Sailing
The Junior Sailing program is in its fourth year under the leadership of returning
Program Director Brian Duschenchuk who has been a sailing instructor for 19
years.
The junior sailing schedule is made up of four two
week sessions, two sessions per day, from June 28th through August
20th. This year 65 juniors,between the ages of eight and 14, began or
continued to develop their sailing skills. Half of this year’s
enrollees are returning junior sailors; and the program continues to
evolve to accommodate beginners, intermediate and ultimately advanced
levels of sailors. All instruction aligns with the US Sailing Small
Boat Sailing Certification. It generally takes about three years to
meet all the requirements.
This year three 420’s (13’8” for
double handed sailing and rigged with two sails) have been added to the
boat inventory of six Optimists (8’ foot boat for single handed sailing
single sail rig); one Laser (14’ foot boat for single or double handed
advanced sailing and rigged with two sails); and two Boston Whaler’s,
used by the instructors.
The program provides juniors with land
based training and on-the-water hands on experience, in different
boats, depending on age, weight and level of experience. On land, each
day, the instructors establish goals and objectives. They review boat
parts and purpose, sailing nomenclature, points of sail, and provide
instruction on knot tying, navigational rules of
the road, and safety equipment and techniques. At the end of each session, a debrief follows on land.
Program
Director Duschenchuk also shares the history of some of the strange
nomenclature used in sailing. The term starboard (right side) is a term
that dates to the Nordic sailors who used a board with a hole cut out
to site the North Star and they hung the board over the right side of
the boat resulting in “starboard”. Another term “Posh” as in upscale,
was coined by Port Outbound Starboard Homebound which refers to the
favored side of the boat, the side that provides a view of land, from
the cabin.
Hands on water-based training takes place on the
Long Island Sound between David’s Island, Glen Island, Orchard Beach
and green can buoy 7A, which provides better wind conditions, open
water and more space to execute what was reviewed on land. The
instructors begin by towing the boats out the channel, behind the
Boston Whaler’s, so that the juniors develop their steering sense and
understand how the boat responds to the shift of the tiller (steering).
They move on to learn how to capsize, right and bail the boats; sail in
a straight line and on a beam reach (wind at a 90 degrees); and how to
tack (change direction by heading the bow into the wind) or jibe
(change
direction by having the wind pass across the stern and shift the
position of the boom). Several times boats have capsized and the mast
has been imbedded in mud at low tide, providing a real time lesson of
the effect of tidal changes. Intermediate juniors practice sailing a
triangle course of close hauled, beam and broad reaches and downwind
points of sail.
To further develop their skills, inflatable
marks and anchors are used by the instructors to create a cordoned area
to play tennis ball tag, on the water. As a boat is tagged with the
tennis ball, all other boats must avoid being tagged by sailing away,
but staying within the confines of the marks. The tagged boat must sail
to catch and tag another boat.
The wind and weather have been
very favorable this season for the program, but when faced with rain,
fog or too much wind, the instructors have the juniors play Sailing
Jeopardy using boat parts, sailing terms and history of the NYAC as
jeopardy categories.
Congratulations to all the future sailors
of our club. We hope to continue to see new and returning junior
sailors in the years ahead. For more information contact Carolyn
DiBernardo at (212) 767-7094 or carolynd@nyac.org.
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Click thumbnails to enlarge photos of the 2009 Junior Sailing Program a Travers Island
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New York Athletic Club
City House: 180 Central Park South, New York, NY 10019 | Tel: (212) 247-5100
Travers Island: Shore Road, Pelham Manor, NY 10803 | Tel: (914) 738-2700 |
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