Coop's Corner

Tiverton is the kind of place you have to go to, to get to. It is in Rhode Island, it’s on the water, the local high school has boat building and electronics classes, and there’s a good junior sailing program at Tiverton Yacht Club.

I’ve come full circle. I started out as a small kid, a “tot” as my Dad often referred to me, on a sandy beach with small boats. Now I am instructing small kids in small boats on a sandy beach.

When one thinks of a “teacher” one thinks, if one considers it at all, of a one-way flow of information, a “download” in today’s parlance. As anyone who has taught anything for more than ten seconds knows, that is not true.

In the Northeast most sailors, racing or otherwise,
are at least aware of Block Island Race Week. This year’s
edition, was the 25th running of this famous
week-long party coupled with great racing to
fill in the daylight hours.

Next time you’re out sailing with your kids, think back to basics and try to connect some of the disciplines you know about, perhaps without even realizing it, to sailing and to what the kids are up to at school.

Sailing is fun, and having a great tale to tell of how fast you were or what boats you sailed past is also great fun. Fun is valuable. It makes us enjoy life, so hours spent sailing must be fun or they do not provide “value.”

The America’s Cup is and has always has been a race of technology. From the very beginning, competitors racing for the trophy that was renamed for the black schooner which so thoroughly trounced the competition that the Queen’s attendant was obliged to utter those immortal words, “Your majesty, there is no second” used superior technology to win.

MAN OVERBOARD!!! There can be no more penetrating cry heard aboard a boat. Thus drills, techniques and equipment for recovering a M.O.B. are at the forefront of any seminar on offshore sailing. We are all admonished to wear life jackets when afloat, but a life jacket does not help us stay on the boat.

Early in October, Sail Newport hosted the 11th edition of the Sail for Hope regatta. Sail for Pride, as it was originally called, was put together in the aftermath of the attack on the twin towers in 2001. The name was changed to Sail for Hope, in part to reflect the Rhode Island State motto and has continued as an annual event, a ‘last blast’ around Jamestown with fundraising on behalf of different charities. This year’s beneficiaries were the Wounded Warrior Project and the Rhode Island Chapter of the Red Cross.