So, I guess the whole purpose of WindCheck is to celebrate and enjoy activities on the water in words and pictures. And a big part of that of course is that we celebrate the traditional skills, confidence and sense of accomplishment we get from being proficient at our sport. And while we sing ad nauseum about how great it is for kids, I am going to do it again.
The other day, I was running some magazines across the Sound from Norwalk to Sea Cliff Yacht Club in Hempstead Harbor. They were getting ready for their big Around Long Island Regatta party and I wanted them to have magazines for the skipper bags that they hand out AFTER they complete the course, which is kind of unique.
It was a glorious day. The cold front had come in overnight and it was crisp and relatively cool, in the low 80s. The Sound was pretty flat with the northerly breeze so I made short work of the trip in my son’s ‘94 Grady White that I had purloined for the mission. It was mid-morning on a gorgeous summer Friday, and I was a little sad to see so few boats on the water. Was it my foggy memory, or did there used to be many more boats just out for a sail on a day like today? But that melancholy was quickly dispersed when I entered Hempstead Harbor. There I saw about thirty Optimist Dinghies banging around with three or four instructor boats keeping watch. So fun. With 8-10 out of the north and flat water provided by their breakwater, it was a perfect day.
I went in to complete my delivery and by the time I had gotten an ice coffee from the Club snack bar for my ride home, the Opti kids were heading back in. Sea Cliff’s arrangement is that they have a broad and sort of steep beach, amplified by the fact that it was pretty low tide. All of the kids’ dollies were at the top of the beach. I watched as the lead kid, well ahead of the pack, negotiated her landing. She was maybe four feet tall at most and about 60 lbs, a standard issue 11-year-old. And not to denigrate the more ambitious among Opti kids, but this pack were not bound for the Worlds in Europe nor even Newport for the New Englands. No Zhik wetsuits or even regular sailing gloves in sight. She pulled her daggerboard out of its trunk while turning the boat beam to the beach, and jumped out. The main was fully eased and luffed harmlessly as she popped off her rudder and put it into the boat. She had timed the luffing move perfectly so that she could stand waist deep and the blade would not hit the bottom…a summer’s worth of practice in evidence. She pulled the boat by the bow until it was just enough up on the sand so as not to float away. She then ran up the fifty yards of beach to get her dolly, glancing back a couple times to make sure her boat had not left; again exhibiting mid-summer knowledge of mishaps past. Back down the beach she came, and with a hearty but relatively easy pull, she got the boat on to the dolly and commenced to pull it up the beach.
As mentioned, she was well ahead of the pack so it stands to reason that she was one of the more experienced and skilled sailors. Even still, I was really impressed. Number two was a boy. He seemed to be in less of a hurry, perhaps aware that number two out of thirty was still a really good spot when it came to beach space. What caught my eye about him was his apparent experimentation, or perhaps practicing, for his beaching maneuvers. At sixty yards or so from shore, he already had his board halfway up and was grabbing his boom about a foot from the very end and pulling it hard to weather, like a team racer would, trying to create bad air on an opponent. He was obviously trying to see how far he could slide his boat sideways if he pulled the main in this way, even though he had a long way to go before landing. After he had squandered much of his lead on the third-place boat, he stopped messing about and executed his beaching in much the same way as first boat had.
Then the other twenty-eight odd came pouring in and all seemed to have the same competence, while some of the younger ones teamed up with each other to hold boats while others fetched the dollies. Without any instruction needed, all of these eight- to eleven-year-olds had their Optis put away at the top of the beach in the space of twenty-five minutes. I think the beckoning aromas from the snack bar may have added to their efficiency.
As I write this, the Olympics are on and I do fondly think of sailing Olympians I have known, the work that they put in and the amazing growth and satisfaction they have received, with or without a medal. But on that day in Hempstead Harbor, I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the knowledge that these kids have learned independence, teamwork, confidence, responsibility, and curiosity resulting in innovation through the joys and trials of nature, even if they never set foot in a sailboat again. As I turned the Grady northward, not going to lie, I got a bit choked up.
See you on the water!
Publisher
Benjamin V. Cesare
ben@windcheckmagazine.com
