Sailing for life

By Greg Coppa

I feel very privileged to have been able to have watched one of the best shows in competitive yachting. It wasn't an America's Cup Race, nor was it the finish of an around the world solo competition. It was the Narragansett Bay Yachting Association's Junior Race Week series. This NBYA sailing event trains the skippers and crew members of the future-and not just to sail.

The evening before Race Week was to begin I brought my son, Ted, and a couple of other young sailors from Wickford Yacht Club (RI) to Newport's Fort Adams. Ft. Adams is a wonderful staging area for youth racing with launch ramps, dock space, cranes, plenty of room for storing boats and lots of green grass for spreading sails. The place was a beehive of activity. Parents and kids were lifting Sunfish off car top carriers or un-nesting up to 4 Optis out of the backs of pickup trucks. Gear was being sorted, hulls were being wet sanded, dings were filled and hiking straps were checked and tightened. After things were squared away, some of the kids wandered around to look at the other boats like theirs and debate the advantages and disadvantages of the different rigs.

The following morning there were briefings and seminars for the race participants. It was apparent to all adults present that the weather would leave something to be desired. Actually the weather was bad-gusty winds, on and off heavy rain showers, and the promise of more of the same for the duration of the competition. But the youngsters were told that the show would go on to the extent that it could within safety limitations.

When the racers were dismissed they went directly to the boats for some last minute tweaking. It was kind of neat to see all these young kids work with their Leathermen tools and rigging knives. They really looked like they knew what they were doing! A few minutes before the ramps were cleared for launching, many of the sailing instructors summoned their charges together. They all said pretty much the same thing-be careful, remember what you were taught, don't embarrass your sailing instructor or yacht club, and that "today things were going to be... a little bit tricky." That last piece of understatement, I recalled thinking with a smile, was characteristic of sailing instructors and indeed all of us sailors!

The kids were given the green light to launch and went to the water like ducks. There was a lot of: "I'll help you wheel your trailer down the ramp, if you help me wheel mine." I think there was more pragmatism than altruism involved here, but what the heck, it was a step in the right direction. At least the benefits of teamwork were being realized.

Though my wife and I were only observers in our Boston Whaler that day, there would be some of the usual Mom Boat duties to perform-dispensing duct tape, lending out tools, replacing lost water bottles and torn charts, or sometimes finding very soggy lunches to feed equally soggy crews. Keeping up with the boats as they dispersed to the various starting circles was almost impossible. I saw Optimist dinghys sail by me at speeds I didn't think Optis could technically do. I recognized a couple of slim Jims and Janes as they flew by, who cleaned up at a light air series a few weeks before. They were holding on for dear life and grimacing like they were about to get their teeth drilled. Then a couple of the real heavy kids sailed past me grinning like monkeys. You could almost see what they were thinking-today was going to be fun, lots of fun.

Before long the afternoon races were called off because of high winds, and the boats made their way back to the basin. At least the skippers and crews had a chance to tune up a little and hopefully the tough sailing conditions pointed out to the kids what needed to be fixed, found, reinforced or discarded before the next day. Once boats and equipment were tucked away there was time to kill prior to the scheduled afternoon dinner. The energy, imagination and ingenuity of these kids during that period just made you want to laugh. A mud hole developed near one of the entrances to a large tent and some kids proceeded to vigorously stomp in it to splash others. Predictably, this incident escalated to the point where stompers were dragged into and involuntarily immersed into the mud hole; and when all fray participants were good and coated they just rolled around in the mudhole of their own accord. Such antics in such raw weather are usually quickly self-limiting. However, in the changing rooms a rapid means of warming up and drying out was discovered: one kid would hold the sleeve of another kid's foul weather gear snugly up to the electric hand dryer. The connected kid would be inflated for a few minutes and then be off for a little more mud rolling. Who can explain such irrepressible behavior?

In the remaining days there were a few breaks in the poor weather conditions, but not many. There were a lot of equipment failures and flips. A young lady pulled a Laser up along side me and asked for some help during a lunch break. "Do you think a bobby pin will hold this shackle pin?" she asked. I told her that I thought that it probably would for one race, but that I had a little stainless steel ring on my Swiss Army knife that might be better. Later that afternoon I watched a couple of girls in the "chute and trap" class capsize three times. Each time they righted, they quickly trimmed in the sail and took off smartly like a rocket. God help the person who ever tells those girls that there is something they can't do because of their gender!

The kids discovered that the best strategy for most races was to sail in the lee of Goat and Rose islands as much as possible and then make a dash for the finish line. But regardless of how the kids placed in their respective classes there was one thing that they all won in this series: confidence. If you could hold your boat down in conditions like these kids experienced, and bring it back to shore safely, you know that you can always do it again.

The regatta participants certainly did learn a lot about sailing and racing over the course of NBYA Race Week. But they learned so much more, too. They learned the value of planning and preparation. They learned that working together does make things easier; but they also learned that at times you have to be self-sufficient. The youngsters learned to be resourceful in substituting one piece of equipment for another or utilizing a piece of metal, gum or plastic in a way that it was not originally intended but for which it would temporarily solve a problem. That "out of the box" thinking will no doubt come in handy one day.

The men and women of tomorrow learned that sometimes you just have to tough it out. They learned that sometimes, for all the planning and effort you might expend, chance would determine the outcome of an event. And they learned that tomorrow things might be quite different from the way they were today or last week.

Somewhere along the way these children learned what I am so glad that I learned-that sailing is a sport that can provide a lifetime of challenge and a lifetime of fun.