JUNIOR YACHT CLUB
- LATEST
NEWS
I recently joined the Sequim Bay Junior Yacht Club and I had a lot of fun this summer. It is a great program. While lots of people enjoy sailing, they lack the materials and experience to do so. The Junior program provides all of the necessary assets to give valuable experience to any new sailor. I learned a lot and was quickly accepted into the group, which made my sailing experiences a lot more enjoyable. I was constantly looking forward to the next sail during the course of each week, and with each sail I learned more and more of the practice of sailing.
…SBYC Junior Grant Shogren
Wow. I can’t believe it’s already November. I’m Grant Shogren, and I’ll be 12 this month. This past summer, I had a lot of fun in my first year with the Junior Yacht Club. I joined late so I only got a month and a half of sailing. I think it’s really great that the Sequim Bay Yacht Club is supporting the Junior Club, and they should continue their support as long as possible, because I want this to last forever. I really enjoy getting to sail different types of boats and being able to sail so often, unlike the YMCA camp. The Lidos are really great boats to sail because they’re wide and have a lot of space to move around as well as being stable. They also sail fast. It was great of the Club members to fix them up! The evening sails I really enjoy, especially the time we sailed down wind of the Marina in some really odd wind conditions, but we still had a lot of fun.
Actually, every time I’ve been out sailing with the Junior Club has been fun. I want to stick with this Club! I had so much fun in the Club that I made a poster on sailboat racing so I could get into the Clallam County Fair, and it got high marks because this Club has taught me so much about racing and just having
fun in boats.
…Juniors Update from Jean Heessels-Petit
The SBYC Juniors had their last 2009 sail on August 23rd and are all off in their classrooms. On that afternoon they followed sailing with putting boats, equipment and sails away for the off season and then a potluck/pizza picnic at the south end of the marina. This season we had eleven Juniors (3 new members) and enjoyed several Friday evening sails as well as the usual Saturday ones. The ‘time on water’ and differing wind conditions really helped improve sailing skills. The Juniors also enjoyed serving you at the Burger Bash in July and look forward to that each year. We’ll be meeting again in the off season this year and making plans for next year. We’ll continue boat refurbishment and the selling of boat gear as a fundraiser. Thank you for your ongoing support.
[Heard recently from a Junior "Why aren't we sailing now?" (in reference to the beautiful weather these past
two weeks!)]
…SBYC Junior Preston McFarlen (age 15)
- Sailing is one of my passions, but this year I was unable to sail since I dislocated my shoulder during baseball. One of the many things I miss about being on the water is on days that were not windy we would go out and capsize my boat and then take turns righting it. Also, I miss racing to see who could get to the opposite shore or to Pirate’s Cove first. Even though I was unable to sail this year, I have a lot of great memories I am holding on to. I am really looking forward to sailing next year.
- As the new sailing season begins, we look forward to a successful summer of youth boating. With our fundraising efforts, we have begun to restore our Lido fleet, and we expect a large turnout of new members. Through personal experience, I have found the summer sailing sessions are a fun way to make friends and enjoy the beautiful weather Sequim offers us out on the water. One of our continuing goals for this season is to have the junior and senior members of the Junior Yacht Club become successful racers. Furthermore, our start of official off-season activities (which is currently in full swing) has prepared us for the summer sailing season, giving us time to grow both on and off the water. As membership and participation grows and our fleet is restored to prime condition, we look forward to the exciting possibilities that the summer offers us.
Links:
If you would like more information, e-mail MR. RUDY HEESELS at junioryc@sequimbayyachtclub.org.