PAGE 18 • SPRING 2007 THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SAILING ASSOCIATION
FUTURE SAILORS • KIDS CONTINUE THE TRADITION
By Capt. Stacey Brooks, Sea Dog Sailing
Ten kids from the Wakefield School in Virginia learned aboard Sea Dog Sailing’s two 46-foot
Beneteaus in the beautiful British Virgin Islands for a week.
W
hen we were first contacted by Wakefield
When the kids walked down the dock for the first time, the
School in Virginia about a potential sailing trip
whole marina lit up with energy and laughter. They were
for their “Discovery Program” we were really
excited and ready to jump on board. Being used to teaching
excited. We wanted to put together a fun, adventurous,
adults for eight years, it was like a breath of fresh air to see
yet extremely safe program for 10 kids and two
these kids get on board wide-eyed and ready for adventure.
chaperones who would be joining us for a week of
While adults tend to want to tell you about everything they
sailing in the British Virgin Islands. Little did we know
already know about sailing, these kids instead bombarded
what a great group of kids would eventually board our
us with questions – and more questions. Everything seemed
boats!
bright, new and exciting to them.
After a lengthy welcome-aboard orientation and our
Wakefield is a small, private K-12 school located not
safety boat walk-through, we walked with the kids to a
far from Washington, D.C. We had two chaperones and
near-by restaurant and introduced them to some local
10 kids with ages ranging between 10 and 14. We split
cuisine. Proud and surprised, I watched as they gulped
them up between two Beneteau 46 yachts. They were
down local specialties without too many complaints
fortunate to be accompanied by their lead chaperone
about “no cheeseburgers” on the menu. We discussed
and teacher, Seth Obed. Seth inspires them and leads
the upcoming week and went over procedures that were
them on exciting extra-curricular adventures each year.
necessary to follow throughout our week of sailing. We
He had placed his trust in us to come up with a
take pride in our safety preparation on the boats, but it
learning experience for the kids that would help them
was clear that with this group of kids we had to be extra
build their team and leadership skills. Developing a diligent in making sure that we constantly reinforced it.
week-long program for the kids that would incorporate
fun sailing drills, beach and swim time but keep the We had some fun things planned for our enthusiastic
focus on safety and seamanship was a great challenge group throughout the week. Our first morning was spent
for us. We really wanted to show the kids a great time going over our “crew duty roster” which we do every week
and share with them the beauty of the islands, but our for both adults and children. We have six major positions
main goal was to make sure they walked away with on the crew duty roster. They range from safety officer to
some important life skills and a sense of the helmsman to galley duty and so on.
importance of safety at sea.
continued on next page
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