Teenagers learning boating skills through program

PORT ANGELES — The 20 mph wind blowing through Port Angeles Harbor on Tuesday afternoon wasn’t strong enough to deter two members of the Port Angeles High School sailing team from launching their Flying Junior and attempting to navigate the choppy waters.

Captain Andrew Corson, a senior, and crew member Ben Davids, a sophomore, weren’t out very long before their 15-foot dinghy capsized, sending them into the cold water just north of the Port Angeles Yacht Club.

Just four days out from the regatta the team will host Saturday and Sunday, the team’s 11 sailors wanted to get in as much time on the water as possible to prepare for an event that could qualify them for one of 20 spots in the North West Interscholastic Sailing Association fleet race championships in Columbia Gorge, May 10-11.

Fifteen high school sailing teams from around the Puget Sound have registered for this weekend’s event.

Eric Lesch, junior sailing director of the Community Boating Program since 2023, steered the chase boat to the turtled vessel. Corson and Davids were ready to try again, but Lesch determined the conditions were potentially unsafe, so the rest of practice was dedicated to rigging the fleet of six Junior Flyers with racing sails instead.

The sails were new, a gift from the youth program’s sponsors. When new racing sails run $1,000 apiece and practice sails cost $600 each, it’s easy to see why the sport has a reputation as an expensive and exclusive pursuit.

The Community Boating Program doesn’t want it to be that way, so it works to keep fees affordable. The cost to join the high school dinghy team, for example, is $300 a season. It is among the least expensive of the NWISA’s 20 teams, some of whose fees can run $1,500 a season, Lesch said.

Its five-day summer camps — like beginner Little Fry sailing for 6- to 8-year-olds and Ocean Explorers, where kids get to put on wetsuits and check out what happens under the water — are all $275. Need-based scholarships are available for all of the Community Boating Program’s youth offerings.

“It why we do what we do,” Lesch said. “We don’t want money to keep anyone from participating.”

The nonprofit is funded through grants, donations and local supporters like the city of Port Angeles, Olympic Lodge and Brix Marine.

The Port of Port Angeles’ community partnership program, which makes matching funding available to nonprofits, is a big supporter.

“We donate 50 percent, and they can use it for purchasing a new a new dock or a vessel or learning materials for the kids,” port commissioner Connie Beauvais said.

It is important to commissioners from an economic standpoint to develop the marine trades by supporting young people who are interested in sailing.

“The first thing is to get kids on the water, and this is an excellent way for them to get out there and experience that whole different world,” Beauvais said. “It just makes sense for so many reasons.”

In addition to the high school dinghy team, the Community Boating Program runs the high school keel boat team that sails a 27-foot Santa Cruz donated by a benefactor; a middle school team that sails Vanguards; and a team for 9- to 12-year-olds who sail Optimists. It also supports Scouting America’s Sea Scout program.

Lesch said sailing requires, “a healthy mix of physical strength and agility.” But it is a mental sport, too, he added, requiring students to constantly multitask.

“You have to be in touch with the water, the wind direction and be able to strategize all at the same time when conditions are constantly changing,” he said.

Communication between a skipper and crew member on a sailboat is critical, so encouraging students to talk to each other is a recurring theme during practices. It might seem odd that a couple of teenagers sitting next to each other on a 15-foot boat need to be reminded to talk, but Lesch said they tend to become so focused on their tasks that they often forget.

“This is a skill,” he told them. “And I’d like to hear more of it.”

This year for the first time the Community Boating Program will offer two youth summer camps at John Wayne Marina in Sequim. It’s part of an effort to expand the program outside Port Angeles so more young people can participate.

To really grow the program, though, it would need 10 more Flying Junior boats that cost between $4,000 (used) and $10,000 (new) each.

Junior Sally Kasten is new to sailing, but she wanted to try it because her brother, Charlie, is on the team. She stood with the other students on the dock watching as Corson and Davids struggled to trim the Junior Flyer’s sails in the heavy wind before it heeled and capsized.

“It always happens faster when you’re in the boat than when you’re watching it,” she said.

Getting wet didn’t seem to deter the students, Lesch said, even in the chilliest weather.

When the high school sailing team first started, worried onlookers would call the U.S. Coast Guard when they saw boats capsizing and students being thrown overboard.

“We had to tell them, no, this is just normal,” he said. “The students all wear wetsuits, they fall into the water. They’re happy.”

For more information about the Community Boating Program’s youth, adult and women-only programs, go to www.communityboatingprogram.org.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.