36 Students Set Sail in Oyster Bay

OB Sailing Foundation Initiates Pilot Learn-to-Sail Program for Kids

By Jamie Deming

Thanks to the Oyster Bay Sailing Foundation, kids from the Boys and Girls Club of OBEN are sailing on Oyster Bay for a two-week pilot program.

Kaitlyn Callanhan, instructor Tony Duhamel, Dominique Igoe, Dana Berbig.

Soggy sailors: (l-r) Ankit Seghal, Max Davis, William Davis, David Wurtz, Katie Mavretich, Dominique Igoe, Kaitlyn Callahan, Dana Berbig, Jesse Abrahams, Adrianne Zate, Kaitlyn Bagan, Kevin Collery and their instructors, Steve Vilerdi, Ben Klein, Tony Duhamel and Brian George.

In a three-way partnership, the foundation is supplying the funding, the Boys and Girls Club is providing the junior sailors and administrative support and the Oyster Bay Sailing School is providing the boats and instructors. Alas, a fourth main ingredient, the weather, is less reliable. If this program is successful, it will be expanded in the future.

In a light steady breeze on Tuesday morning, June 29, 20 boys and girls in fourth through sixth grades climbed aboard five Rhodes 19s (19 ft. keel boats with a mainsail and jib) down at the old Jakobson Shipyard.

Each boat held four juniors and an instructor who wasted no time in getting their boat rigged and sailing off the mooring. Everyone got a chance to steer and participate in many ways.

In the afternoon, 16 boys and girls in seventh through tenth grades came to sail on four boats. They were in for adventure as a storm coalesced on the bay and Oyster Bay Sailing School Director Warren Barnett and a bay constable towed two boats to safety just as rain pummeled the harbor. The junior sailors learned that one of the great things about sailing is interacting with the weather.