MAX EBB — "O
h boy!" I said with feigned sarcasm as I lined up for lunch. "Mac and cheese! My favorite!" another grandparent. Fact is, I really do like macaroni "I almost took my Aqua Cat across and cheese. Cheap hot dogs, too. It's a the Sound too," added another old salt guilty pleasure, probably based more from Back East. "That was the time on summer camp nostalgia than taste, both plastic centerboards broke off right but it's the reason I sneak into the at the bottom of the hulls, in a good yacht club dining room on Sundays and southerly breeze. We barely fetched the score a plate of the tip of Lloyd Neck or same lunch that's the next stop would served to the kids have been Stam"Kids can have just as in the junior sailing ford. My parents program. were not amused." much fun — maybe more I found a table "My parents never — with an old boat." near the window did find out about with some of the the time I was beparents and other calmed off Sausalisupervising adults. to and drifted all the They were on site to help out with the way out the Gate in a Lido 14. We didn't program, but the instructors wisely kept get back till 2 in the morning." them from hovering directly over their "Two in the morning?" added another progeny. So we watched from the dinold-timer. "My first date was in a 420. We ing room windows as the turning basin were becalmed and didn't get back till 4 filled up with Lasers and 420s when the a.m. Parents were worried . . ." advanced group returned to the water for "That's nothing," said a grandmother their afternoon session. The beginners, at the table. "I dismasted my older brothand most of the grownups, were still at er's Snipe by sailing under a low span of lunch. But even from the dining room the San Mateo Bridge; Not enough clearwe could hear the amplified instructions ance for the mast. We got a new mast. from the chase boat: but he insisted for years that ever since "Sail number 4-3-2-1, please return to the dismasting the old boat leaked worse the starting area! Warning signal in two than ever." minutes! Sail 4-3-2-1, All Clear, we're The generation gap was telling. It was not going to postpone for you!" the grandparents and the great aunts It was a confusing hail, but then one and uncles, not the parents, who had of the parents explained to me that this all the best small-boat sea stories to tell. particular dinghy had been given the sail The parents were the products of sailnumber 4321 and the name All Clear. It ing schools and yacht club programs, I was a clever ploy, but the kid who sailed surmised. the boat seemed to have little interest "You guys were all crazy," said one of in getting a good start, let alone getting the moms. "And lucky. I'd never let my to the race area on time. The boat was kids out sailing in the Bay if they were tangled up in some Grickle-grass on the unsupervised." far side of the harbor. "Yes, but we all still love sailing," "His dad must have come up with the Said the oldest grandpa in the group. name and sail number," remarked one "Junior programs today have a retention of the sailing moms at the table. "Clearly problem. Too much structure. Kids just that kid would rather be exploring the want to have fun with a boat, go explorsalt marsh than sailing in another pracing, get into not-too-serious trouble, and tice race. This isn't the first time that get themselves out of it. But you can't boat has strayed away from the starting do that under the thumb of a sailing area." instructor who, if you believe half the "This is good training for the young crap from US Sailing, is running a proracers," said an older adult, most likely gram that exists only to produce more a grandparent of one of the kids. "But for Olympic medals for Team USA. If you most kids it's just too much structure. ask me, sailing shouldn't even be in the Heck, when I was that age, I learned to Olympics." sail by getting my little boat as far away "Now give US Sailing a little credit," I from my parents as possible. Those were said. "Check out the Nevin Sayre video, great times. And I'm still here to talk from a USS Leadership Conference. It's about it." easy to find, just search on "Introducing "I sailed a friend's leaky home-built adventure sailing." Lightning all the way across Long IsA couple of the parents had their land Sound to Connecticut," confessed tablets close at hand, and it only took Page 88 •
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a fraction of a minute for them to have Nevin's video up and running.
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hile we were watching, Lee Helm, of all people, joined us at the table. "Lunch break! Like, finally!" she said. But Lee would have nothing to do with mac and cheese, having brought her own avocado and cucumber sandwich, a small bottle of organic carrot juice and some extra Mandarin oranges to pass around. "Welcome to the old farts' table," I greeted her. "But what brings you to the Junior Program when you could be out windsurfing? Or should I say, working on your doctoral thesis?" "I made a deal with the devil," she explained. "I agreed to give some talks on sailing theory to the kids, part of their 'STEM and Sailing' thing. And in return I get to use the club dining room for free for my windsurfing club's fundraiser event. Just two more Sunday lectures and we're covered." "What do you think of the Nevin Sayre video?" I asked after Lee had watched a few more minutes of it with the rest of the table. "It's true that only a tiny percentage of windsurfers, skiers, snowboarders, kitesurfers, SUPers, kayakers, etc., etc. ever compete in any serious way. The focus on race training is. like, not doing the sport any good. According to Nick Hayes, the 'Saving Sailing' guy, there were 12.5 million sailors in 1979 compared to 2.6 million today. But Nevin puts too much emphasis on modern gear and yacht club programs. Kids can have just as much fun — maybe more — with an old boat. Plus, there will never be enough fancy yacht clubs or subsidized community sailing centers to make much of a diff, population-wise. The real grass roots is at the volunteer-based clubs, the ones with almost no budget who struggle to find a place to keep their boats. And like, waterfront-park planners don't even have on-site boat storage on their radar." "But would it help if the clubs and community sailing centers did what Nevin is advocating?" I asked. "A little," Lee allowed. "But I think it's easier to change human behavior through architecture than through persuasion," she said. "The underlying problem with the architecture of sailing exists on several levels." "How so?" asked one of the parents. "I think this program is pretty good." "On the macro level," Lee began, "it's
