Learning, Learning, Over The Bounding Sea

Greetings All.
Today is the third consecutive day of 90 degree weather here on the western shore of Lake Michigan. It's one of those days when it would be perfect to take a walk out the the end of the Sheboygan breakwater and dive in off the base of the lighthouse. Now, the organizing committee of the 2014 Lightning North American Championships does not officially recommend anyone do this ( But we, ourselves take advantage, being the responsible adults that we are) but it certainly is refreshing. And it gives me an opportunity to point something out about where we're going to be sailing. It takes MONTHS to heat a great lake from its winter temp...

...to it's peak of warmth. As this is true, Lake Michigan hits its warmest temperature anywhere between the middle of August and the middle of September or just about the time you will be here at the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! Great how we planned it that way isn't it? Yep, there are hardly any excuses left for not coming...and we've got only about 10 months to chip away at those.

Ok, why am I wasting pixels today? Just to bring to light some ideas we have as an organizing committee aimed at augmenting the sailing experience that will be our core business. Todd Wake and I actively soliciting ideas and thoughts from people who have both recently attended a Lightning North American Championship regatta and who haven't. The idea is to try and avoid pitfalls and blatantly build upon the great ideas others have developed (steal is a word SO loaded with negative connotations don't you think?) Anyway, we've gotten lots of great ideas already. Here's one and here's what we're going to do in response.

In Sheboygan, we are very fortunate to have Sheboygan Youth Sailing. It's a very nice facility right on the grounds where the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! will be held. It offers sailing instruction for interested kids in Optis, 420s, Lightnings, Lasers, Sonars, J-24s and more. In fact, earlier this week,  Sheboygan Youth Sailing was named an official Community Sailing Center by US Sailing. Here's that press-release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

September 4, 2013

Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club named official Community Sailing Center

Sheboygan, Wisconsin — The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club, the area’s premiere sailing education organization, has been named a US Sailing-sanctioned Community Sailing Center. The center is just the second organization in Wisconsin and one of about two dozen in the entire country to achieve the designation.

The designation is reserved for programs that offer the highest level of sailing education and public access. US Sailing Community Sailing Centers must be open to the general public without discrimination and all instructors must be US Sailing certified among other criteria.

US Sailing is the governing body of the sport of sailing in the United States.

“We are honored to be designated a Community Sailing Center by US Sailing,” said Denise Cornell, president of the SYSC Board of Directors. “In conjunction with other Sheboygan lakefront organizations including the Sailing Education Association of Sheboygan, Sail Sheboygan, the Sea Scouts and the Sheboygan Yacht Club, Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club is working toward our goal of making sure that every member of this community can experience the beauty of our lakefront and the excitement of sailing, and this designation helps us do that. We want Sheboygan to be synonymous with sailing.”

The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club offers seasonal instruction for both youths and adults in a variety of boats including Optimist prams for the youngest students, Club 420s for advanced youths, singlehanded Laser dinghies, Lightnings, windsurfers, 23-foot Sonar keel boats and two J/24 keel boats. Classes are taught by a staff of 11 instructors.

In addition to classes for children and adults, the club regularly works with other organizations to ensure that every youth can experience sailing. In the past, SYSC has worked with CampYKoda, YMCA Child Care and the Sheboygan Area School District and US Sailing’s Reach Program to provide summer school learning through sailing as part of the STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

Next year the organization will also work with Big Brothers/Big Sisters to provide sailing opportunities.

The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2014. It is located on the Sheboygan waterfront where it has a classroom and boatyard along with launching facilities.

The media and public are invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony to designate the facility as an official US Sailing Community Sailing Center at 5:15 p.m. October 1. The event will be held at the center, 619 Broughton Drive, Sheboygan.

For more information, contact the club at 920-459-0755 or info@youthsailingclub.us. The Sheboygan Youth Sailing Club’s website is www.youthsailingclub.us.

The idea was that Sheboygan Youth Sailing offer a special sailing program created especially for children of Lightning sailors for the 5 days of the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! We think this can become reality! Sheboygan Youth Sailing is working to offer an experience that would take into account the sailing level of each student and build a 'semi-custom' sailing week for them. Its daily start could correspond to the hour gun for the regatta and end each day at the official dock time for the RC boat. Opti kids can sail Optis. Laser kids or kids who want to spend the days doing tacks in 420s can do that. The Youth Sailing Lightnings will be sailing in the 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! but there are J-24s and Sonars as additional options. Oh, did I mention that Sheboygan Youth Sailing has just been named an Official Community Sailing Center by US Sailing? Oh, I guess I did. Anyway, that was a great idea we got from one of our conversations and we're implementing it.

Youth sailing camp available at a very reasonable price during 2014 Lightning North American Championships!! now THAT is value for your hard-earned sailing dollar. Don't you agree? Really, how could you consider not attending? Ok, I gotta ash my Salem now. Bye.