A Lifetime of Lightning Learning...Listen Up.

As you are no doubt aware...our 2014 Lightning North American Championships organizing committee is constantly on the look-out for ways to VAPORIZE any barrier that might stand in the way of a Lightning team's attending the regatta next August.

One of those potential barriers might be childcare logistics. We're on it. Our team has been looking at ways to provide a safe/giggly/educational experience for kids who would not normally be sailing in the NAs. I'm a marketing guy so I've given the project the following working title:

Kids eating ice cream, cooling out at the beach rainbow looming, killing time with new friends, also sailing, while seriously supervised. (A KickA_ _ time).

KICKA_ _  will be available to children from the hour gun before sailing each morning until you sign them out after your team hits the dock each afternoon.

Jake Faude at the helm. Photo courtesy of Faude Family Foto Foundation

Some of the activities planned are:
• Opti Sailing in the Sail Sheboygan Opti Fleet. (Bring your own tiller extension if you are serious).
• Laser Sailing on a Sail Sheboygan Laser if you are too big for an Opti.
• A trip to the Blue Harbor water park.
• A trip out on the water in a big powerboat or a big sail boat to watch the days races.
• A group sailing trip out on a J-24 with instructors and nutritious food (gluten free options available).
• A picnic lunch at the beach of the group's choice.
• Organic farming. (No, no organic farming whatsoever, just checking to see if you were still awake).

We hope to tailor the activities to make them age-appropriate, so that nobody is BORED and nobody is sniveling while you get a beer after winning both races that day.

This program will be an extension of the Summer program of Sheboygan Youth Sailing
http://www.youthsailingclub.us and be staffed with its certified instructors and use its facilities.
Here is a link to a webcam on top of their building. Please do NOT go there now:
http://youthsailing.axiscam.net/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.swf

The ballpark cost of the Kick A_ _ week would be in the $350 neighborhood/camper.

Here's What We Need From You:
We are building the structure around this week. And to do so, we need some idea of how many instructors to retain. I think I know of 9 students right now who are likely to enroll. Without violating any one's privacy:
3 are girls under 12 from South Carolina
2 are girls under 12 from Western New York
1 is a girl under 12 from Chicago
1 is her brother who is under 7.
1 is a boy about 12 from Wisconsin.
1 is a 52-year-old man. (Me! Sounds like fun.)
Some of these kids are already Opti legends. Some will be by next August. Some haven't taken sailing lessons yet at all. All of them will have a Kick A_ _ time. We could accommodate 3X this number of kids if we could get them.

Do you know some kids who will participate?
Please comment to this post to let us know if you could be interested. We need to get an idea of how to scale the offering.

Have you ever waved to your child as you rounded the weather mark leading the blue fleet at a North American Championship while they were in a beautiful powerboat noshing on nutritious food (gluten free options available?) You haven't have you?! And you say you like to live life to the fullest...