The First Lesson of the Fall Session
Welcome to another year of the Siebel Sailors Program! This marks our third year in the conducting program. Eight Saturdays are scheduled between now and Thanksgiving. Our main focus is teaching kids how to sail in an inclusive and fun way. In order to continue, we expect each and every one who joined to be present every Saturday. During the afternoon beginner class, we will be following US Sailing’s Small Boat Beginner Curriculum, and during the morning intermediate class, we will adhere to US Sailing’s Small Boat Intermediate Curriculum. We will be tracking each sailor’s skills development accordingly. It is not expected that everyone will pass the skill requirements in eight weeks, but we do hope that all skills will be introduced, in progress, and about 30% completed.
Intermediate Sailors
Nine sailors have joined the intermediate fall session and eight of them showed up today. Here is what happened: Boats had been put away due to hurricane Ian (see pictures at the bottom of the page). What better refresher than rigging the boats from “ground and up” so to speak? The curriculum calls for Phase 1 of the Beginner Sailing Skills to be reviewed. The wind started to fill in as we launched the boats. We managed to sail for about an hour. Most kids had not sailed since May and were a bit “rusty”. The kids who have been sailing were looking really good! I’m counting on everyone attending next weekend so that we can achieve our goals.
Beginner Sailors
We were pleased to welcome 14 kids for our third season of the Siebel Sailors Program for beginners. Camillus House signed up seven kids for the session and committed to transportation between the Verde Gardens community in Homestead and the US Sailing Center. Some kids were returning from last season, and some had never sailed with us before. To sum it up, six kids were familiar faces and eight kids were new to us.
The day started out with an introduction, followed by the “ice breaker” name game so that both kids and staff could get to know one another quickly. This was followed by a safety briefing and a float plan for the day.
Today we used one RS Venture, three RS-Fevas, the Castoldi safety boat, and the Boston Whaler coach boat. Before sailing, new kids in the program must first pass a float test. Some of the kids were super reluctant to get in the water, saying that they will never return to this program. However, it didn’t take long for them to change their minds. During the “Keep-Stop-Start” sequence that ends every Siebel Sailors Program, everyone agreed that they want to keep having fun in the water. They loved it! (see pictures below).
Volunteers
Some of our seasoned volunteers returned as well as some new awesome talent. Marite, Mo and Joe are very familiar with our program. Aryan, who worked with us during Summer Camp, returned to help with the Siebel Sailors Program. Josh, who is a freshman at the U of M, is a L-2 certified youth coach and did super well on his first assignment with us. Also new to us was Natasha. She goes to school at the Lady of Lourdes Academy. Last but not least, Greg and Jian stayed over from the morning session to help sail the boats and mentor the other kids. BIG THANKS to all of you. Team Paradise would not exist without your help!
Ship Ahoy
The short video below shows why we canceled sailing the previous weekend!