The mission of the PCYC Learn-to-Sail program is to teach young people the basics of boat handling, seamanship, safety, sportsmanship, and building friendships. The program strives to develop competence and confidence in our sailors in a safe and fun learning environment. Who Can Take Our Classes? The program is open to PCYC members and nonmembers children ages 6-17. The PCYC Learn-to-Sail Camp is full day summer full day camp for all ages of young sailors featuring children-only sailing instruction geared for ages 7 to 15 years old.
We offer two three week sessions with limited enrollment in order to give each junior sailor individualized instruction. Priority will be given to PCYC members and nonmembers that have been in our program in a previous session/year. Our summer staff is comprised of experienced US SAILING certified instructors and several junior assistants who will insure a fun and safe learning experience by combining classroom instruction with games and lots of time on the water sailing. Our Instructors All our instructors are US SAILING Level 1, CPR, and First Aid certified.
The three week programs stresses the importance of water safety, making new friends, and enjoying the sport of sailing. Instructors will separate the students into a beginner group and an intermediate group according to skill levels and abilities. Beginner instruction will focus on water safety skills, rigging and de-rigging boats, nautical terminology, and seamanship skills. Intermediate instruction will emphasize boat handling skills, including sail trim, skippering and learning the rules of sailing.
Our Boats include Optimist Dinghy, designed for sailors weighing 50-110 lbs. The Optimist Dinghy has become the world standard for introductory sail instruction. The Opti class is designed for our youngest sailors ages 6-13. Optis include buoyancy tanks for safety. We have club owned boats and will take students with privately owned boats. Club 420 sailboats are popular with intermediate sailors who are looking to learn advance sail controls of a larger, crewed boat. These boats are great training boats and are the most commonly used platform for both high school and collegiate sailing. The Club 420 classes are designed for students ages 10-17. Students will sail in groups of 2-3 per boat.