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Setting sail for a good time

One of the benefits of living on an island is the easy access to the water and the Bowen Island Yacht Club (BIYC) invites children and youth to make use of the beautiful summer weather and come sailing.
Bowen Island Undercurrent

One of the benefits of living on an island is the easy access to the water and the Bowen Island Yacht Club (BIYC) invites children and youth to make use of the beautiful summer weather and come sailing. It offers WetFeet, a class for children ages seven to 10, and CanSail for youth aged 10 and over.

Florrie Levine, BIYC's sail training officer, says that the first week of sailing camps was a lot of fun and there are still a few spaces available for the various upcoming classes. Registration can be completed online at www.biyc.bc.ca. "WetFeet 1 and CanSail 1 are for beginners," she explained. "To register for the higher levels, you must first complete the entry levels." For those who complete CanSail 3, 4 and 5, an advanced sailing program is available from August 12 to 16 where new challenges include sailing tactics and strategy, team racing and daily adventures.

The small classes are designed to teach students new skills, using games and interactive lessons on land and on water to master new abilities.

BIYC's young sailors can set sail under the guidance of a competent coaching team that consists of graduates of the same summer camps. The senior coaches are Fineen Davis, Emily Hauner and Ben Shapland. They have the help of junior coaches Reed Plowright-Wills and Samuel Holm.

"All the coaches learned to sail on Bowen Island with the BIYC Learn to Sail summer program," Levine said. "All have volunteered with the program when they were younger, say ages 14 to16. Beyond completing their coaching requirements, some have sailed with SALTS over the last few years and/or raced with the North Shore Sailing Team."

It sounds like joining the Learn to Sail program is a sure way to set course for success, or at least for having a great time. This year, a new coach boat was added to the fleet, according to Levine. She said that the 14' Polaris RIB boat was purchased by the yacht club with the financial help from a very generous local supporter so that the Learn to Sail program can continue to grow its CanSail (laser dinghies) and WetFeet (Optimist dinghies) programs operated from the Tunstall Bay beach.