High School Sailing

High School Sailing

High School Sailing is an educational sailing program for high schoolers run by Concord Sailing Center (CSC), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization

High School Sailing Coordinator and Principal Contact: Wayne Cutler This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Other HSS Program Administrators and Responsible Persons:

The High School Sailing (HSS) Program is administered by the Concord Sailing Center (CSC), which is one of several 'Special Membership' Programs that serve CYC members and non-members under the direction of the CYC Commodore and Board of Directors. Certified (US Sailing) sailing instructors who assist the HSS Program are drawn as needed from the ranks of the University of Tennessee Sailing Club (UTSC) and from the regular CYC membership. Each participating school in the HSS Program is represented locally and at all regattas by a Faculty Advisor or Parent Sponsor, or by (an)other designated adult(s).

Program Mission Statement:

The mission of the HSS Program has four core elements:

To provide the next natural step in continuing sailing education for young sailors who have already gained an interest in sailing and have learned some of the basic techniques through prior participation in CSC's Sail Camp.
To offer a safe, structured and engaging program through which teenagers from our local community can learn the basics of sailing for the first time without obliging their families to make a large initial financial investment.
To introduce the sport of sailboat racing to young or novice sailors to improve their sailing skills and to teach them the Racing Rules of Sailing.
To provide experienced sailors with advanced training and exposure to highly competitive racing against schools from other areas, to expand the scope of their skills and experience, and to promote friendships with sailors outside of the Knoxville area.

Stated in full, the Mission Statement of the High School Sailing Program is as follows:
Pursuant to the educational purposes of Concord Sailing Center, its High School Sailing Program seeks to teach and refine the boating skills of Knoxville area students engaged in the sport of sailing. Beyond the basics of small-boat handling, taught by U.S. Sailing certified instructors, the Program emphasizes dinghy racing (single-handed, double-handed, and team racing) as a preferred method of advancing skill levels and holding the interest of young sailors. The Program encourages formation of sailing clubs in area high schools and their association annually with the national Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA) and its regional organization, the South Atlantic Interscholastic Sailing Association (SAISA). When a high school sailing club affiliates with the CSC High School Sailing Program, its members participate in a shared sailing community— one instructional Program with oversight for multiple racing teams— and the affiliate club retains its separate identity only in matters particular to its membership requirements and on-campus activities. As with all CSC educational undertakings at Concord Yacht Club, the Program will afford all of its participants an equality of opportunity and a like application of sailing resources.

Relationship of the HSS Program to a National or Regional Governing Organization:

School teams participating in this program are members of the South Atlantic Interscholastic Sailing Association (SAISA), which is one of seven Districts that make up the high school portion of the nationwide Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA). Participating schools enter regattas organized by SAISA, and can, by selection, participate in the National ISSA Championships.
Webpage(s), Link(s) or Mailing Address of Governing Organization (s): http://www.saisa.org

Relationship Between Program Participants and the CYC General Membership:

Participation in the program is not restricted to CYC member families. At the time of this writing, the ratio of Program participants from non-member families compared to those who are from CYC member families is approximately 3:2. The HSS Program is a steady source of new CYC member applications.

Limitations of and Requirements for Participation in the Program:

Participants must be full time students enrolled in grades 9-12 at an area high school or be enrolled in the 8th grade of an area school that serves as a feeder school for one of the participating area high schools. All students in the program must submit a form that authorizes Program instructors to seek medical assistance if a sailor's parent or guardian cannot be reached. In addition, every sailor participating in an SAISA or ISSA regatta, whether in Knoxville or elsewhere, must submit a Medical Waiver form to the regatta organizers. Program managers have developed a Sailing Checklist to remind sailors what equipment they need to take to away regatta .

Program Participation Costs and How Those Funds are Used:

Participants register for one year (two school semesters) of participation by paying either $125 at the beginning of the fall semester or $75 at the beginning of each of the fall and spring semesters. Instructors are paid an honorarium at the end of each semester to cover their travel expenses. The remaining funds are kept in a dedicated checking account for use as needed by the Program to cover scholarships and miscellaneous expenses. All participants must supply their own sailing gear, including a lifejacket, and must pay their share of the combined costs incurred when teams travel to an away regatta; these latter costs are usually $120-150 per sailor for each of up to 6 regattas per year. Fortunately, the enormous number of instructional hours contributed to the HSS Program by University of Tennessee sailing instructors are provided as offsets to their obligations to CYC and with charge to the program.

Check-in/Check-out of Participants, and Number of Current Participants:

Some participants drive themselves to and from HSS activities at the CYC, while others ride with parents or friends. These travel arrangements are not the responsibility of the Program Coordinator or his designee. The same system is used for all HSS events at CYC, including regular practice sessions, regattas, maintenance work parties, social events, etc. In the fall semester of 2009 there were 46 registered participants, and of those 36 have registered already for the spring semester.

Last fall the following area high schools participated in the Program: Farragut HS (8), Bearden HS (12), Webb School (25), and Catholic HS (1). We anticipate that Oak Ridge HS and West HS will revive their sailing teams in the near future. The program has a realistic capacity of about 48 sailors assuming 22 sailors per practice with an absentee rate of 10%. It may be necessary to limit the number of sailors per school per school in the future, unless more boats can be obtained.

Sailboats Used by the Program:

The Program primarily uses four JY15s owned by CYC and seven dinghies owned by the UT Sailing Club (four JY15s and three 420s).As needed a privately owned JY15 is loaned to the Program by a member of CYC. SAISA regattas hosted by CSC are sailed in JY15s; however, when competing at other regattas, 420s are supplied by the host club. On rare occasions, the HSS Program tows one or more of the UTSC-owned 420s to an away regatta if the host club cannot supply enough host boats.

Support and Safety Boats Used by the Program:

The Program primarily uses CYC-owned inflatable dinghies and outboard motors for on-the-water coaching, safety and general support (e.g., mark-setting, rotating crews, etc). Occasionally, CYC members use their private sailboats as additional support boats (e.g., as a race committee boat). The Program has occasional need for other CYC-owned boats, including the Committee Boat(s) and the hard-bottomed safety boats (e.g., Whaler and Sunbird).

Miscellaneous CYC Equipment and Facilities Used by the Program:

Docks - the Program uses the JY15, 420 and Opti docks in the Training Fleet basin for boat storage, crew rotation staging and safety/support boat operation. During regattas, the swimming beach and the Thistle dock are used for crew rotations, assembly points and viewing the racing.
Racing Equipment – a set of small inflatable buoys and attached mushroom-style anchors that are housed in the Training Fleet Barn are used for routine practices and training. HSS regattas hosted by the CYC usually employ the CYC's large yellow inflatable buoys and the pin marker, as well as the CYC's main committee boat and the racing equipment associated with that boat (flags, sound signally devices, wind meter, VHF radio, etc).
Other Facilities (buildings, utilities, etc) – participants primarily use the bathhouse bathrooms and the breezeway area during good weather; on regatta days the Clubhouse bathrooms are used. Special effort is made by Program managers to minimize the impact that use of CYC facilities by the HSS Program has on access to the same facilities by CYC members, but this is complicated by the fact that about one third of the HSS participants are also CYC members with rights to use all CYC facilities. Occasionally during the school year, and only by prior arrangement with the CYC facilities scheduler, the HSS Program meets in the CYC clubhouse for social events.
Vehicle or Boat Parking and Storage of Program Equipment and Supplies - Approximately 10-12 participants, instructors and Program managers leave vehicles in the parking lot beside the clubhouse during regular practices. No non-CYC boats or non-CYC equipment is stored on the property. The Program provides it's own non-perishable food-related supplies, and stores them in one designated cupboard in the CYC galley.

Approximate Weekly Hours and Days of Regular Program Activities:

The HSS Program is active only during the regular school year (and observes all breaks that occur within the fall and spring semesters). During the warmer parts of each semester, the Program meets for weekly on-the-water and/or on-shore instruction every Monday and Tuesday afternoon (approximately from 4PM until a little before dark). When the water and weather conditions are unsuitable for sailing (e.g., during winter months ), the program is usually reduced to a single Monday or Tuesday meeting each week for classroom-style instruction between 4 and 6pm.

Limitations on Access to CYC property and Facilities and Equipment:

Program participants, instructors and administrators who are not CYC members or guests of members are only allowed on the property during designated HSS Program events (e.g., scheduled practice sessions, regattas, and approved social events), and only have access to those CYC facilities and equipment that are used as part of the Program. Persons associated only with HSS may be given a special gate code number, but will not be given any keys to any club facilities.

Safety issues associated with the Program, and how they are managed:

Swimming - all newly enrolled participants must pass a specific swimming test under the supervision of a qualified sailing instructor, performed without a lifejacket.
Lifejackets – at all time while on the water, whether anchored or moving, all participants, instructors, and other adults assisting with the program who are on a CYC- or UTSC-owned sailboat or motorboat wear a lifejacket. The owners of privately owned support boats assisting with the Program (e.g., keelboats serving as race committee boats) are encouraged to wear a lifejacket.
Capsize recovery – before any other kind of sailing instruction begins, all participants will be taught how one person or two can right a capsized JY15. Each participant will then demonstrate to an instructor that they can right the boat by themselves. Sailors whoa are too light to right the boat by themselves will be able to perform the drill paired with another light sailor.
Motorboats – motorized support and safety boats are a potential hazard. Instructors are the main motorboat operators during regular on-water practices. Occasionally, others will operate safety/support boats under the direction of the instructors. These helpers will have prior experience operating the type of boat in question. In all cases, and in accordance with TN state law, all motorboat operators born after 1989 and associated with the HSS Program will have a current TN Boating Safety Education Certificate. (http://www.boat-ed.com/tn/course/p4-3_whomayoperate.htm)

Description of a typical session of the Program that is the subject of this document:

During a regular on-water HSS Program practice day, participants begin arriving around 4pm and sign-in under the breezeway. They have a light snack and a drink there, and then get changed for sailing. They then meet their instructors at the JY Barn and begin rigging boats. Before sailors leave the dock, instructors get sufficient safety boats (inflatables, usually) ready. All on-water Program participants put on life jackets and leave the dock under the supervision of an instructor. Usually, participants are divided into two groups (often by school affiliation or by sailing ability) according to the instructors' coaching plans for the day.

A combination of basic sailing skills and basic RRS instruction is given to beginning sailors, while advanced sailors are given challenging drills to help them develop their sailing and racing skills. Since HSS Program participants will never be taking out a Training Fleet boat independently of Program participation or without supervision, it is not necessary to require a formal check out of the JY15s before beginning the program. However, all of the elements of the official Training Fleet Check Out process for JY15s are covered as part of the Program's new sailor training. Furthermore, qualification to use the boats in particular wind strengths (as is part of the formal Check Out process) is not necessary because the sailors will always be supervised by a certified instructor, whose responsibility it is to make sure that each sailor's abilities are not exceeded by the demands of the prevailing conditions.

Often it is necessary to rotate crews on and off boats during practices because there are more sailors than available boats. Instructors use their best judgment under the prevailing conditions, and based on the availability of other support boats, whether these exchanges take place at the docks or from support boats that are already on the water. Most practices conclude after one or more short races around buoys set by instructors or adult assistants: all participants usually participate in these practice races. Upon the instructors' signal, participants return to the dock, de-rig their boats and put all Training Fleet equipment away in its proper place. Instructors check that all equipment and boats are put away properly before sailors go back up to the clubhouse. Participants sign-out before leaving. Sailors arriving at practice late or leaving early are also expected to sign-in and sign-out.

The safety of the sailors is uppermost in the instructors' and the Program Coordinators's minds. It is also of high importance to avoid no more than fair wear and tear on club equipment. Instructors are primarily responsible for on-water safety (e.g., evaluating the prevailing weather conditions, using an appropriate ratio of safety/support boats to the number of sailors on the water, reminding participants about lifejacket use, etc) and the conduct of the sailors.

The sailing instructors and the Program Coordinator are responsible for any disciplinary actions that they consider necessary to ensure everyone's safety and optimum enjoyment of the Program, and to minimize property misuse or damage. The Program Coordinator keeps watch over the on-water and the on-shore activities of the instructors, sailors and any other adult helpers, and is ultimately in charge of the entire Program: he has the final word regarding any problem that might arise and how the program is organized and run.