First things first: I have to express my gratitude to all of you who reached out after my last column. I did, very fortunately, find out that my biopsy was benign. I also learned a lot about how commonly experienced, and how terrifying, this process is for so many people. Solidarity.
From the whaler, Bill and I could just see the top of Penrose’s head peeping up over the edge of her Opti. Her sail had red lettering and her life jacket was blue, which helped us keep track of her in the bumper-boat crowd of Optis and 420s, all gathering in Brown’s Cove for their first race of the season.
This is Pen’s fourth summer in the North Haven Casino sailing program, and her first in the Opti racing class. After three summers in a boat with a partner, often a kid her age whom she was meeting for the first time as they took turns crewing and captaining, sailing in the Thorofare, she was now solo in a boat.
And, after some initial reluctance, she had decided to give racing a try.
Bill and I followed her and her classmates from the Casino dock, through the crowded moorings, to Brown’s Cove. It was overcast, cool, and misty, the gray sky and gray water blending at the horizon. The three Optis were skillfully navigated by their tiny captains, all girls, all ten or younger.
Sailing is something she can teach us, and she tries to, quizzing us on terminology…
We hovered a safe distance from the racecourse, which was marked by pink and yellow mooring balls, and were joined by some of the other class parents in their sailboats, whalers, and Axopars.
We quickly realized, watching the Optis and 420s cluster and jostle, hearing the whistle from the committee boat, that we had no idea what we were looking at. Unlike the rest of Pen’s activities—music and theater especially—we have no sailing experience at all. This has allowed her to feel complete ownership over it.
Sailing is something she can teach us, and she tries to, quizzing us on terminology and rights of way, drawing racing diagrams and steering a tiny paper boat in imitation of the way she was taught. In fact, I had to consult with her several times on terminology for this column. She doesn’t yet have her own boat (we’re in the market!), but longs to take us out or sail with her friends.
This all speaks volumes about the success of the Casino program. Although as a nervous non-sailing parent I was initially skeptical about the wisdom of putting tiny irrational people together in boats on the actual ocean, it’s paid off in confident sailors who have learned to trust their own skills and judgment.
The instructors, teens and young adults themselves, have fostered an environment in which the students feel safe and supported enough to take appropriate risks and seize opportunities to level up and try out new skills.
The boats sailed in loops, at times seeming to zag wildly off course, only to quickly correct and come back around. The 420s and Optis staggered their start times, but still overlapped during the race. There were several near collisions. One hapless 420 sailor fell out of his boat mid-race.
“I think Penrose won that one,” some more expert sailing parents commented to us as they cruised by in their beautiful boat. I wish we could have said we had seen it happen, but we really hadn’t. It was exciting news regardless.
Other than a hasty steam back to town so I could use the bathroom, we watched the students race for two hours. As each little boat crossed the finish line in the final race they were told to sail back to the Casino.
We followed Penrose on her way home, marveling as she threaded her Opti through the bigger boats on their moorings, an elbow propped on the lip of the boat, calm and unconcerned by the labyrinth she had to navigate.
Courtney Naliboff lives, writes, teaches, and plays music on North Haven. She may be contacted at Courtney.Naliboff@gmail.com.
