Archive: Around Town

For the seventh year Hurf Sheldon took a week off from work to teach sailing.  He brought it on himself.  "It started many years ago when I asked Steve Colt if we could have a sailing program and he said, 'We should.  When are you going to start it?'" Sheldon recalls.  But it must have been a good idea, because even the weather has cooperated.


This year 20 kids signed up for the camp, 10 in the morning beginners session and 10 in the afternoon advanced.  With five boats and two assistants, Sheldon taught the basics of sailing and as the week progressed campers began sailing on their own.  "We learn starboard and port, bow and stern, stays, mast, come about, hard a'lee, all the nomenclature, and also the orientation of the boat to the wind," Sheldon says.

Sheldon starts by taking out groups of campers on a 17' day sailer.  The formal lessons in theory and practice are given on that boat.  Later the kids get to apply what they have learned sailing sunfish.  "I work really hard not to use 'don'ts,'" says Sheldon.  "We don't do too much 'don't do this,' we say 'do this.'  We give them a positive approach."

Sheldon says that as he drives around town he tries to notice whether there are boats in the yards he passes.  "If I see a sunfish or a laser sitting in someone's back yard I have the audacity to call them up and say, 'I have this sailing camp I run one week a year.  I volunteer, can we borrow your boat?'"  That's how Lisa Turner got involved.  "Lisa had just gotten a brand new boat that I saw in her yard, and I asked her," Sheldon says.  "She said, 'Will it get scratched?' and I said, "Yeah, I'm afraid so.'  She said, 'Well, maybe next year when it gets a little more scratched.'"


But the next year she called Sheldon to tell him, "My boat's ready and I'm going to come with it."  So Sheldon not only got a boat to use, but an assistant as well.  Turner has helped with the camp for the past two years.  Max Hautaniemi also assisted this year.  He took the sailing camp last year and joined the advanced class this summer and assisted in the beginner's class.  "It's a lot of fun," says Max.  "I get to take kids out and sit in front and tell them what to do.  You just tell them, 'You kind of want to head up wind more,' or 'watch your course,' or 'trim your sails.'  They learn great."

You could almost say that the weather has been a third assistant this year.  "We've been very lucky," says Sheldon, "This year has been perfect.  We had a really mild day Monday, a little stronger Tuesday."  Sheldon says the wind grew each day through Friday and that those were perfect conditions for participants to build their skills and confidence. 

"Two young men who had never sailed before were very hesitant at the beginning of the week," he says.  "Friday morning they both wanted to go out in the big boat, because they were a little apprehensive about it.  But then they realized they could probably do it.  If they could sail the big boat they could sail a small one.  They both went out in the stiffest air we've had all week and they both did really well."


Sheldon has dreams to expand the program for the future.  He's like to have permanent access to boats and grow the program to the point where it can afford a full time sailing instructor and add classes, including one for adults.  He also has an idea about a boat building class during the school year which would not only teach kids about boats, but provide them for the sailing camp.

But for now, the kids sailed and sailed.  In case of bad weather Turner brought a notebook full of sailing songs.  "We didn't have any rainy weather this year so we didn't get to learn them," Sheldon says.  And he is happy about that, because it meant the kids had more time to sail.

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