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July 8, 2006
Sag Harbor, NY
Host club: Breakwater Yacht Club
Event Chair: Charlene Kagel, ckagel@town.southampton.ny.us
Southampton
West Newspaper, July 13, 2006, Sports & Outdoors
Testing Out Uncharted Waters
By Cailin
Brophy
This past Saturday was far from a typical one for the
more than 30 girls who took part in the Adventuresail
program at the Breakwater Yacht Club in Sag Harbor.
Outfitted with life jackets and brimming with
enthusiasm and curiosity, these young teens came from groups
across Long Island such as the Big Brothers/Big Sisters and
Little Flower—a children’s home in Wading River—to peer over
the fence at a side of the world that has never been
accessible to them.
Several members of the club volunteered their time,
knowledge and vessels to give the girls a taste of sailing,
participating in a race in the nearby waters while giving
the teens a brief introduction to sailing terminology and
operating a sailboat. But even if the girls don’t remember
the difference between starboard and port or bow and stern,
it was obvious by the expressions on their faces and the
excited chatter on the docks after the race that it wasn’t
an experience any of them would soon forget.
“My favorite part was crossing that finish line,”
15-year-old Nicole D’Agostino of Wantagh said after the
race. Nicole and several other girls had the privilege of
racing aboard Fred Stelle’s boat ACE, a perennial winner
during the Wednesday night racing series at Breakwater.
D’Agostino and the rest of the crew playfully taunted their
peers on the sail back to the boat slips after the race,
which ACE won in convincing fashion.
During the second leg of the race, with the wind
dying down significantly, Stelle let crew mates Jack Reiser
and Chris Dowling take the wheel while he spoke to the girls
about sailing and his own personal experiences. D’Agostino
said both she and her peers were particularly interested in
hearing about Stelle’s recent participation in the Newport
to Bermuda race, where both he, Dowling and several other
crew members raced from Rhode Island to Bermuda over the
course of four days.
A young girl named Talia, also on board ACE, said she
was interested in hearing about the race as well. “It was
cool that they went there nonstop,” she said. “At the
beginning of the race, I was a little bored, but after we
were talking, I got into it.”
Talia was given the all-important task of raising the
mainsail, done with a simple push of a button, which she
carried out flawlessly, a broad grin on her face the entire
time.
Winning the race gave Talia a thrill as well, perhaps
the most of all her fellow peers.
“I can’t believe we took first place!” she said
breathlessly after the race. “We beat everybody. And I got
to put my feet in the water.” Nicole excitedly mentioned her
delight at the sights during the course of the race.
“We saw a seal sitting on the rock and lots of
jellyfish.”
Knowing how big of a difference these simple
pleasures—ones that most Sag Harbor and part-time summer
residents take for granted—mean to these girls is what has
kept director Charlene Kagel devoted to bringing
Adventuresail to the Breakwater Yacht Club for the past
seven years.
“It’s for at-risk girls, to introduce them to a
non-traditional female sport,” she said. “Everyone always
has a great time.”
Kagel, the Southampton Town Comptroller, became
interested in the national program after seeing an article
in Sailing Magazine. She then contacted president of
National Women’s Sailing Association, Val Cook, who has
coordinated Adventuresail programs in Wisconsin, Boston and
other areas and shared her desire to offer the opportunity
to underprivileged girls across Long Island.
The program received a big boost after the first year
when it was offered a $1,000 human services grant from
Southampton Town. Kagel said she wasn’t even aware that the
program would qualify for such a grant until Town Supervisor
Patrick “Skip” Heaney saw a photo from the event on her desk
at work, asked her about it, and told her to apply for the
grant.
“We receive the grant every year and it’s great
because it covers the cost of food and the trophies,” Kagel
said before Saturday’s race. “Before that, we really had to
scramble for money and donations.”
Kagel added that the Bridgehampton National Bank has
been a generous supporter, providing gift bags for all
participants.
While for many of these girls, those few hours on
Saturday will be their only experience with sailing, Kagel
said that opportunities do exist for those who take a
particular liking to the sport and would like to get out on
the water more than just once a year, thanks to the
open-minded mentality of the Breakwater Club. Kagel said the
club is willing to extend its scholarship for weekly sailing
programs to any of the girls. Those wishing to apply for the
scholarships must submit a letter detailing why they are
interested in sailing. The letter, combined with the
specific financial needs of the applicants, determine who
receives the scholarships.
In addition to possible scholarship opportunities,
Stelle—the commodore of Breakwater—discussed the possibility
of offering a week-long sailing program to several girls
from Little Flower this summer. While details have not yet
been worked out, Kagel said the girls from Little Flower
would be good candidates, given the fact that the children’s
home would provide transportation to and from the program
each day, which is often the biggest hurdle in getting the
girls out on the water.
With the numbers of the participants having grown
every year, it certainly seems like a realistic possibility
that one or perhaps several of these young girls could jump
at the chance for such an opportunity. When asked if she’d
ever be interested in sailing again, Nicole had a reaction
that was not uncommon among her peers that day. She nodded
her head up and down enthusiastically while saying, “I would
love to go.”
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For most of
the girls that took part in the Adventuresail program at the
Breakwater Yacht Club in Sag Harbor on Saturday, it was the
first time they had ever been on a sailboat.
CAILIN BROPHY PHOTOS |
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Charlene
Kagel,far right,brought the Adventuresail program to the
Breakwater Yacht Club seven years ago.
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Fred Stelle, captain of the
boat ACE shared his sailing experiences with several girls
participating in the AdventureSail program.
June 17,
2006 Boston, MA
Host club: Courageous Sailing Center
Event Chair: Susan Epstein
sjeppa@aol
The day couldn’t have been
more perfect for 16 pairs of big and little sisters of the
Greater Boston Association of Big Sisters who gathered at
the Courageous Sailing Center as part of the AdventureSail®
program to experience to joys of sailing in Boston harbor.
Women volunteers came from various parts of the Boston area
and the north and south shore to share their experiences and
provide positive female role models for a sport that is
still predominately male-oriented.
At registration,
the girls were given AdventureSail® butter t-shirts,
outfitted with life jackets with the assistance of the
Courageous Sailing Center staff and then paired up with a
volunteer female skipper. Each of the girls and their big
sisters had an opportunity to steer the boat and trim the
sails for the 90 minutes they had sailing in Rhodes 19 on
Boston harbor. Upon their return to shore, the girls were
ready for the hamburgers and hot dogs the shore team was
cooking up. Following lunch, the instruction continued with
learning several knots. Some girls were quick to learn and
helped teach their big sisters. Unfortunately the wind was
too much for some of the other land activities, so the girls
tucked the word search game under their arms for another
day. They arrived quiet and timid. They left with smiles of
confidence.
Event Chair,
Susan Epstein, of Sharon, MA, for the past three years said
"We were delighted to be able to have this event at
Courageous and were excited that the girls had such good
weather for a first-time on the water. It was a fun day for
all of us." Other women volunteers included Sue Corl, Ellie
Doyle, Karen Peake and Joan Thayer of Marblehead; Michelle
Tariverdian of Swampscott; Joanne Struzziery of Hull, Kathy
Hogan Mullaney and Nancy Bilodeau of the south shore; Ai
Leam Lim of Maynard and Pat Dieselman of Ipswich.
Courageous
Sailing Center (CSC) is a non-profit sailing school in
Boston. CSC provides free sailing instructions for Boston
children. Visit its website at www.courageoussailing.org.
Funding for the event was provided in part by Boston Private
Bank & Trust Company.
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As
founder of the Tethys Offshore Sailing for Women in Seattle (
Brandi Ducksworth (L) and Tyla Tatum, the recipients of
scholarships to participate in the beginner sailing program.
