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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.
