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JUNIOR DIVISION INFORMATION Juniors Rule! Our Junior Program draws big crowds to the club for Junior Week. But that’s only the start. The summer begins early with Race Team practices on June weekends, followed by Junior Week, a new Offshore Regatta, two Fishing Bay Junior Regattas, traveling with friends to regattas at clubs around the Bay on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a family friendly 420 Fest in July, and opportunities to sail with other Junior Sailors at FBYC’s Annual Regatta, Fall Series and Indian Summer Regattas. We often stay at host homes when we travel and have lots of fun along the way. The Mission of the FBYC Junior Division is to train juniors in basic and advanced sailing techniques for a lifetime of sailing. The Objectives of the Junior Division are for each junior to learn to sail, enjoy sailing, learn to race and participate in racing. How does the Junior Division do this? Great coaches. Our coaches work for FBYC full time in the summer - from early June through mid August. The coaches are at the club to teach our juniors by appointment and to travel with the Junior team. Please use them as a resource and they can be reached as follows:
Good equipment. We own a number of Optis, 2 Lasers, a Byte, 7 420s, and 2 junior windsurfers which are available for use by members. For any race on the FBYC schedule, the boats must be reserved on a first-come first-served basis through Ruthanna Jenkins. The Junior Shed stores sails, masts, buoys, etc. We have a new Junior Coaches Boat for the coaches to use to teach at FB and to use when traveling to away events. Parent and junior volunteers run the program. Some of their names are listed on page 3 of the Sailing Events Book. This year's officers are Lt. Commander, Kelly O'Toole for on-shore management, a Race Committee Chair, Melanie Crittenden, and a Communications Officer - Noel Clinard to help provide information to parents and juniors about the programs. All Junior events need additional volunteers for safety boats, race committees, social duties, etc. The club’s programs are a three way partnership between the club volunteers, coaches and parents. Diverse schedule with something for all. The events are summarized below: FBYC Junior Events - Non-Racing "I loved my 5 years at Fishing Bay's Junior Week, but I never raced. However, the sailing skills I learned at Fishing Bay enabled me to try out for the sailing team in college. I made it and became Captain of the Dartmouth women's team. Thank you so much!" Alice Nelson We host non-racing events where juniors can learn to sail and enjoy the water.
FBYC One Design Events - Racing The Spring Series, the Fall Series, the Annual Regatta, and the Indian Summer Regattas are One Design Events for all One Design sailors, adults and juniors. Two Junior Regattas are also held, and are great family events. FBYC Junior Regattas - Racing "I think I speak for the kids I raced with, when I say that we really got into doing the regattas because of the other kids on the FB team, the great coaches, and the laid-back environment which still kept a focus on racing excellence when on the racecourse." Caroline Garrett We host 2 junior racing events - The Summer Junior Regatta and the August Junior Regatta. Juniors from other clubs come to FBYC to race in our regattas. Our regattas are very popular with visitors because of the great sailing conditions on Fishing Bay for smaller boats - protected smooth waters, good winds and great visibility for parents. Junior Regattas are designed to be fun. A first time racer can join the Green Fleet in an Opti. They always have a separate start which makes it easy for beginners. At FBYC regattas, on-the-water coaching is allowed for Green Fleeters in the back half of the fleet. More experienced juniors can join the Red, White or Blue Optimist fleets or sail a Byte, Laser, Laser Radial. A team of two juniors may borrow one of FBYC's 420s’s if they are not reserved by Racing Team members. Club Opti's are also available for loan. At the end of the regattas there are always great trophies and a fun cookout at the clubhouse. Juniors who would like the opportunity to race on big boats with the Offshore division finally get an opportunity on Saturday, June 21st. Two around the buoys races on big boats with special sailing instructions requiring one junior crewmember for every adult crewmember on board, and a junior sailor driving at least fifty (50) percent of the course, insures that junior sailors will get a lot of experience. Details of this event are listed under Offshore Events. FBYC Traveling Junior Events - Racing "When I was around 10-14 I traveled to as many regattas as I could. We'd pile in Rob Wardwell's conversion van and ride up to the regatta. The ride was almost as fun as the race. Rob would have music on and we'd just mess around and have a good time. The races were always fun even if you did horribly, which often happened to me. It was fun sailing around with kids your age and meeting new people and swimming and bailer fights were always an option. After the races there were often cookouts and heated games of ultimate frisbee, a great game, would break out. One summer when I was eleven, I traveled to tons of regattas and it was definitely one of the more fun summers I've ever had." Daniel Thompson "Go on the road with the FBYC team. You won't want to come back....home that is." Parker Garrett Any junior is welcome to join the Traveling Junior Team. In years past, we have had as many as 15 -20 FBYC Juniors travel together to regattas at other Clubs - Hampton, Annapolis, West River, Gibson Island, Tred Avon, etc. The coaches transport the boats, and parents go along as drivers and to support the group. The parents and coaches help the racers get organized and the coaches coach the participants between races. In 2003, a parent volunteer will help coordinate each race. The parent’s name and contact information will be on the junior web pages and on the junior hotline. We hope to get a number of juniors to go to traveling team events. We have selected a few events to attend from the CBYRA Junior schedule on pages 8-9. Junior Championship Events - Racing "Fostered by competition and committed to coming back by the times had with friends on the road and at Fishing Bay, I was able to compete and win at the top of college racing. With my love for sailing fueled by my memories of time spent on and off the water as a junior, I spent 1000 days on the water over the past four years. Competition brought me to the regattas and practices; friends are the reason I always come back." Parker Garrett "The only way you see real competition is to participate in a national or regional event. My first national event was in 1993 Laser Radial Nationals in Miami. It was a real eye-opener because although you may be the big cheese at your yacht club or even on the Bay, there's a bigger fishbowl you can't forget about." Caroline Garrett We also list some championships to which FBYC should send representatives. If we can generate interest from our Juniors, we will dedicate our coach resources to help the juniors participate in some of these events. In the past FBYC has produced some great sailors, and they got started at FBYC’s Junior Week and then developed into going to Junior Championships. National and Regional Championships are held for Optis, Bytes, Lasers, 420s and some of the events are nearby. US Sailing offers the Sears, Bemis and Smthye Cups as the National Championships for Juniors sailing singlehanded, doublehanded and triplehanded events. We have listed the CBYRA Regionals as a traveling Event. Ask our coaches if you think you could go to some of these events. Safety Requirements We have always prided ourselves on running a good junior program and have established safety standards. Mandatory safety requirements for the Junior Program include:
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