Opti Kids and Race Teams Kick Off Summer!

Opti Kids

Summer is here! This past weekend the FBYC Juniors kicked off their summer with the start of Opti Kids and Race Teams.

On Saturday and Sunday, Julie Ann and Paul Wash, along with coaches Claire Lennarz and Austin Powers, welcomed 44 juniors and their parents to Opti Kids and their first FBYC junior sailing experience! Opti Kids is for our youngest sailors, aged 5 to 8, and is one of our most important programs. By the end of the first day the new sailors were steering the Club’s Optis around marks under sail and learning “tiller-towards-trouble”. It was hot, so it was a perfect weekend to practice capsize drills. Everyone-but especially the kids-had a ball! As always, at the start of the class there were a lot of serious, worried and shy faces; but by the end of the first class, everyone was wearing a big smile and loved sailing with their new best friends-thanks to Julie Ann, Paul, Claire and Austin! The classes continue through next weekend.

Members of the Opti Race Team

The Opti and Laser Race Teams also held their first practices under the guidance of coaches Tommy Dietrich, Federico Norman, and Tom Pellejero. All three arrived from Argentina this week. On Saturday and Sunday the racers practiced starts, mark rounding, and speed drills, but also found time to cool off at the Stove Point sandbar. The remaining teams, the Opti and Laser Development Teams, will begin practice the last day of Junior Week. We will have 46 race team members once all the kids are out of school and all the teams are running!

Next up is Junior Week starting on June 22, followed by the Junior Olympics on June 27-28. We are expecting 150 juniors for Junior Week and 375 catered dinners, and 130 racers for the Junior Olympics! Among the many new ideas Doug and Jennifer Bendura are bringing us this year during Junior Week is a visit from a Kona Ice Truck (in Deltaville?!). The Opti and Laser Race Teams will then hit the road for an extended road trip to the Northern Bay, while the Development Teams begin practice. Private Lessons will kick-off, followed by Fun Sail and August OptiWeek.

Its going to be a record summer-for FUN! Come sail with us!