Sailing outreach programme benefitting Carenage youth

Five members of the Carenage Police Youth Club are using the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association’s (TTSA) community outreach programme to learn more about the sport.

A partnership between the two organisations was struck in November last year, and the quintet of young sailors has quickly caught on.

Sailing instructor Earl Tobias, who has 29 years’ experience teaching sailing, said some of the Carenage children who take part are naturally nervous at the outset.

“They don’t know what to expect. Some of them have had pirogue rides, but never sailed where the wind actually propels you.”

The youth club members take part in sailing classes on Thursdays.

Participant Amaia Daniel, 13, has quickly acquainted herself with the boat. A recent TTSA statement said she “seems confident at the tiller, using her bodyweight to flatten the boat when the wind gusts, and spilling breeze by easing out her mainsail.

“She’s (Daniel) taken her knocks and been hit in the head ‘plenty times’ by the boom when tacking, but it’s ‘relaxing when breeze is blowing.’”

Daniel is keen on the sport and WPC Crystal Dailey of the Carenage Police Youth Club says she hopes the potential sailor moves on to compete.

“When they came down here, they were a bit shy – but look at them now. They’re so enthusiastic. They going to rig their own boats, they running for their life jackets, they taking out the boats, they know how to wrap up the sails.”

The outreach programme, said 22-year-old co-ordinator Stephen Phillip, “gives the kids the opportunity to see beyond just Carenage, to see the waters out there.”

He, too, had the opportunity to learn what sailing was like when Tobias took him out on the water at the age of 12. Phillip’s been sailing since. Being a sailor, he said, means being flexible, confident and independent.

“With this programme that we’re doing now, it’s to incorporate them into the lifestyle, not just that they learn to sail, but that they experience what it is to be a sailor.

“You could handle your own stories, to an extent. You can see things that need to be done and be able to take action, not wait until the last minute. You can plan ahead,” he said.

Ten-year-old Jordan Ahye is doing well and Tobias believes he has what it takes to begin a competitive path.

“He’s a good little sailor and just about the right age to move into an ‘opti’ (optimist-class boat) that would move him from the recreational to the competitive,” Tobias said.

The TTSA community outreach programmehas existed since 2012, when sailing was first promoted at Carenage schools. Expanding its membership and introducing sailing to the wider community is a priority of the TTSA, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

The association recently acquired two boats for the differently-abled. Plans to make use of the boats – donated by Antigua – are waiting for accessibility upgrades to the compound and bathrooms.

Dailey added that this programme helps empower the young sailors and keep them on the right path.

“Let children be children. I come down with them every Thursday. They have really grown tremendously.”

Anyone interested in trying sailing free of charge can log on to ttsailingacademy.org and register for a Discover Sailing Open Day, held once a month on a Sunday.