Coconut Grove Sailing Club

Opti-Learn To Sail

Childhood experiences often stay with people their entire lives, and this is particularly true with sailing. Self-reliance, teamwork, and analytical thought are just a few benefits children take with them from being introduced to sailing. CGSC Learn to Sail (US Sailing sanctioned) classes are open to the public, and these classes are offered regularly during the school year. Kids over the age of eight sail in our club prams - which are single-handed boats used for pleasure sailing as well as competition. Please contact the CGSC Sailing Director for more information.

Optimist Racing Program

The Coconut Grove Sailing Club's ("CGSC") Optimist Racing Program is for kids between ages 8 through 15. This course is designed to teach beginning racing skills, basic boat handling skills, sailing around a racing course, good starts techniques, basic rules of the road, rigging, sportsmanship, self confidence and team work.

Sailing practice takes place on Saturdays with the Club's boats. The club, instructors, and parents drive the program. This is a great family activity where not only are the parents involved, but also siblings. The boat that your child will learn to sail and race in is the Optimist dinghy. This is a very basic dinghy which young people learn to sail and is sailed in over 110 countries. The International Sailing Federation approves it for sailors less than 16 years of age.

A regatta is a sailing event where other sailing clubs participate and race among the sailors. Once your child has gained some skills, he or she will participate in several local regattas. Racing in a regatta is a great way to expose your child to different bodies of water. Both novice sailors and advanced sailors are always under the supervision of certified coaches and often volunteer parents. Many top sailors of all types have their sailing initiation and learning experiences through Optimist racing.

The Green Fleet is designed for novice sailors who will gain experience and sailing techniques for at least one year. Thereafter, they will move up to White Fleet (ten years old or under), then Blue Fleet (eleven and twelve years old) and finally Red Fleet (thirteen through fifteen years of age).

Parent's commitment and involvement

More that sailing knowledge, commitment and involvement, are key for the sailing program to be a success. New sailors (Green Fleet) and parents start learning the basics of assembling the boats together (rigging), placing them into the water (launching), taking the boats out of the water (placing them on the dock and dollies), taking the boats down (de-rigging), and cleaning the boats and placing them on the racks. This is a great time for team building among the sailors as each one is expected to help other sailors. It is great exercise as well!

The CGSC will help parents to get involved by providing access to our installations and promoting a friendly attitude as well as offering great opportunities to learn how to sail. For more information please contact the email below.

Laser Program

Children at least 13 years old who have sailed in an Optimist sailboat for at least a year are eligible to participate in the Laser Program. This is one of the hottest programs on Biscayne Bay, and has become quite popular. Due to its growth, the CGSC has rebuilt the boat storage area to accommodate our new CGSC Laser Racing Team.

For more information about CGSC Sailing Programs, please contact:

Nick Mansbach
sailingdirector@cgsc.org
CGSC Sailing Director
(305)444-4571 extension 11

If you are interested in one of our classes, please complete the form below
so we will contact you.

Note:  All * fields are Mandatory

* Child's Name:
* Child's Birthday:
* Parent's Name:
* Parent's Email Address:
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* Youth Class Interest:	Learn to Sail  Optimist Racing Program  Summer Camp  Other
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