Poulsbo Yacht Club offers a unique way to get your kid out in the great outdoors this summer!

 

Our "Learn to Sail" classes introduce basic sailing skills such as sail terminology, boat rigging, water safety, and knot tying. The advanced "Double-handed Sailing" class is designed for older children which builds on the beginner course’s foundation. See a description of "Our Courses" below.

Our All New Sailboats for 2022 Sail Camps!
We have a brand-new fleet of RS Tera dinghies. The RS Tera is a “21st century single-hander that looks cool and makes sailing addictive…. It’s packed with features that make sailing safe and easy. It comes up dry from a capsize. It’s quick and simple to rig by youngsters – the emphasis is on fun afloat while building incredible sailing experiences.” --

• Small enough for a 60lb sailor.
• Big enough for sailors up to 140lbs.
• Fits two small sailors for social sailing.
• Sailors can launch and recover without help.
• Exciting – responsive in light winds and planes readily in a breeze
• Easy – stable and well balanced
• Capsize friendly – self draining cockpit and righted with ease
• Fast progress – reduced tendency to stick in “irons”
• Foredeck & aft-deck design – leads to correct sailor position
• Modern –- great looks that youngsters love
• Safe – high, light, padded boom

Learn to Sail Program:

The beginner class (Learn to Sail) is designed for children with little or no experience sailing a single-handed (single person) dinghy. Students learn basic dinghy sailing skills as well as basic seamanship. They learn common sailing knots, parts of the boat, and right-of-way rules. They also learn the points of sail, basic tacking and gybing, and basic sail trim. We emphasize proper boat handling and sail trimming techniques. We believe that our core introductory course thrives when students, parents, and instructors join to provide a safe and fun learning environment. The environment enables the kids to learn the importance of teamwork and camaraderie on the water. The introductory class is perfect for children looking to give sailing a try for the first time, as well as those younger sailors who want to reinforce their sailing skills.

Capsize Drill: On the first day of each “Learn to Sail” camp week, students will participate in a capsize drill. The capsize drill’s objective is to teach the skill of putting on a life jacket, to get acclimated to the water and how to recover from a capsize (that is, when the boats turn over in the water).

 

Capsizing is a normal part of sailing small boats. The students' boats are “self-rescuing” which is a sailing term for floating without filling up with water, even when capsized. Students will be taught to stay with their boat, how to right it, re-board and sail away.

 

This class is designed for children who have completed the “Learn to Sail" (or an equivalent) course. Students will learn how to sail larger and faster boats as both skipper and crew. The focus is on boat handling, sail trimming, and working as a team. This class works well for those kids that have become too big to comfortably sail a dinghy. The course provides skills and instills confidence for those students who want to continue their sailing experience with a middle or high school racing team. The boats we use for the Advanced camps are Vanguard 15s.  They are 15 feet long, have a mainsail and a jib and are significantly larger in scale as well as power generated by the size of the sails. The Double Handed camp is sailed in Liberty Bay which is pretty well suited for these boats. We do a capsize drill on Monday morning to acquaint sailors with the particular issues involved with righting this larger boat and the fact they are working with a partner which is new to her prior experience. We sail across the bay from PYC and also north and south out in the open water of the bay most days of the week.  Often on Friday we sail to the Poulsbo City Docks, landing in a whole new environment that is new to our sailors, they have lunch in the City park, climb the rock, etc. Sometimes we sail south to Keyport, all depending on the wind conditions, etc.

 

The "Adventure Sailing" class offers your child the opportunity to sail and explore outside of Liberty Bay into more open waters such as Port Madison and Manzanita Bay on Bainbridge Island, and the Port of Brownsville. It offers an introduction to the cruising aspects of sailing. The boats we use for the Advanced camps are Vanguard 15s. They are 15 feet long, have a mainsail and a jib and are significantly larger in scale as well as power generated by the size of the sails. In previous years, the Adventure Sail Camp week we sail out of Liberty Bay through Agate Pass into Port Madison on Bainbridge Island which is quite an "adventure", tide critical, sometimes we have to tow the boats.  We sail out of Pt. Madison for the next couple of days, then back to PYC on Thursday.  Friday, usually, one of our club members hosts the camp kids on their large sailboats to learn about sailing with a wheel versus a tiller, raising sails with winches, trimming big sails, etc.

 

We require that all students be swimmers before enrolling. Everyone (students, instructors and staff) is required to wear their life jackets at all times when on the water and the docks.

 

All PYC Junior Sailing courses are taught by U.S. Sailing Association Certified Instructors who are certified in First Aid and CPR by The American Red Cross and/or The U.S. Sailing Association.