With thousands of tourists coming to stroll along its quaint streets every year, the Stonington Borough is always a busy place during the summer months. Whether there to visit the historic houses and buildings, admire the boats that make up the last operating fishing fleet in Connecticut, or just browse through the shops and restaurants along Water Street, the constant influx of visitors gives the village a tangible buzz.
Yet even compared with the most visited locations, perhaps the busiest spot in town is the ever-expanding Stonington Harbor Yacht Club (SHYC). The club hasn’t built a huge addition, but it has continued to increase the already impressive list of programs and events it offers, and the summer of 2008 has been its busiest yet.
Beginning in mid-June, SHYC kicked off its sixth year of sailing instruction led by SHYC Sailing Foundation President Bob Fountain and Vice President of Operations Tucker Bragdon. The foundation, with a mission to “provide the highest quality sailing instruction and educational programs to all ages of our members and the community—around key themes of Seamanship, Sportsmanship, Safety, and Fun,” is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and offers a variety of programs for adults and children.
Adult classes are offered Monday through Saturday throughout June, July, and August, and are split into beginner, intermediate, and advanced/racing levels. Perhaps their most successful adult program, however, is “Sailing on Demand.”
Fountain said, “People can set their own time to come down and get out on the water. We have six instructors, so while each day is different they’re always able to split the classes according to skill level. We’ve gotten excellent feedback about the program because people really like the fact that it truly caters to everyone’s individual schedule.”
While the adult program is one of the best offered in the area, the junior program has perhaps met with even more success. Run by head instructor Bill Furgueson, the junior program offers standard sailing instruction in the mornings Monday through Friday, as well as advanced and racing instruction in the afternoons. And as Bragdon pointed out, participants don’t simply learn to sail, they learn every aspect there is to sailing: the art of rigging, sailing, docking, and taking care of a sailboat—something Fountain said has given many kids a passion for the sport.
“We’ve found a lot of the kids are really taking off and badgering their parents to catch up,” Fountain said, chuckling. “You know we always say it’s never too late to learn to sail.”
The program also sponsors a junior racing team that participates in the Stonington Dinghy Club’s Wednesday night racing series, ECSA Team Racing events, and ECSA junior sailing regattas at local yacht clubs. And, unlike many other yacht-club-affiliated sailing foundations, participants don’t have to be actual members of SHYC; in fact 40 percent of the parents with currently enrolled children aren’t members. And because of its nonprofit status, the foundation has been able to offer assistance to many families who might not have been able to take part in the program without it. Due to this and the program’s growing reputation, enrollment in 2008 is the highest it’s ever been with more than 160 children and teens involved in a 25-percent increase over last year.
“We’re overwhelmed with the response we got this year,” Fountain explained. “This is truly a community program as evidenced by the fact that we maxed our junior programs out; we had to go out and buy more boats just to accommodate the number of kids who signed up. But we’ve never turned a kid away, and we never will. We had to hire more staff and we’re still looking for more chaperones, but it’s all worth it. The program has just become immensely successful.”
Due to the growing numbers of participants, Fountain and Bragdon decided to form a Junior Yacht Club complete with a Junior Board of Governors, leasing the nearby “Mohegan-Garbo” building (with plans to purchase) where renovations are scheduled to be finished by Aug. 15, including the installation of a new floating dock. Holding a number of meetings with the Junior Board of Governors to assess what they felt the club house should include, Bragdon was impressed with the response.
“They were responsible for making many of the decisions which shaped what this building would look like and provide,” Bragdon explained. “We were pretty impressed when it came back that they opted for no TV. They wanted a foosball table and table tennis and things like that, but no TV. They really wanted this to be an active place.”
In addition to all the programs already offered and all the growth and success they’ve had, the sailing foundation also decided for the first time to offer a junior marine biology program. Taking advantage of two marine biologists on the SHYC staff, Mike Smith and Mistral Dodson, the program was scheduled to run at staggering times with the junior sailing programs, allowing children to do both. Offering eight week-long sessions beginning at the end of June, the program was met with such enthusiasm that all sessions were filled within a week and a lengthy waiting list created.
While clearly offering much-appreciated programs that teach local children to respect and enjoy our coastal waters, Bragdon also sees another benefit coming from the junior programs.
“Between the sailing program and the marine biology program, I think we’re really helping people get an appreciation for what a special area we have,” Bragdon said. “I feel sorry for people who grow up here and don’t realize what we have and move away looking for something better. This really is an amazing place.”
Aside from their sailing and marine biology programs, SHYC is also the site of the La Grua community center, which is currently under construction. Once finished, the center will be available free of charge for meetings and events for nonprofit groups and will be available for a fee for all other groups.
Organizations like the Stonington Historical Society, Stonington Village Improvement Association, and Stonington Garden Club have already expressed interest. And while the center was originally scheduled to open in October, the date has been voluntarily pushed up to early September by the hired contractors because of another important event SHYC is hosting—the Special Olympics Fall Sailing Festival.
Home to this event for the second straight year, SHYC will host hundreds of Special Olympics athletes and partners on Sept. 13 and 14. The two-day affair will see participants leave from the SHYC docks and make their way through a course laid out in the Stonington Harbor. And while the event is only a little over a month away, SHYC member and media adviser Mike Leahy said partners and volunteers are still needed.
“We’re still looking to recruit more partners for the Special Olympics Sailing Competition,” Leahy said. “Anyone who is in their teens or older and wants to volunteer will certainly be welcomed.”
The two-day event, which culminates in an after-party, will mark the end of one of the busiest summers SHYC has ever experienced. Yet with expanded adult and junior sailing programs, a racing team, a marine biology program, two newly renovated buildings, and the solidified host of Connecticut’s Special Olympics sailing, the summer of 2009 could be every bit as busy.
For more information or to volunteer for the Special Olympics, call SHYC at 535-0112.