For High School Sailors, a Windy Day is a Good Day

Dillon Paiva was a boy in search of a sport. "I come from a family of soccer players, but I was never very good at the sport," he admitted. Then he discovered sailing. His family was visiting Oriental, North Carolina's sailing Mecca, and a neighbor took him out on the water. "I fell in love with it," the Leesville Road High School senior said. Dillon, 17, was a natural from the very beginning, said Dan Russell, founder and coach of the RTP High School Sailing Association. The program is now in its fifth season, fielding 18 teenage sailors from nine high schools stretching all the way from Wake Forest to Chapel Hill. For Russell, sailing is a family affair. His son, who sails with the NC State University Sailing Club, actually started the high school program, Russell said. Now his daughter, Anna, 14, is on the team. When she's not in class at Green Hope High School, she's out on the water. She reckons she started sailing before she could walk. "I love sailing," she said. "It's fun to go fast." These kids aren't just sailors for the fun of it. They are racers who use their boats, the sails, the wind, and their wits to achieve victory and glory on the water. On a recent Veteran's Day, the kids were out of school and at Lake Crabtree in Morrisville, to train for a regatta, which was just days away. It was a still afternoon at the lake, with no wind. Not exactly a sailor's delight. While waiting for a breeze, the kids spruced up their boats, small, 14-footers called "420s." Sailing is an intellectual sport, Russell said. "You see a lot of scientists, mathematicians, engineers who enjoy sailing. It's a thinking person's game," he said. "The skills needed for sailing are agility, a fair amount of athleticism, and the ability to think fast on your feet to react to quickly changing conditions." Like many of the kids in the program, Tori Gardner, 14, learned to sail at summer camp, and remembers that Paiva was her instructor when she first started. "I have learned a lot, like how to handle the boat in different types of wind and how to make the boat go faster," Gardner said. "It takes a lot of determination and skill, but it pays off in the end and is very rewarding." Safety is rule one, according to Russell. "It is not a requirement that to know how to swim; the kids wear life jackets at all times," he said. "All of the kids in the program now can swim." He emphasizes the kids wear proper clothes to protect them from hypothermia. Sailing season runs fall through spring because conditions are most favorable during those months. "We also have a safety motor boat on the water at all times," when the kids are sailing," Russell said. A high degree of training doesn't prevent wipe-outs, but it does give the young sailors the confidence to not panic and focus on righting a capsized sailboat. The kids sail in teams of two, one designated as a captain and the other as crew. But it's embarrassing to turn the boat over especially when it happens in the middle of a race. "A few weeks ago we turned over in mid-race," Gardner said. "It took us five or six minutes to get upright." How did two teenagers get a 14-foot sailboat right side up? "We just climbed up and stood on the center board and rocked the boat until it popped back up," Gardner said. The RTP High School Sailing program holds practice once or twice a week after school, which is tough during non-daylight sailing time months. They can participate in weekend regattas throughout the eastern United States, and if they are skilled, they can go on to higher levels of competition. Last summer, Paiva, and a sailing partner, Morgan Grobin, of Chapel Hill, qualified for the National Championship, traveling to Chicago to compete. They didn't win, but reveled in the experience. High School kids find sailing exhilarating, Russell said. "When I am close to the finish and look back and my opponents are so far behind I can't even see them, it's awesome," Paiva said. "It's unique. It's challenging. It's lots of fun. It's a co-ed sport in which girls and boys have equal ability," Russell said. For these kids, their best days are days spent out on the water. Russell clarifies. "Windy days are good days."