Renewal: Put a Child in an Optimist

Two hundred years ago, the English poet William Wordsworth wrote the paradoxical line, “The Child is Father of the Man.” What he meant was that every mature concept of must have its origins in a fresh youthful idea and that the world must constantly re-invent itself in order to progress. We who sail and race understand that sailing can be regarded as a metaphor for life itself, and over its eighty-nine years of existence, the GSBYRA has re-invented itself a number of times and the child has preceded the man. Such a renewal happily appears to be occurring again.

In the 1960’s, sailboat racing burgeoned on the Great South Nay as the Beetle Cat became the boat of choice for beginners. As they were inexpensive and easy to sail, it was not uncommon to see 25 or 30 Beetle Cats on the starting line at 4th of July, Race Week, or Labor Day. In the 1960’s Beetle Cats were largely replaced by the technically more advanced Blue Jays, and a few really innovative designs such as Cottontails, and Windmills also began to make an appearance. As fiberglass replaced wood in the 1970’s and 80’s, however, a plethora of new designs, Mercuries, 420’s, Sunfish, Lasers and Hobies, to mention a few, flooded the market and ironically participation in one-design racing began to diminish so that from 250 to 300 boats on the starting line at Race Week, the numbers shrunk to only around 100, and for about a decade lingered at approximately that level. Suddenly, last summer, however, the Bay renewed itself again and over 150 entries registered for Race Week.

The surge in participation was largely due to an influx of young sailors, and particularly promising for the future of racing on the Bay was the advent of the Optimist Dinghy which may prove to be the “Beetle Cat” of the 1990’s. At first skeptical of the Optimists ability to handle our Bay breezes and chop, I was completely converted when I saw how well and how enthusiastic those eight, nine and ten year olds sailed those little boats in the heavy winds of last summer’s Race Week. Pope Gregory I reputedly once said, “Give me a child ‘til he’s eight, and he’s mine for life.” I say to all yacht club sailing chairmen, put a child in an Optimist when he’s eight and he’ll be a sailor for life, and the future of racing on the Great South Bay will be secure for many years to come.

Another very positive development, and one that US SAILING has also been promoting, is the increasing presence of women sailors in all levels of sailing, from dinghy racing to IOR, Round the World and even America’s Cup competition. In fact, the only person from the Bay last year to win an Area B competition and go on to represent the GSBYRA at the National level was a woman.

One final area of encouraging youthful activity was that seven of our young, college bound sailors, based on their contribution to sailing on the Bay, qualified foe the GSBYRA’s unique scholarship program and received their checks at our annual Awards Dinner last October. I feel confident that from these groups of young sailors, future leaders of GSBYRA will emerge to creatively carry on the tradition of yacht racing on the Great South Bay well into the next century.

In closing, let me once again thank all the GSBYRA Officers and Committee Chairmen for their support and assistance, and welcome all GSBYRA members to another summer of racing on the bay.

Phil Linker