High Schoolers Give Sailing High Marks

Boat/US Magazine, Sept, 1999 by Ryck Lydecker

It will never beat basketball and football is still out in front. But when it comes to high school sports, sailing is scoring high with teens across the country.

Just 10 years ago, the venerable Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA), governing body for secondary school sailing, had 67 member schools. Today, ISSA includes 270 high school sailing programs with over 3,000 teenagers competing in seven divisions across the U.S.

What accounts for the steady growth over the past decade? According to Capt. Lawrence A. White, president of the ISSA, it's a combination of better communication about the sport, increasing cooperation from yacht clubs, colleges and community sailing programs, and correcting misconceptions that sailing is an expensive, elitist sport.

Although most teams use popular racing class boats, usually 420s, Flying Juniors and Lasers, the ISSA focus is on sailing itself, not on pursuing trophies or turning out champions, says White, a BOAT/U.S. member. Learning to sail a boat and then becoming progressively better at it through competition among peers is the real purpose.

"The goal is to give young people, some of whom don't know the first thing about sailing, an opportunity to learn about the sport and what it can do for their lives," said White, a retired Coast Guard officer. "Sailing is wonderful for teaching you things you don't know you're learning.

"I suspect it's popular with kids because the teen years can be a difficult time in life," he adds. "Sailing is so totally absorbing, it can help keep teenagers together in those sometimes rocky years."

White, a College Sailing Hall of Fame member, sailed on the U.S. Coast Guard Academy team in the 1940s. Subsequently, he coached the academy team from 1955 to 1959 and after retirement, headed the sailing program there from 1986 to 1991.

Despite his impressive racing record, White says competition is only a tool to teach skills.

"Championships are just the icing on the cake," White adds. "In fact, we get concerned when people focus too much on winning because that's not the point."

From Prep to Pep

Once viewed as the province of private prep schools in New England -- where ISSA was founded in 1930 -- high school sailing has developed so successfully that today two-thirds of ISSA members are public schools that include sailing in their athletic program or as a school club.

The West Coast, in particular, has seen real growth. Three years ago, ISSA had no member schools in the San Francisco Bay area. Today it has 12. In the Seattle/Puget Sound area, approximately 200 teens from 11 schools compete in a local league where there were none as recently as 1994.

In all, the Pacific Coast District includes 64 schools and they are coming on strong in national competition. Teams from California and Hawaii high schools swept the top spots in ISSA's three national regattas this year.

Some high schools have highly developed sailing programs with both varsity and junior varsity teams, a fleet of their own boats and paid coaches. But in most schools, the teams are small -- eight to 10 is average -- the boats are borrowed and the coaches are volunteers as are White and the 20-member ISSA board.

Since it could cost as much as $25,000 just to buy the boats to field a team today, White says, many teams arrange to use the boats and facilities of a yacht club when the club is not using them. Others make similar arrangements with college teams or community sailing programs to keep costs down.

ISSA schools only sail during the academic year so as not to conflict with summer youth sailing programs. Participating high schools join one of seven ISSA regional districts, each with its own regattas. Each district also conducts championships in single-handed, fleet and team racing which serve as qualifiers for three national championship regattas.

Each ISSA regatta, sailed in May, has its own trophy and the venues rotate among the districts. The Mallory Trophy, dating from 1930, is awarded for fleet racing which is usually sailed in 420s or Flying Juniors. The Cressy Trophy is awarded for single-handed sailing in Lasers and the Baker Trophy goes to the top double-handed team racing in 420s.

Winners' Circle

Despite such first-class national events with high visibility in sailing circles -- not to mention the impressive hardware that goes with them -- it's highly unlikely sailing will ever beat the ball sports in high school athletics. But that's not so important.

"Sailing is a head game, not a spectator sport," says White's wife Barbara, who handles all ISSA membership records and the annual yearbook. "You can't sell tickets to a regatta and it's hard to whip up enthusiasm for sailing the way you can for football or basketball," she says. "But when you introduce sailing to teenagers, it's a sport that can stay with them all their lives."