Staff Writer

If you see a cluster of sails on Kennebunk River starting next week, it may be a group of Arundel Yacht Club students learning to sail.

Sailing Director Chelsea Leighton, along with two junior instructors and club commodore Bob Scribner, spent this past week preparing for the sailing program the club offers for children between the ages of 7 and 16.

Scribner said offering “reasonably affordable” lessons to club members and the community for all levels of experience is a long-standing tradition at Arundel Yacht Club.

In the 52 years of club history, he said there has been a program nearly every summer. 

“It perpetuates the love of the ocean and learning how to sail,” Scribner said. 

As someone who has been sailing his entire life, Scribner said it is great to see children build confidence and self-esteem as they learn how to control the vessel themselves. 

Leighton, 20, has also been on the water most of her life, taking her first sailing lessons at 7. Now a certified U.S. Sailing level one instructor, Leighton said beginners can expect to start their sailing lessons mostly on shore learning how to rig their boats and checking their comfort levels in the water. 

“Kids come in here and they are probably terrified,” Leighton said because they don’t know what to expect. 

Once they start sailing, Scribner said the instructors take the boats up the Kennebunk River, beyond the bridge north of Dock Square into the basin area of the river.

With land hemming in most of the water, he said the area is nicely protected and has less boat traffic. 

They will start out learning to handle an Opti, a single-handed 8-foot sailboat, Leighton said. Intermediate and advances students work their way to handling 420 sailboats, which are about 14-feet and require two people to sail. As they improve upon their skills, they work their way from sailing in the river to sailing out along Kennebunk and Goose Rocks beaches, Scribner said. 

“We have all of our own equipment and more than enough,” Scribner said. “This sailing program is one of the best things we do here.”

“Our junior instructors tend to be high school kids who are members of the club and have grown up in the sailing program,” Program Assistant Claire Julian said. “We’ve got great staff that loves the water and loves to race.”

The club also gives experienced sailors the chance to race in the Maine Interclub Racing Circuit, traveling to different clubs around the state, Scribner said. He said races are a fun activity and a way to bring people together with the same interests. 

“You meet a lot of people there,” Leighton said, adding she met her college sailing club coach at one of the races before attending Mount Holyoke College in western Massachusetts. 

The Arundel Yacht Club’s first two-week sailing program starts Monday, June 29, with additional sessions scheduled throughout the summer. 

Two-week sessions cost between $125 and $175, depending on skill level. Club members pay between $100 and $150. Julian said because the river is tidal, times of the sessions change accordingly. For more information on schedules, pricing and registration visit www.arundelyachtclub.org. 

Staff writer Emma Bouthillette can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 237.