Splish-Splash-Crash! About 50 yards offshore, a teenage girl just capsized her sailboat.
She’s bobbing beside it or maybe trying to clamber up on top. It’s hard to tell. A group of parent volunteers are on the shore, but nobody seems too concerned. In fact—was that a giggle?
Righting a capsized sailboat seems like a big job for an adolescent. And the only help coming her way seems to be in the form of good-natured ribbing: “Well, whaddja do that for?” or “What happened?” Or the ultimate teaching-moment catchphrase: “What are you gonna do now?”
This is how Chuck Emrick teaches young sailors about his passion. “It’s magic,” he muses. “There’s no sport out there that you have to take more things in consideration—clouds, rain, wind and waves. You have to interact with nature. You cannot go out there and fight it. You have to find the harmony of the boat—the magic that makes that thing go.”
It’s an aquatic attitude that Emrick and an array of volunteer parents have fostered since the mid-1980s in the Cave Run Sailing Association’s Youth Sailing Summer Program at Lexington’s Jacobson Park.
A Sailing Association? In Kentucky?
If you’ve ever wondered about sailing associations, you’re not alone. Clichés abound: The skipper’s cap from Gilligan’s Island. The smug rich guy in a double-breasted blue blazer, toasting with a mimosa in a champagne flute.
Emrick, the program director, seeks to dispel the obsolete myth of sailing as a rich man’s sport. “Back in the ’60s, when you looked at Ted Turner and Dennis Conner … it was elitist,” he concedes. “You had to have a blue blazer and a pair of khaki pants and a rep tie, or you just flat didn’t fit in.”
Emrick, a dentist by day, credits the introduction and mass production of fiberglass boats with bringing sailing to a broader audience. “You don’t have to have a trust fund anymore to find a boat,” he says.
Emrick estimates that an aspiring sailor can buy a decent sailboat for about $500 if you don’t mind putting in some sweat equity doing repairs and maintenance. “That’s how it changed from the blue blazer and khaki pants to shorts, T-shirts and tennis shoes,” he says.
Kentucky has more navigable miles of water than any other state except Alaska, according to the Kentucky Geological Survey conducted by the University of Kentucky. Of those streams, 114 miles have been designated “Wild Rivers” for their exceptional water quality and aesthetic character.
Much of that water is contained in Kentucky’s 42 man-made lakes. In 1965, the Army Corps of Engineers began creating Cave Run Lake by damming the Licking River near Morehead. After nearly 10 years of work, in 1974, eastern Kentuckians had a new 8,200-acre lake on which to play.
In 1977, individuals and families founded the Cave Run Sailing Association (CRSA) in Lexington. The organization has grown (“slowly,” says Emrick) in the ensuing decades and now includes about 100 families. The sailing program grew organically out of the CRSA in the early 1980s. The program has been based at Jacobson Park since its inception.
Water, Water Everywhere
“The drink” has long been slang for a body of water, and for the program, the term is somewhat literal, since the program takes place on Reservoir Number 4, an emergency source of drinking water for the Kentucky-American Water Company (although the park is now owned by the city). There’s no swimming in Reservoir Number 4. Non-motorized watercraft are OK, which makes it a decent spot to teach sailing.
On Tuesdays and Saturdays in July, brightly colored sails pop in the breeze, while laughter and happy chatter pepper the humid summer air, both on- and off-shore, as kids between 7-18 learn the basics, including water safety, boat anatomy, rigging, knots, points-of-sail and boat maintenance.
For Emrick and the other volunteers, the program teaches kids basic values through the thrill of sailing. “You learn a lot about life and leadership—taking charge, being able to take orders, respect for authority, and a little bit of self-reliance,” Emrick says.
It must be working, based on the smiles and looks of concentration on the water at Jacobson Park in July. Many participants share his enthusiasm, as well as the workload: “We try to have a lot of volunteers. Most everybody will pitch in and help out,” Emrick says.
The program strives for a ratio of one volunteer for every two students, not just for instruction, but also for safety. “There’s so much safety in numbers. When you get that many volunteers, there’re a whole lot of eyes on the kids,” he says.
Sometimes, volunteers bring great new ideas. Last year, CRSA member Jen Adler began leading ecology lessons, teaching kids about aquatic ecosystems. “We know kids come to camp to have fun, so we provide active learning games,” explains Adler, a college biology professor by day. “One of our games involves kids pretending to be fish, seeking another group of kids who are pretending to be unpolluted food, water and shelter. Campers come to realize how a minor disturbance can have ripple effects across the ecosystem.”
One of the program’s most amazing features is its economy: $35 for CRSA members, with non-members paying an additional $35 for a summer student membership. That’s a maximum of $70 for six two-hour sailing sessions, with everything provided, including a goody bag for each participant that contains a steel water bottle, sunscreen and more.
Teaching Teamwork
In the Youth Sailing Summer Program, the boats are operated exclusively by the kids without adults on board. With this arrangement, the kids learn more than how to operate a boat, says Emrick. They learn cooperation. “We have two-person boats. One person is the skipper, and one is the crew. We take turns,” he explains. “And when it’s your turn to be the skipper, you can expect your crew to help you—and they better help. We try to teach how to get that point across without yelling at one another.” That’s a core value for Emrick. “I think about half of sailing is just communicating … learning how to work as both a leader and a follower.”
The program uses two types of boats. The younger students (7-12) learn on Optimist sailing dinghies, a beginner craft beloved worldwide in the sailing community. Emrick calls them “the safest, best boat to learn to sail on—very, very forgiving and very stable on the water.”
CRSA members hand built their original set of what they nicknamed the “Opti” in the early ’80s. “We’d build them in the basement in the wintertime and then teach [the students] how to sail them in the summer,” Emrick recalls. These days, they’ve upgraded to a small fleet of manufactured fiberglass Optis.
Teens get to learn on the program’s somewhat sleeker Sunfish sailboats, which were financed by selling off bigger craft that had been donated to CRSA. Sometimes called “the world’s most popular sailboat,” the Sunfish design dates back to the late 1950s.
“Kids love them because you can really get going,” Emrick explains. “And it’s a wet water boat—you don’t go out on a Sunfish thinking you’re gonna stay dry! Part of the deal is that you turn them upside down, and you gotta right them up.”
Not Just for the kids
In the company of sailboats, grass, water and sun, the enthusiasm at Reservoir Number 4 is infectious—especially once parents see their kids take to the water.
Parent Richard Sanchez was surprised and delighted by the level of parental involvement. “It’s amazing the way the grownups and kids work together,” he says. “My first time there—all of a sudden—I was helping to load boats onto a trailer! The teamwork they promote is really wonderful.”
Shane Tedder, who’s had two children in the program, was charmed from the get-go: “Within minutes of arriving at our first day of sailing camp, Chuck gathered all the students at his feet, pointed out across the lake, and asked: ‘What do you see out there?’ Predictable answers—water, birds, trees—were offered by the students. With a gleam in his eye, Chuck responded, ‘I see magic, and it’s a magic that can take you around the world!’ As soon as my wife and I heard that, we knew we were in the right spot.”
“I am amazed at the confidence that the kids gain by navigating their own boat,” Adler says. “Imagine catching the wind with a piece of cloth, setting out across the water, and instinctually understanding how to return to shore. Purely amazing!”
Emrick thinks some of the wonder comes from teaching by good old trial and error. “Sometimes, you fall flat on your face and think, ‘Well, that didn’t work out so well.’ And so, you have to back up and say, ‘All right, let’s think about this differently. How can I come up with something else that would work?’ ”
It’s a kind of learning that doesn’t feel like learning, especially on Pirate Day, the finale of the camp. Pirate Day traditionally includes costumes, water fights and lots of sailing, of course. “Kids like it because of the squirt guns and water balloons,” Emrick says. “But in the middle of that, they have skills to show us. They don’t realize they’re walking down the aisle for a graduation ceremony. When you watch them getting around on their boats and chasing each other around the buoys? That’s their graduation!”
He hands out diplomas to prove it—hard-won and presented with pride.
Which brings us back to the kid out in the water beside her flipped Sunfish. A couple of the CRSA members putter over to help her in the johnboat that serves as the program’s coaching/safety vessel. Emrick, always keeping a watchful eye out for challenges and frustrations across the lake of young sailors, coaches her on how to stand on the upended centerboard, which—as if by magic—results in the soggy sail lifting up out of the water. She’s back up and cruising along.
“We try to make it fun, with enough structure to teach a little bit about boat parts and problem-solving,” Emrick says.
“Comes that day that you’ve learned all we can teach out of a book,” Emrick reflects. “Now, it’s time to get out there, put your hand on the tiller, and let’s see how we do! If you’re in sync with the wind, there’s no better feeling.”
Learn to Sail
Cave Run Sailing Association’s 2023 Youth Sailing Summer Program
Jacobson Park
4001 Athens-Boonesboro Road, Lexington
Ages 7–18
Tuesdays
July 11, 18, 25; 6–8PM
Saturdays
July 15, 22, 29 (Pirate Day); 1–4PM
Cost: $35 for CRSA members. Non-members pay an additional $35 for a summer youth membership.
For more details and to register, visit www.caverunsailing.org.