What do Fish and Sailing have in common? A Lot!

Saturday, May 16th, 2026

With only three more Saturdays left of the 2026 Spring Season, we are excited to finish out the school year with more amazing days of learning with our friends! Here’s what we were up to this Saturday:

S.Y.S.T.E.M.

Our SYSTEM program uses hands-on experiments to not only learn in the classroom, but also see concepts used in real time. SYSTEM students made fish using recycled plastic bottles to learn about the physics of sailing. Propelled by their own breath, each student created an original design and raced it against their classmates. Our sailors begin to explore how lift, drag, push, and pull forces work. The more they learn the how and the why in sailing, the smarter and faster they become on the water!

Watch our students put their designs to the test! Each sailor got to race their fish and show off their physics knowledge.

Next Level team

Lesson of the Day: Stop-Start Boat Control

Next Level Sailing Team

The Next Level Team is continuing to work on their boat speed control using stop-and-start drills. This provides them with the tools they need at the start of a race, lining up for a group sailing picture, or to dock safely. The morning has also become a great time for sailors to get one-on-one feedback on their docking skills, while their teammates finish launching their boats from the ramp.

The team also learned how to tie a new knot: the sheet bend! A knot that’s used to tie two lines of different widths together, sailors can now make adjustments to their capsize safety lines on the RS Fevas and RS Ventures.

Dropping two marks for a “hot dog” course - a tack and a gybe - gave us our home base for the day. Once all the boats were together on the water, we headed out for our lined-up photo drill. The weather was perfect for sailing, which included lots of sun and heat, so we had plenty of time to swim and cool off. Two SYSTEM sailors stepped up to sail a Feva by themselves; we are so proud of how much they’ve grown this season!

Team Updates

Our team of coaches and volunteers has been testing out a new method of task completion. With our new board hub between the SYSTEM and Next Level classrooms, all staff and sailors can see what the weather is each day, our Float Plan, the volunteer task checklist, and boat assignments.