I was introduced to sailing at eleven years old (I’m eighteen now) and it was an activity that was first encouraged by my parents. My father was a ship’s captain a few decades before I was born, so being able to be comfortable around the water and sail was something that had been expressed as an opportunity when I was fairly young. I started my sailing journey with the Manhattan Yacht Club’s optimist summer program where I sailed opti’s for my first two years of sailing. After the first week, however, I had fallen in love with the sport. I loved how open everyone was and how making mistakes was a common aspect of getting better. When I was twelve, I started sailing Flying Juniors and that was the first experience that I had with boats that required a mainsail and a jib. For me, the learning process became even more engaging when I was able to see tangible differences in my decision making on dinghies, and this carried into my journey with larger boats. At thirteen years old, I started sailing in the Manhattan Yacht Club’s teen sailing program on J24’s. Sailing J24’s showed me a separate aspect of the sport that I hadn’t experienced before, because instead of being responsible for everything happening on the boat, I was given a chance to get specific with my knowledge and make sailing more of a group effort. As I developed as a sailor, I started to focus more on J24 sailing while simultaneously branching out and sailing boats like laser picos, sunfish sailboats, and J105’s. This past summer, I was invited to sail holding the mast position in my first adult regatta at seventeen years old (the Manhattan Yacht Club’s Womens’ Championship Regatta), and it really solidified for me that in both relaxing and competitive environments, I will always enjoy being on the water and sailing. Overall, I would say that my sailing journey is just beginning, and as I look forward to doing some sailing in college, I am excited to keep challenging myself and connecting with others that share this very special passion with me.

Gabriele Grant:
There are so many sailing experiences that hold significance for me in their own ways, but I would say that one of my most memorable sailing experiences I’ve had was when I sailed underneath the George Washington Bridge for the first time. This was during my first week of sailing J24’s in 2019 and we had planned this trip for the whole week leading up to that Friday. I was in a group of four other kids around my age along with our sailing instructor and a second boat with the same configuration. We decided to sail there in the form of a race where we started from in front of the Freedom Tower and raced to the GWB and back. Although this journey took seven hours in total, there was never a dull moment. In the beginning, we started with telling stories and talking about school. Our instructor was a university student from Ireland so we were able to discuss the differences in culture and the sailing experiences that he had in Europe. After we talked for a little bit we took turns skippering which proves to be an initially tough challenge as a thirteen year old trying to navigate through the traffic of New York Harbor. This was a great chance for my crew-mates and me to grow as sailors and ask questions that might not necessarily come up in general sailing conversations. As we neared the GWB, we ate lunch and started to marvel at the changes in the current and wind direction. Being underneath the bridge was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I could hear the cars and trucks echoing throughout the bridge from underneath, I was able to see how the deceptively calm current pushed our boat closer to the little red lighthouse, and I finally knew what my daily city commutes looked like from below instead of above. After dwelling on what we had just witnessed, our group began to bring the focus towards winning the race. We were in a constant mixture of shouting and radio communication that comically heightened the competition although there were two hours of our commute remaining. After thirty minutes passed, it was time for our distraction. We brought up a big storage container full of water balloons out of the cabin. Once we had initiated the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song, it was time for battle. Our planned routes for return were riddled with detours as we crossed paths with the other J24 boat hoping to get the perfect angle to soak their cockpit. There were several direct hits and a disproportionate amount of near and complete misses, but we had succeeded in slowing the competition. As we entered the home stretch of our journey, the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song turned into my 50’s music playlist as we glided into a smooth victory with the forever stunning view of the New York skyline to our left. I will always hold this memory dear to me as one of the many times sailing has acted as a pleasing cumulation of what it means to improve and grow through passion and commitment.