It was about nine years ago when Greg Jacobs looked out the window of his home at Dyes Inlet and saw a group of boats sailing closely together on the water. He wondered what they were.
“I found out they were the students from Central Kitsap High learning to sail,” he said. “And the rest is history.”
Jacobs soon joined the group, the Kitsap Sailing and Rowing Foundation, which had been formed about a year earlier. It’s purpose is to give youth, regardless of their economic or societal position in the community, the opportunity to learn the sports of sailing and rowing.
“It grew out of the Leadership Kitsap group, and was supposed to stretch all over the county,” Jacobs said. “The group felt there weren’t enough programs for youth to enjoy the water.”
Eventually, programs branched off in other areas of the county and the foundation focused on Central Kitsap. It now offers sailing and rowing to students in grades 7-12 and works with the student who sail competitively for Central Kitsap High, Olympic High, and Klahowya Intermediate schools.
They sail from March to June, and then, in the summer months the foundation has Monday evening sailings and camps for kids who want to learn to sail.
Another group, Clam Island Rowing, teaches rowing to students, and the Foundations board oversees both. Both are operated through the help of Kitsap County and the Port of Silverdale.
This year, about 35 high school students participated in competitive sailing, forming two separate teams.
From skiing accident to sailing coach
Jacobs, who grew up as an “Air Force brat” has lived in several states, but always gravitated toward the water. He was a competitive swimmer in high school in Arizona and sailed with the University of Washington’s sailing teams. He bought himself a catamaran and eventually went to work for O’Brien Sales in Redmond, marketing wind-surfing equipment.
At 23, he was snow skiing when he went head first into a stream bed and broke his neck. That was 1982.
“I got a helicopter ride to Harborview and six months later they gave me a wheelchair and said, ‘Have a nice life.’ ”
Jacobs wasn’t much good at sitting around. Soon, he used his contacts in the sailboat and wind surfing business to help him figure out a way he could continue to sail.
“I knew I had to make it happen,” he said.
For the most part, he’s OK once he’s in the boat, he said.
“It’s getting to the boat that’s hard,” Jacobs said. “Wheelchairs don’t really like anything but a concrete sidewalk.”
With the help of a marine railway and a rickshaw to get him to the water’s edge, he’s never stopped sailing.
He encouraged his daughters to sail competitively and the oldest did when she was at Central Kitsap High School. She started in the seventh grade.
“If you have the experience as a little kid, it gives you the advantage,” said Jacobs.
His other daughter chose soccer.
The older students sail in 15-foot two-person Vanguard boats or the FJs, the Flying Juniors.
“The FJs are more rounded on the bottom and roll a bit more,” he said. “But that’s the boat most colleges use.”
Younger students use the Opti Dingy, a smaller boat that has a “box blunt” front end, so the loads are lower, Jacobs said.
And, every student must learn safety before they go out on Dyes Inlet.
“We start them out in an indoor pool to practice capsize training,” he said. “Then we get on the water. In early March, when we begin, we can have cold weather, wind and sometimes snow.”
Sailing, he said, it a great activity for families, and something that is affordable for students through the foundation.
The sailing program is self-sustaining. Registration fees cover all costs to meet expenses including administrative fees and maintenance of equipment. Sailing team coaches and sailing instructors volunteer thousands of hours of their time to support the program.
Kitsap County owns all equipment, manages registration and collects fees.
All participants and volunteers register with the Kitsap County Parks and Recreation Department. The Port of Silverdale allows use of its facilities for storing the boats and accessing Dyes Inlet.
Since 2006, more than 250 youth have learned to sail as a result of the public-private partnership between the foundation, the port and the county. More than 10,000 hours of volunteer time has been dedicated to the summer sailing camps and the high school sailing team program.
Foundation officials say that competitive sailing and rowing requires tactical and strategic thinking and physical ability.
“With each experience on the water, young people gain self-confidence, self-esteem and a sense of camaraderie and accomplishment,” their website states.
To learn more, go to www.kitsapsailingrowing.org.
