KINGSTON — Laurel Siegenthaler remembers well that first time as a youngster when she tried out her sea legs.

But it wasn’t exactly the way you’d expect a member of University of Washington’s sailing team — a squad ranked in the nation’s top 20 programs — to get her start in the sport.

“The first day was just terrible,” Siegenthaler recalled of the Poulsbo Parks and Recreation camp that launched her career. “Everyone was jigging their boats and I didn’t even know what a mast was.”

Siegenthaler and her sister, Hayley, were reluctant when their parents signed them up for the camp. Now, she’s happy they made the decision.

“We were forced to go … luckily,” she said with a smile.

A 2003 North Kitsap High School graduate and current UW junior, Siegenthaler returns to her former sailing stomping grounds each summer to assist in the coaching duties of the very same program where she got her start.

And she’s not alone.

The Poulsbo Parks and Recreation camp’s head instructor, Jon Kelch, is also a North Kitsap grad and current UW sailor. He, too, had his beginnings in the waters of Apple Tree Cove and Liberty Bay.

As the small vessels headed out on a recent morning for a day of sailing in the Kingston cove, Kelch and Siegenthaler watched from a motorboat to assist the young sailors as they develop their own sea legs. Once the youngsters grasp the basics — capsizing preparation, tacking and running with the wind to name a few — the best way to learn is simply doing it, Kelch commented.

“A lot of sailing is just getting the feel for it,” said Kelch, as the tiny crafts scurried back and forth by his boat. “And they’ve only sailed for four days (in their lives).”

Granted, some younger sailors start out in the “Opti” camp to utilize boats of the same name, which possess wider undersides for more stable sailing. But it’s still very much sailing — learning how to feel the wind and use it from any direction to propel the water craft.

Once the sailors become slightly more seaworthy, they move on to the Byte Class sailboats, which are 12-feet in length, and faster than the Optis, but far more inclined to capsize.

The weeklong class during Aug. 1-5 had a few beginners, Kelch noted, but by midweek each had learned the basics of racing, and was “running” — or heading downwind — toward one buoy on the course and “beating” — going upwind — toward another. Some in the class are even cutting hard at the buoys — called “tacking,” or “coming about,” to cut down on their time around the makeshift course.

“This class has come really far,” Kelch said. “I’m really happy with what they’ve accomplished.”