Fun with Grosse Pointe Windsurfing Club

WINDSURFING AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SAILING CLUB

Two metro Detroit area clubs recently combined their resources and love of sailing to stage a two-day, fun filled sailing event that was free and open to the public. The Grosse Pointe Windsurfing Club (GPWC) teamed up with the University of Michigan Sailing Club (UMSC) to co-host a Fall Windsurfing Weekend September 14 and 15 at the UMSC facility on Baseline Lake in Dexter.

The weekend began on Saturday with a Learn-to-Windsurf program. Led by U.S. Windsurfing certified instructor Nat Siddall of GPWC, a team of six experienced windsurfers took an eager class of eight aspiring board sailors through the fundamentals. Starting in the morning with a beach lecture facilitated by a dry-land windsurfing simulator, the students were coached in the basics of uphauling the sail (pulling it out of the water), counterbalancing body and sail with proper stance and posture, and how to turn the craft around and sail back to shore. Immediately following the beach lecture, the students were each given windsurfing equipment and paired up with an experienced sailor in shallow water. By mid-afternoon, several members of the class were scooting across Baseline Lake with broad smiles on their faces. A nice benefit of the UMSC is that these students can come back to the facility to practice using one of several windsurfers owned by the club.

Sunday is UMSC's day to race and this weekend was no exception. But, in addition to the normal complement of JY-15 and Laser sailboats, the September 15 race event included a fleet of five windsurfers, which sailed the same course as the dinghies but were given a separate start. Four heats were sailed in light winds with a joint race committee of Paul Johnson of UMSC and Larry Chenault of GPWC watching out for violations and keeping track of placements. Good fun was had by dinghy and board sailors alike and all agreed that it was nice to share a beautiful fall weekend on the water.

The two clubs agree that this event and a similar one they co-hosted in June is a great way to promote windsurfing and make it more accessible to interested potential windsurfers that aren't ready to purchase their own equipment. So, more events of this nature will be on the calendar for next season. To request distribution of newsletters and event announcements from these clubs, send an e-mail to join-um-sailing@umich.edu for UMSC and nsiddall@earthlink.net for GPWC.

For more information please visit the club web sites at: http://www.umich.edu/~umsc/ and http://mywebpages.comcast.net/gpwc .

10-09-02