Before reading further, it is probably best if you decide if this is for you. We've put together a couple of simple questions which might assist you in making a decision about serious, competitive sailing.

1. Are you willing to make time to sail?
2. Are you willing to travel to different sailing locations?
3. Are you willing to get soaking wet, freezing cold, hot, dry, beaten, hungry, and thirsty, and still come out smiling?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you might actually enjoy our activities. Below, there is a brief description of what we are doing, some long range plans, and a standing invitation to come try it out. If you're interested in getting involved, we will do our utmost to make you the best sailor possible. Take a look... or go straight to the details.

Successful coaching of a national level sailor, or sailing team, means time and energy directed to three separate areas -- theoretical and practical training, fitness, and competition.

Becoming a successful sailor means dedicating your own personal time to these three areas, even when not actively being coached.

Here at Sailing Alternatives, Inc. we strive to mesh these two areas into a winning combination.

These are the events that we believe should be trained for, and raced in. We are looking for sailors to participate on every level: skipper, crew, able-bodied volunteers and others...

Details

Okay -- a little bit of current activities, mixed in with future plans, combined with a healthy dose of reality. Stay with us -- it's only about a page and a half of text....

Currently, we are encouraging everyone interested to contact us, let us know you are interested in training with us, get on our mailing list for articles, hot tips, and information, and assist us in establishing a nationwide / worldwide network of disabled sailors. We send out activities updates, breaking news of events, and also are collecting tips, information, data and advice from many, many sources and forwarding it to our members. This is our theoretical part of our training program.

For the practical part, things become a little more involved. First, if you are coming to St. Petersburg, or anywhere even remotely close, let us know a couple of days in advance and we will set up some training opportunities for you - either in Sonars or 2.4mRs. Through the support of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, we have the use of ten Sonars -- and we now have our own fleet of four 2.4s! We have regularly scheduled sailing events Friday and Monday of each week, and are always willing to provide crew, volunteers, and coaches for training sessions. However, boat arrangement for regattas... should still go through the Yacht Club.

The most important part of all of this is probably fitness. The best tactics, the fastest boat... will not help at all if you can't pull the mainsheet in after 30 minutes of sailing. To meet this need, we have worked out a program with BayFit. This is a complete fitness center located six blocks from the St. Petersburg Sailing Center in Bayfront Medical Center. They have trainers and staff on hand to assist people in using the equipment, designing fitness regimens, and tailoring workouts to accommodate any disability.

This is the current situation. We are constantly working to expand the program to provide a more regularly scheduled, low cost, clinic-type atmosphere. This includes assistance on airfares, accommodations, and bringing in local and national experts on different subjects. We already have the support of the local Hilton, the City of St. Petersburg, the Sonar class, and local marine supply businesses, and are expanding our national contacts constantly.

After that, the next step is to gather sufficient funding to assist athletes in getting to scheduled events around the country -- and around the world! We have spent five years developing a professional team of people to put all of this in action... now it's time to go to work.

As we are sure you expected, there are costs associated with all of this. We try to keep things as minimal as possible, and set the membership fee to cover only the cost of the additional insurance, mailings, and boat maintenance and preparation. Currently, this is US$250 per year, and covers most of the above activities. You can, of course, try things out first to see how everything works.

If you are interested in any of this, and are looking for more information, we suggest sending us some email with your name, address and telephone number, and we will have the appropriate person get in touch with you. We look forward to hearing from you -- and seeing you on the water!

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