Try Sailing on Sail a Small Boat Day at Richmond Yacht Club
Do you or someone you know have an interest in learning to sail? This coming Saturday, April 5, is Sail a Small Boat Day at the Richmond Yacht Club, and it’s one of the best opportunities for families to try sailing for free! Richmond YC’s annual event has introduced thousands of people to sailing. If you’d like to help your wannabe sailor friends discover sailing, you can help spread the word by sending them a link to this story. It’s also great if you already sail but want to check out sailing a variety of small boats.
For some people the perception that sailing is expensive keeps them from giving it a try. Yet we all know most sailors sail for free as crew, and some even get paid to sail!
As one of the most active small-boat clubs on the Bay, Richmond Yacht Club shows how sailing can be affordable and accessible. You’ll find weekends at Richmond Yacht Club are always active because they have so many small boats, which sail more often because they’re easy to rig, need very little crew, and are a ton of fun. Sail a Small Boat Day is a day to check out sailing on a wide variety of boats.
They have a long list of different boats that should all be there for you to try. They include ILCAs (Lasers), J/22s, Optis, El Toros, Bytes, 29ers, F18s, FJs, Sunfish, Mercurys, 420s, Wabbits, Snipes, RS Teras, Revas, Aeros, catamarans and more.
The club advises that you bring a dry set of clothes and life jacket and wetsuit if you have them. If you don’t have a life jacket, no worry: They’ll provide one for you.
We recently wrote that Free Sailboats are a great way to grow sailing, but helping someone go for their first sail on the Bay with Sail a Small Boat Day is also one of the best ways to introduce people to sailing the Bay. You can help further by volunteering to bring your own small boat to give rides. If you’re interested in bringing your boat, call the club at (510) 237-2821.
Trying sailing at RYC also comes with a free hot dog lunch! The program runs from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and right now, the weather looks very agreeable. While you’re there, pick up the recently delivered April edition of Latitude 38.
See the flyer for Sail a Small Boat Day here and forward this story to your wanna-be-a-sailor friends.