West Marine is also the presenting sponsor of US Sailing's Junior Olympic Sailing Festival program, and has been since the program started in 1997. Since then 21,000 junior sailors (up to age 21) have participated in these events that are hosted by clubs and community sailing programs around the country. This year alone, 4,500 juniors were expected to participate in 24 JO's. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />