ok, finally getting around to throwing our experiences with youth sailing into the mix. Framework: We have 10 Hobie Waves, have completed one summer of summer sailing camp, and currently have a contract with a Montessori school to take their kids out on the water as part of their PE requirements.

We've had lots of wonderful experiences and success with the 8-13 age group you mentioned. We find keeping it simple and fun is where it's at.

We spend very little time talking about sailing and focus on getting the kids on the water. If they have never sailed before we spend a few minutes teaching them to be "remote controlled" by us from the power boat. We make sure they understand the commands push (tiller), pull (tiller), in (sheet in), out (sheet out) and what the cleat is and how it works.

We put 2-4 kids on a boat depending on size, experience, and weather conditions. Then Chip and I play pitch and catch off the beach. I get them ready to go and help them off the beach. Chip hangs nearby with the skiff and coaches them out of the small harbor and to the open water, fending them off docks, boats, jetty or towing as necessary.

It's amazing to me how much kids will figure out on their own, but once they are on the water we work our way through the boats that are struggling or sitting in irons and coach them through getting the boat moving, turning, etc.

During the summer camp the kids had the most fun and joy when allowed to simply sail around. They spent hours on end coming up with ways to capsize their boats. They learned a lot about teamwork that way.

Once the boats were flipped over they created their own games splashing, swimming, sliding, and diving. I think the most creative use of a capsized Wave they came up with was the water slide. One kid climbs up on the upper hull and sits toward the stern facing the bow. The other kids get on the hull below and together they run forward, depressing the bow. Up top the kid slides down the hull and goes for a big splash into the water off the bow.

We found that letting kids be kids is one of the best ways for a love of sailing to take root. Over teaching and too much structure is a sure way to kill the joy. Providing a safe environment for them to simply explore at their own pace is a key ingredient.

And everybody loves to see themselves in pictures and videos. Take lots of both and give them out and post them (be sure to get image releases if posting in a public forum).

So our camp format is very relaxed and laid back. Kids can come for a single session or come and sail every day (if they sign up far enough ahead to get a slot). Last summer's sessions were 9am-noon and 1:30PM-4:30PM. Haven't decided about this summer's schedule yet.

And you have to go sailing even if just one kid shows up. I know lots of folks who have offered a sailing class and then cancelled because only one or 2 people signed up. There was a carwash place where we used to live and their slogan was "keeping Pinellas clean, one car at a time." Same goes for sailing. keeping sailing going, one new sailor at a time.

Let's see, sailing games/activities. Kids love silly prizes (so do adults, by the way). Get some bathtub/pool toys that float and are big enough to be seen at a distance. You can use beachballs (not in windy conditions), rubber duckies, whatever. Get enough so you can toss at least one in the water for every boat. Write 1, 2, or 3 (points) on them. Go upwind of them and toss them out. Go further upwind but not so far that you can't see the objects in the water yourself. Have them retrieve and bring their objects to you. They keep their own score. Play several rounds. They practice many different sailing skills and don't even realize it. Back at the beach I give away one plastic lei to the team for each point scored.

Because plastic leis are cheap and seem to be perennially popular I put a boatload of them in an inflatable boat/raft. I set 3 marks in the water on a reaching slalom, but you could simply throw a single mark in the water. I motored pretty far away on the reach and tied the floating raft off to the skiff. Their goal was to start at the far end, sail the slalom and sail over to me to claim their prize, which was that they could pick one lei out of the float for each crew member each time they completed the slalom. They'd sail straight back to the begining and do it again. They either wore their leis or decorated their boats with them.

On another ocassion i inflated a bunch of goofy blow-up animal toys and tied about a 3-4 ft piece of line to each. I used 3 for each boat and we did a relay. I half-hitched each one to a line, you can use fence, tree, bush, other boat, whatever, just something well up the beach/launch area. i put a mark in the water for each boat a couple hundred yards out, not too far. The teams made up their own team names and theme and had to all be ready to go at their boats and touching it. On signal one team member could dash to get a float, they then had to sail it out to their mark and tie it to it (knot-tying practice), sail back and get their next float, and back out. First one back to the beach with all their floats tied on with a proper knot wins and skipper had to change on each trip out to the mark. Winning boat crew each got to pick their blow-up prize to keep, then second place, and so forth and everybody took home a prize.

And I never cease to be amazed by the ever popular peanut treats. Chip came up with this one by accident. We had a big bag of them (roasted in the shell) on board to snack on. There was no wind, it was hot and the natives were very restless drifting around on the water and swimming off their boats. He checked for peanut allergies and started putting a handful of the peanuts on each boat for them to share. To this day they shout from their boats for peanuts. The deal now is that to get peanuts they have to sail to us and not hit the power boat, so they get a lot of work on their boat handling skills. If there is contact they have to come back around and approach again.

And all on their own some of the kids decided one day to bring their snorkel kits with them. It was the opening of lobster season and darned if one boat didn't take home several nice lobster they had for lunch! One boat located a ghost trap, hauled it all the way up onto the boat, placed it in a different location and would sail to it and check it since only they knew where they had put it. Snorkeling and swimming off the boats is fun for the kids. And sometimes they do nothing but raft up and play games and role play among themselves. Playing pirates was very popular last summer with all the movies that were out. I heard lots of "ahoy mateys" every day. We just hover at a distance where we can keep an eye on them and take headcounts every few minutes to make sure nobody goes missing. Kids spontaneously make up games constantly, our job is to make sure they stay safe.

Hope something in this rambling sparks something with others. Let's keep chatting on this thread.