Sailing
Waterfront
Sailing at our summer camp is where it’s at. Adirondack takes pride in it’s sailing program and offers kids the opportunity to gain experience in a safe environment on Lake George. Enjoy this classic water sport at any level; if you put your mind and effort to it, you can become a skipper, too. Give it a try — take the tiller in your hand and helm the boat in your very first sailing lesson! What better place to learn than at a kids’ camp in the shadows of the Adirondack Mountains?
Sailors have the opportunity to progress through four skill levels in the Adirondack summer sailing camp program:
- Crew Members become competent and capable assisting on the boat at all times. They learn basic boating safety rules and proper crew position and gain confidence when righting a capsized boat.
- First Mates learn on a single sail boat on all points of sail (either solo or with a crew member), and learn to leave and return from the mooring, to tack, jibe, and recover from a crew overboard.
- Skippers learn to demonstrate and teach all the Crew and First Mate skills in a sloop rigged boat and understand the use of sail shape to power up and down.
- Performance Sailors learn how to roll tack and roll jibe, sail backwards, round marks, and how to race using strategy and tactics.
Adirondack’s sailing camp program has a diverse fleet of sailboats: 2 Mercury sloops for an instructor paired with beginning sailors and extended overnight trips to the islands of Lake George, 3 single-sailed Lasers and a fleet of 6 Opti prams for beginning solo sailors, a JY sloop, a 420 performance sloop for more advanced sailors, and a fleet of 6 Flying Juniors for crewed match racing by the advanced sailors. The fleet launches from our updated sailing dock area specifically designed for sailing instruction featuring a dry-docking system and a protected docking area for safety and instruction.
Campers who take sailing also have the opportunity to work towards the US Sailing Small Boat Sailors certification by demonstrating many of the above skills in either light and/or heavy wind; and our summer camp sailing activity is offered as a double period, in order for sailors to spend more time on Lake George and have the opportunity to move through the skill levels over the course of their time at our kids’ summer camp.
However you set your goals for this exciting water sport, you will be encouraged to push the envelope as you build confidence in your skills and judgment, as well as respect for the forces of wind and water. When our sailors are on Lake George, summer camp sailing instructors will be on the water too, standing by in our Zodiac safety boats to provide assistance and instruction as needed.