Chance meeting sparks school sailing program

A random stroke of serendipity at an Oyster Bay-East Norwich Chamber of Commerce meeting earlier this year is paying off this summer, as 16 Oyster Bay High School students have taken to the waves as apprentice sailors at the Oakcliff Sailing Center. They began the program on July 27, and have been busy in recent weeks learning everything from from rigging and maintenance to working as a team in maneuvering vessels that compete in sailing events around the world.

The program, a partnership between Oakcliff and the Oyster Bay-East Norwich School District, grew out of a chance meeting between an Oakcliff staff member and the district’s new superintendent, Dr. Francesco Ianni.

“I happened to meet Dr. Ianni at a chamber meeting in April,” Dawn Reilly, Oakcliff’s executive director, recounted. “We got to talking, and it turned out he grew up in the same hometown as the skipper of the Italian America’s Cup team, Francesco DeAngelis. He proposed that we organize a sailing program for local high school students, and we quickly came up with a program design that is completely for them.”

Oakcliff had been trying to do something like this for 10 years, Reilly added. “It’s the ultimate illustration of Chamber of Commerce business networking in operation,” she said.

“I grew up on the water in a town of two to three thousand people in southern Italy, the home of Francesco De Angelis,” Ianni said. “And now I’ve come to a small town on the water on Long Island with a sailing program run by someone who has sailed against him. What are the odds? It was meant to be.”

With school board approval in hand, Oakcliff, which for 10 years has trained elite sailors from around the world, and reportedly sent six people to the Olympics this year, quickly created the apprentice program. It complements the center’s reputation as a world-class training facility — one whose residential program for students has grown from a summertime affair with a small program in the winter to one that runs through Thanksgiving before heading south to Alabama for winter training. It even has its own inhouse high school, which is accredited in all 50 states.

The new apprentice program — distinct from Oakcliff’s elite program as well as its basic small-boat training programs — is designed to mold novice sailors into a team that can operate a large vessel like the OC86, an 86-foot-long boat with a 125-foot-tall mast. Participants meet twice a week, from 2 to 4 p.m., and are schooled in everything from basic sailing skills to teamwork, communication, anticipation and even weight or physical training in a gym.

After a turn or two as passengers in the harbor, the apprentices begin venturing out in teams and, led by coaches, try out and gradually refine their new skills.

Twins Emma and Grace Curry, who take part in school athletic programs including track, field hockey, fencing, and winter and spring cheerleading, had never tried sailing. “Our school has a lot of sports — different summer camps so you can try something before you try out,” said Grace, 15, a rising sophomore at OBHS who, along with her sister is one of 16 apprentice sailors in the program this year. “Oyster Bay has a crew team, but nothing else. Emma and I have been out on the water our whole lives in motorboats. When my mom got an email that the school was going to go more into water sports, we thought we’d give it a try.” Oakcliff has been a good experience, she added.

Emma said that when she had watched sailboats go by in the past, she thought sailing was easy and relaxing. “I didn’t know the world of sailing was this much of a team sport, and learning on the spot can lead to something special,” she said. “When you try a new sport, you don’t know half of what you’re doing. But it can lead to something that you’re really good at in life.”

The school district’s partnership with Oakcliff feels to Ianni like a natural one. And after spending so much time on the water while growing up in Italy, he knew that sailing would benefit his students.

“When I came here, I looked at all the sports available, but realized that a student who may not be great at a particular sport should have an opportunity to find something they can excel at,” he said. “To me, knowing that in Oyster Bay we already have an Olympic training facility for sailing, it seemed like a natural opportunity.”