Summer Sailing Camp for teenagers

Nitefly · #1 (**permalink**) 03-13-2010

I'm looking for a sailing camp for my 13 and 15 yo daughters this summer. Does anyone have recommendations? In Maryland would be ideal, but travel would be fine for the right camp.

jaschrumpf · #2 (**permalink**) 03-13-2010

Are you looking for an overnight camp or a day camp? The Baltimore Downtown Sailing center has one of each.

DSC Juniors Day Camp

DSC Seamanship Camp

The day camp is held at the DSC, located at the Museum of Industry, right off Key Highway. It's easy-off, easy-on to I95 in either direction.

The seamanship camp is held on board the Pintita, a 43' ketch, which just happens to be the boat on which I took my ASA103 class. Cap'n Phil Schnering is a great guy and a lot of fun to learn from.

Good luck!

scottyt · #3 (**permalink**) 03-13-2010

get away sailing near the harbor did last year, dont know about this year.

another option is camp letts just south of annapolis does a 2 week overnight ( total 8 weeks ) camp. with multible sessions and they offer a non stop sailing group, ie no archery, or other sports.

klem · #4 (**permalink**) 03-13-2010

What are you looking for? Do you want dinghy racing or just sailing? There are camps that do everything from around the buoys stuff to camps that basically take the kids cruising.

I went to Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine that has a 3 week coed sailing expedition in pulling boats. It was a great trip and it taught us alot about navigation, fog navigation, camping, traditional boats, etc. I would highly recommend the program but it might not be what your kids are looking for if they prefer small, high performance boats.

Nitefly · #5 (**permalink**) 03-15-2010

jaschrumpf - Thanks! The DSC Seamanship camp looks ideal and very close to me. Another bonus with this one is we could cruise to places they went to in the camp as family afterwards.

scottyt - I'll have to check out Get Away Sailing. Camp Letts looked good but pricey.

klem - Chewonki sounds interesting. What are pulling boats? As for what I am looking for, I was pretty open at the start of this thread, but seeing that there are camps out there that basically teach crewing on a larger boat (DSC Seamanship); that would be the first choice.

Saildoggie · #6 (**permalink**) 03-15-2010

When you are ready to send them for a REAl adventure, educational, highly supervised, incredible trip they will never forget, look up my freinds at Sea Trek BVI; Sailing, Scuba Diving, & Marine Biology Summer Camps

We see the kids on program all the time and they are having a blast!

Nitefly · #7 (**permalink**) 03-15-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saildoggie

When you are ready to send them for a REAl adventure, educational, highly supervised, incredible trip they will never forget, look up my freinds at Sea Trek BVI; Sailing, Scuba Diving, & Marine Biology Summer Camps

We see the kids on program all the time and they are having a blast!

Wow... I want to go on that camp! Really though, that is a little out of my price range at present, but that looks like an amazing camp.

Saildoggie · #8 (**permalink**) 03-15-2010

Seatrek has incredible programs that are SCUBA and Marine Bioloogy based, they provide safe, action packed days and even special event evenings for the students.
We are always impressed with the big smiles on the kids faces and especially their respectful yet playful demeanor.

I know the Director of the program personally and can tell you there are others out there but none like SeaTrek, the only program of it's type I would send my own daughter to.

Check out the qualifications of the Staff, 'nuff said!

scottyt · #9 (**permalink**) 03-15-2010

camp letts maybe pricey but its room and board for 2 weeks at a time no need to drive them back and forth. i highly recommend camp letts, i went there as a camper and then staff.

klem · #10 (**permalink**) 03-15-2010

Nitefly, the term pulling boats refer to boats that can be rowed. If you know what one of the old whaleboats that Outward Bound used to use is, that is an example of a pulling boat. The boats that Chewonki uses perform better than the OB ones but are not racing machines. The program uses two boats, each one having 5 campers and a leader that travel together primarily sailing (and rowing from time to time) the Maine coast. It is more of a traditional camping experience. When I did the program, the boats carried no electronics except a VHF for emergencies and they did all of the fog navigation by dead reckoning which was a great experience.

This type of experience isn't for everyone but for the right person, it is amazing. If they are expecting high performance dinghies, gaff sails and wooden masts won't appeal. Also, if they don't like like camping, it isn't a good fit. You could also look at something like Outward Bound but they focus more on life changing experiences rather than fun.