Sailing Team Club Sport- Meeting Monday, August 24th

Bellingham Schools
via FinalForms

Good afternoon! 

We are excited to have your student join us for sailing this school year. Since sailing is a club sport that practices offsite, it works a little differently. We will be starting our season with a New Parents + New Sailors Info Meeting on Monday, August 24th, at 7:00pm in the basement of the Bellingham Yacht Club. This meeting is for both parents and students who plan to be on the team and may have questions. Students who have been on the team before are not expected to attend this meeting. Please encourage anyone interested to be there; the Whatcom Sailing team is open to all high school students in Whatcom County. Please reach out if you have questions or are a new parent or student unable to make this meeting. 

 

The Fall 2026 Sailing Schedule is posted on the website: https://www.whatcomsailing.com/schedule

The two most important upcoming dates are below:

Swim Test will be Wednesday, August 26th @ 7:00pm at Arne Hanna Aquatic Center. All students must be able to swim 50 yards and tread water for 3 minutes. 

 

First sailing practice is Tuesday, September 1st @ 3:45 at the Zuanich Point Park Youth Sailing Dock. All practices will meet either at Bellingham Yacht Club or Zuanich Point Park- they are a 5-10 minute walk apart from each other.

 

REGISTRATION & TEAM FEES

Bellingham Public Schools does not charge for high school sports, but the sailing team operates as a club sport and therefore charges dues. Dues are usually $400-450 per season to Whatcom Community Sailing, the nonprofit that runs high school sailing for all students in Whatcom County. This comes out to are $3.50 per student per hour, and is below what it costs to run our programs- but we do NOT want this cost to be a barrier for students; we have both partial and full scholarships available through Whatcom Sailing and another local nonprofit which together fundraise to support this cause. 

 

Fall Sailing registration through Whatcom Sailing will be available on the Whatcom Sailing website on August 24th. 

 

You are receiving this email because you or your student is registered for fall or spring sailing at their high school, but please make sure that all requirements are complete and school forms are signed, and that students are cleared to participate in sports through Final Forms.

 

A sports physical is required, so please get that scheduled ASAP if you do not have a current physical on file with your high school.  

 

Registration and school clearance is required before you can sail at our first day of tryouts on September 1st. For a list of everything that is required, see the Join Page of our website.  

 

Tryouts

The fall sailing team tryout period will be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the first week of school, September 1-3. Tryouts are intended to be an introduction to the team and to sailing before we get into more competitive practices and higher expectations. It is an opportunity for students to see if they like the team as much as it is for coaches to see if it's a good fit. Students are not required to know how to sail in order to join the team, but must be ready to learn, move, get wet, and try a new sport! Students must complete registration and the swim test in order to participate in tryouts. We do not cut students unless we have more students than available spaces at tryouts. If cuts must be made, they will not necessarily be made on sailing skills but on attitude- so please bring your best! Sailors who do not remain on the team at the end of tryout week will be refunded their dues.

 

We will go over all this in more detail at the meeting next week, but feel free to contact us if you have questions.

 

Hope to see you and your sailor at the New Parents and Sailors Meeting on August 24th, 7:00pm at Bellingham Yacht Club!

 

 

Best,

 

High School Sailing Coaches Anna and Cooper

Thank you,
Anna Morrow
Bellingham Schools Athletics

Click here to access FinalForms

Fall Sailing 2026!

Good afternoon,

Here is our schedule for fall 2026 of the sailing team! If you all have any friends or family you think would be interested, please send them our way. 

**For our graduated seniors**: please give us updated contact info if you would like to stay in touch for alumni events! We will soon be updating this mailing list to include only current sailors and parents.

Our New Parent/Sailor Interest meeting will be next Monday, August 24th, at 7:00pm at Bellingham Yacht Club- NOT August 17th as was incorrectly on the website.

The Whatcom Sailing website is now updated with the Fall 2026 schedule:

Practice: Tuesdays & Thursdays*, 3:45-6:30pm

On land practice aka Team meetings every other Wednesday

Where: Zuanich Park Youth Sailing Dock (or Bellingham Yacht Club (BYC) basement in inclement weather, we will message on Remind if that is the case)

New Sailor/Parent Meeting - Monday, Aug 24, 7:00pm at Bellingham Yacht Club
Swim Test - Wednesday, Aug 26th at 7:00pm at Arne Hanna Aquatic Center
Tryouts: On Water and On Land Practice - Sep 1, 2, 3, 3:45pm-6:30pm each day ‍All Parents + Sailors Meeting - Monday, Sep 7th, 7:00pm at BYC basement
Normal Tues/Thurs Practice Schedule Starts Sep 8th
First Regatta - Sep 19 / 20
Last Regatta - Oct 31 / Nov 1Last Regatta - Oct 31 / Nov 1
Last Practice - Nov 5
End of Season Party - TBD, early November

*On high school early release Thursdays we may practice starting at 2:45pm- more details to follow at the new parent meeting and all parents and sailors meetings

Fall Registration through Whatcom Sailing website will go live on Monday, August 24th!

Please let us know if you have any questions in the time until then. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Best,

Anna

Summer ILCA (Laser) Racing

Hi everyone,

This summer, I'll be coaching an ILCA (Laser) Team out of CBC. ILCAs are performance single-handed boats that are sailed from learn-to-sail programs to the olympics. They are a very popular sailboat for youth sailing as they have multiple different sail sizes depending on size of sailor. They are highly tunable boats that push sailors both mentally and physically. 

We will be attending regattas in the Northwest Youth Racing Circuit (NWYRC) summer series. It is a series of big regattas with 150+ sailors across 5 different kinds of boats and is great competitive racing. The ILCA fleets are huge, usually with 20 to 25 boats at regattas.

The summer season runs from June 24th to August 28th. We have two practices and one race night each week. The team will attend four NWYRC regattas and two local smaller regattas. More info linked here.

Summer Sailing is different from High School sailing in a couple of ways. The biggest is there is no rotating at regattas. Each sailor will race all day and be supported by me on a coach boat. Food/water/coaching between each race. This allows for each sailor to get more on the water time and more racing! Because of this, the race team is limited to 10 sailors.

The Community Boating Center offers both full and partial scholarships for programs including the race team. We do not want cost to be a reason for not joining; If you are a sailor looking to improve and compete, let's get you on the water! Please fill out the online Scholarship form if needed. Let me know if you have any questions about scholarships. 

ILCAs are incredibly fun boats to sail in Bellingham breeze. Summer racing offers high level regattas with amazing weather. ILCA sailing is the best way to grow racing skills and confidence. I find that it transfers back to FJ sailing for high school racing. I recommend talking with seniors Avery or Bella about what the team is like from the sailor's perspective tomorrow at the end of season party. They are both captains on the high school team and raced ILCAs for multiple summers.

I know that summer is a busy time. If you are interested in summer racing but worried about it being too big of a commitment or missing practices or regattas, please let me know and we can discuss options. The goal is to get sailors on the water and racing at a high level, let's make it happen!

Let me know if you are interested in learning more. I'll be happy to discuss more at the end of season party tomorrow.

Thanks,

Cooper   

End-of-Season Party, Awards, Potluck, Swimming

Good morning everyone,

Thank you for an awesome season of sailing! 

We are excited to see you all at the end-of-season party tomorrow, Thursday, May 28th from 4-7pm at the Andress' families house. Their address is 2786 Northshore Rd. This is the same location as last spring. Please carpool- parking is limited! 

For those that haven't been there before, it is an awesome spot on the shore of Lake Whatcom with swimming and possibly even some sailing if the weather allows. Please bring a swimsuit or PFD if you plan to swim or sail. 

This will be a potluck so please bring something to share. RSVP by signing up your name, a dish to share, or any allergies etc. on this spreadsheet: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E7huMOdd_oM3ytKfyIjKE0SFA9--c3YB7qGQXOLIp1E/edit?usp=sharing

Captains and coaches will be giving out end-of-the-year awards at the party. If anyone cannot make it, please let us know. 

Thanks again for a great season and we look forward to seeing you all there!

Best,

Anna and Cooper

Mayhem Team Race Regatta Logistics

Hi everyone,

Sailors - Aoife, Ajax, Atticus, Avery, Bella, Dima, Dylan, Emmett, Errol, Finn, Fiona, Hazel, Jade, Marin, Max W, Patrick, Sawyer, Tristan, & Tyce (19)

Drivers - Tamminga (4), Neuman (2 & towing), Mora (5), Meyer (2), Wilcox (4), Morse (3), Baldwin (1) & Cooper (3) 

Schedule - 

Friday, May 15, 2026

1545 Loading boats at Zuanich 

Saturday, May 16, 2026

0730 Meet at Sehome Haggen 

0745 On the road 

0930 Report time 

1015 Competitors meeting 

1100 First warning

1700 No warnings after, Dinner will follow after racing.

Sunday, May 17, 2026

0700 Meet at Sehome Haggen 

0715 On the road 

0900 Report time at public boat ramp

1000 First warning

1530 No warnings after

1615 Awards presentation

Notice of Race - Linked here

Sail Sand Point Address -  7861 62nd Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115

Lunch - Currently we do not have group food. Plan on bringing lunch from home or buying lunch from Haggen in the morning. 

Dinner - The entry fee includes a Saturday regatta dinner (burgers). 

Costs -  $20 Total ($10 entry fee to Cooper, $5/day gas to your driver) 

Waiver - Linked here

Scores - Techscore 

Coach - Cooper (360) 815-9941 

Thanks,

Cooper 

Open TR "Mayhem" regatta signups close tonight

Hi everyone,

The signup for the Mayhem May 16-17 regatta will close tonight at midnight. Please go through and update the signup sheet. Currently it looks like we could use some more carpool drivers. Everyone will get to go to this regatta and it will be a blast! I will be talking with sailors about it today at practice.

Thanks,

Cooper 

Gold Fleet Race Champs Logistics

Hi everyone,

This is the logistics for the sailors attending champs this weekend. I will be sending out another email about volunteering / supporting this regatta if you are a parent or sailor who is not competing. 

Sailors - Aoife, Avery, Bella, Errol, Finn, Fiona, James, Max W, Tristan, and Tyce.

Drivers - Sailors are allowed to drive themselves.

Schedule -

Friday, May 8, 2026

1600 Meet at public boat ramp to help measure boats

1900 Estimated go home time

Saturday, May 9, 2026

1000 Report time at public boat ramp 

1030 Competitors meeting 

1100 First warning

No end time for Saturday

Sunday, May 10, 2026

0900 Report time at public boat ramp

1000 First warning

1500 No warnings after

1530 Awards presentation at public boat ramp 

Food - Please bring lunch from home. We will be providing a snack table for the regatta like they had at the Silverdale team race regatta.

Entry fee- $20/sailors 

Notice of Race - Please read through the NOR as it has some great info! 

Sailing Instructions - Not available yet.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Cooper