Start of Spring Sailing- Swim Test Tonight

Good afternoon sailors and families,

Just a quick reminder that our first opportunity for the swim test is tonight, Tuesday Feb. 24th, 7:00-7:30pm at Arne Hanna Aquatic Center. 

Tomorrow will be another swim test opportunity, same time and location. Sailors must complete one or the other but not both.

This Thursday, February 26th, is our first day of practice, 3:45pm-6:30pm at the Bellingham Yacht Club downstairs. This is NOT an on-the-water day, so sailors do not need to bring PFDs (lifejackets) or wetsuits. Sailors will need to bring a jacket and warm clothing as we will spend some time outside.

Our first day of sailing is Tuesday, March 3rd at 3:45pm at the Zuanich Point Park Youth Sailing Dock. Sailors must have registration completed and must bring sailing gear. Sailors who do not have gear will be outfitted at Thursday's pre-season practice.

Please make sure both school and Whatcom Sailing registration (or scholarship request) is completed and up-to-date before the first practice! We will be reviewing things Thursday, and the final deadline for all registrations to be complete is next Tuesday. Sailors who do not have their registration completed by Tuesday of next week will not be able to sail on the first day. 

Please let us know if you have any questions! We look forward to a great season of spring sailing.

Best,

Anna and Cooper

Spring Sailing Registration is open + IMPORTANT DATES

Hi everyone,

2026 Spring sailing registration is now live on our website. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Pre-Season info meeting - Feb 17th, 7PM @ The Bellingham Yacht Club downstairs (2625 S Harbor Loop Dr, Bellingham, WA 98225) 

Swim Test - Feb 24th or 25th @ Arne Hanna Aquatic Center (Aquatic Center & Downer Ball Fields, 1114 Potter St, Bellingham, WA 98229) Be ready to swim at 7PM. You can come early and change in a locker room if needed.

First on-land Practice - Feb 26th, 3:45PM @ BYC basement. We will start our practice in the basement, but will spend some time outside so please bring appropriate clothes.

First on-water Practice - Mar 3rd, 3:45PM @ Zuanich dock. Please bring sailing gear! 

I'm excited to get back out on the water! 

Best,

Cooper

Spring Sailing 2026

Good afternoon sailors and families,

We are excited to announce the schedule for the Spring 2026 sailing season.

On Tuesday, February 17th, we will have our High School Sailing Pre-Season meeting, 7:00pm @ The Bellingham Yacht Club downstairs.  This meeting is for both parents and students who plan to be on the team or are interested in joining. We will cover many important topics including practice and regatta schedules and expectations. Please encourage anyone interested to be there. The team is open to all high schoolers in Whatcom County.

Spring 2026 Practice and Regatta schedules are posted on the website: https://www.whatcomsailing.com/schedule

First practice is Thursday, February 26th @ 3:45 at the Bellingham Yacht Club. All other practices will meet at Zuanich. First on-the-water day is Tuesday, March 3rd.

REGISTRATION & TEAM FEES

Team fees are $400 fee + $35 pinnie deposit = $435 for the spring season. As always, we don't want these fees to stop anyone from participating so please let us know if you need financial assistance. Also, if you aren't sure if you should pay the pinnie deposit, let us know. We have a list of which sailors kept their pinnies at the end of spring.

Registration is not open yet, but we will send a follow-up email once it opens! 

Please note: Our spring mailing list will be based off of registration, so please be sure to register using email addresses you can access easily and check frequently.

ALSO, all high schoolers must do the required sports clearance with your school on Final Forms. This is an online process on the school's website: https://bellingham-wa.finalforms.com/

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

Registration and school clearance is required before you can practice. For a list of everything that is required, see the Join Page of our website.  

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

See you soon!

Best,

Anna and Cooper

Turkey Bowl Regatta Nov 22/23

Hi Everyone, 

One final regatta opportunity for any sailors looking to compete outside of high school sailing. CYC Seattle is hosting Turkey Bowl on November 22nd and 23rd. This regatta is outside of the High School Sailing season and is a community event. Anyone can attend, and the format is much more similar to a summer series event (see below). 

This is a non-rotational regatta, so sailors will be spending the entire day on the water. They will be supported by me in a powerboat. Races should be 20 to 40 minutes long, with short on-the-water breaks in between while other fleets start and finish. This regatta will have many different adult and youth fleets attending, but FJs and Lasers would be the most applicable for sailors on the team.

Costs are dependent on how many sailors can attend. Because this is outside of HS sailing, there are additional costs: sailboat charters, trailer use, coach boat charter, coaching, and a higher entry fee. For now I would estimate a cost of $80/sailor, that includes the $45/sailor entry fee. Overall, very similar costs to attend a summer series regatta. Depending on how many sailors are planning on attending and splitting costs like charters and coaching, the costs per sailor might go up or down. 

This will be a sailor/family led regatta. The expectation is that the sailor/family are organizing housing (if they choose), trailer transportation, sailors transportation, and trailer loading/unloading. I will help with as much as I can.

We can talk more about this regatta at our end of season party on Thursday. There are also some sailors who have sailed at this regatta and can give their perspective. This event is not required or expected of all sailors, simply another opportunity to get on the water. 

Link to Regatta notice board.

Please reach out if you are interested. Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Cooper 

End-of-Season Potluck Thursday

Good morning all,

Thank you again for an awesome season! We are excited to see you and celebrate the fall with our end-of-season potluck this Thursday, 6:00-8:00pm in the basement of Bellingham Yacht Club. The address is 2625 S Harbor Loop Dr, Bellingham, WA.

We will not only be eating dinner together but will also be sharing photos from the season and taking time to recognize  this season's accomplishments.

If any parents or family members want a team t-shirt but haven't gotten one, you can purchase one from Jayna (cc'd) this Thursday! Images attached. We mostly have size L long sleeve tees left.

Please sign up with any food you are bringing here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W0ZXKvJFnO1chY3ARauGfQC0eK1Kzd7bHSC121JjouU/edit?usp=sharing 

Please let me know if you have any questions! We look forward to seeing you on Thursday. 

Best,

Anna and Cooper

End of Season Info

Good evening,

Thank you to all of the sailors and families who were at our "trick-or-treat" team race scrimmage this past weekend! It was great to see the group having fun with a different style of racing, and nice to have another home event that parents could watch.

Last Practices This Week

This week will be our last two days of practice. We will be meeting at the youth sailing dock from 3:45pm-5:00pm both days to clean up and winterize the boats and equipment. Even though we aren't sailing, sailors should dress for the weather and bring a jacket!

End of Season Potluck Thurs. Nov. 13th

Our end of season potluck will tentatively be Thursday, Nov. 13th, at the Bellingham Yacht Club from 6:00-8:00pm. I want to note that this is a change from our originally planned end-of-season date of Tuesday, Nov. 18th. After getting feedback from the sailors this week, it sounds like Thursday the 13th would work better for most. More details to follow!

Photo Album

We have been collecting photos from this season in this photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Srqpbf2w5FfPUwXi8 Please feel free to look through it and add any photos you've taken at regattas!

Please let us know if you have any questions. 

Best,

Anna and Cooper

Fall Champs Recap and Trick-or-Treat this Weekend!

Hi team,

Fall Champs

Thank you to all parents and sailors for your efforts this weekend! With cold conditions and high winds, this was a classic Fall Champs in Oak Harbor. 

Thank you to Lorena and Jayna for organizing food, tents, and propane fire pit, the Neuman's for towing the 3-boat trailer, and the Vondrells for bringing the second (much-appreciated) fire pit!! Thank you also to all of the families who volunteered to drive carpools: Neuman, Norwood, Meyers, Mora, Meyer, Vondrell, Wilcox, Baldwin, and Morse families! 

Finally, thank you of course to all of the sailors, who pushed through postponements and capsizes to achieve some great finishes this weekend! We have seen huge growth from the beginning of the season, and had some great competitive moments.

Congrats to the Bellingham varsity team, who qualified for NWISA fleet race districts (basically sailing version of "state"; it's the nationals qualifier) in May by getting 8th place in Gold fleet. There will be at least one more chance for Sehom and Squalicum to qualify before the end of the spring season.

Trick-or-Treat Team Race This Weekend, Nov. 1-2

As we mentioned at practice and the regatta, next weekend's "Trick-or-Treat" regatta will not be a district-wide event but instead will be a scrimmage held at home. 

Schedule is Saturday 12pm-5pm and Sunday 10am-3pm, and will have both time on shore and on the water. The exact schedule will be dependent on the weather day-of. 

Goals will be to talk through, learn, and practice team racing, a tactical style of racing that is new to a lot of our team. We understand this is a bit of late notice/ change from the original plan of an away event. If any sailors have changes to their availability for this weekend, please update the regatta signup spreadsheet before the start of practice on Thursday.

Photo Op: Bring your Pinnies this weekend!

We also want to take advantage of a home event and get team photos with everyone in their pinnies before the season ends!! Please make sure to bring any pinnies you may have to this upcoming weekend. Cooper and I have most of them and will be re-handing them out for photos.

Let us know if you have any questions. Thank you all again for a successful Fall Champs regatta!

Best,

Anna and Cooper