Thursday, March 28, 2024

Letter to the Editor: San Pedro Junior Sailing Club

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Letters-to-the-EditorDear Editor,
The San Pedro Junior Sailors Club (SPJSC) would like to thank everyone that helped put on a fabulous fundraiser last Saturday with a BBQ in the park during the day and at Fidos with Kelly McGuire that evening. Thanks go out to Kelly McGuire for having us, Fidos for hosting and Cowboy Doug for auctioneering. We also want to thank those that contributed raffle and auction items; Jason Cruz for the beautiful painting, Graniels , Captain Sharks, Coco Beach, Rag A Muffin Tours, El Secreto, Tropic Air, Portofino, Caprice, War Paint, Train Station, Wild Mangos, Searious Adventures, San Pedro Hardware, Zen Arcade Wellness Center, Sun Breeze Hotel, Lino’s Meat, Caye Mart, Bowen and Bowen, Town Board, Carole Goudreau, Vicky Ellias, Angel at Artistic Skin Design, Joel and Sue and Remax Southwind for dinner for two at Victoria House.
The money raised this past weekend will allow our sailors to attend the Button Bay and Baron Bliss Harbour Regattas March 8th and 9th. SPJSC a not-for-profit organization and depends on the sponsorships and donations from people who wish to contribute to a great organization. Our sailors plan to participate in the five national qualifying regattas and attend National’s this year. Each regatta costs roughly $3000 to $5000 BZ depending on location, transportation, and accommodations to attend. Your support is critical to our success.
San Pedro Junior Sailing Club and San Pedro Sailing Club are one in the same. Finally, this year the club is fully registered and in good standing with the Belize Sailing Association (BzSA) both names are registered for our club. To learn more about us, please go to the San Pedro Junior Sailing Club page on Face Book. This is the only page we use for our club. We regularly post updates and sailors’ progress and communicate with sailors, families and the community through this venue. You can also see amazing photos of all the kids!
We sail out in front of Holiday Hotel with the gracious support of Ms. Lisa and Ms. Celi. We just added 12 new race boats to our fleet and the kids are thrilled! The kids racing are serious sailors! Their professional coach is helping them learn tactics and skills to win at regattas and win in life, too. They work hard and are committed to their personal success and the success of the club. The racers attended the first National ranking Regatta for Belize and swept top 5 positions along with several other top spots out of 44 sailors.
The race team is also training to compete in International Regattas. At our first International Regatta last month in Puerta Adventures, Mexico, two of the club’s sailors placed in the top half of over 140 sailors. The Regatta was held in open water with 9-foot swells, something new for our kids! To provide more open water experience, the kids recently sailed to Caye Caulker in some heavier winds. Two chase boats stayed with the sailors all the way to CC and two additional chase boats joined half way there and led the boats into the Split. Sailors sailed beautifully and proved we are ready for more difficult sailing.
The club has seven additional boats used for weekend recreational sailing and sailing lessons. At the recent fundraiser we signed up 8 new kids eager to learn to sail. Lessons are offered weekend mornings and scheduled privately for “one on one” training and supervision. We have sailing from 1 – 4 every Saturday and Sunday for those that have completed the lessons and either want to sail for recreation or continue learning. New sailors that have the desire to race will fill spots on the race team as the current racers move up to the next level, sailing Lasers!
Thank you to all of our generous sponsors, both the original and the new that have added to our fleet!
/s/
Tammy Peterson
San Pedro Sailing Club/San Pedro Junior Sailing Club
Chairperson

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