Storm Trysail hosted its first Junior Safety-at-Sea Seminar in 1997 at Larchmont Yacht Club, where the STC has its home office. This event resulted in one documented life saved -- of a junior girl who fell overboard during a race on Long Island Sound.
"Storm Trysail's highest priority is to introduce junior sailors to big boat sailing in a fun and safe manner," said STC Commodore and Larchmont Yacht Club member Richard du Moulin. "As much as they need to understand the basics of sailboat racing in order to be successful, junior sailors also must know safety at sea to be responsible stewards of our sport," This is the fundamental premise behind the club's Junior Safety-at-Sea Seminars, which have been praised as "uniquely resourceful and extremely educational."
Onshore activities include morning presentations covering safety procedures, particularly man overboard recovery, and big-boat organization and crew work. Juniors witness (and volunteer for) an in-the-water demonstration of inflatable PFDs and the inflation of a six-man canopied life raft. The afternoon is spent on the water practicing sail handling and performing man overboard drills both upwind with jibs and downwind with spinnakers.
The Storm Trysail Foundation now holds seminars in Annapolis, MD, Newport, RI and Perth Amboy, NJ.
