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he Pamlico County Sailing Team, made up of local school students, recently competed in Charleston in their first South Atlantic Interscholastic Sailing Association regatta.

John Paxton and Alexis Edwards of the Pamlico County Sailing Team at the February 25 competition in Charleston. It was the team’s first regatta. Coach Jim Edwards aims to hone the sailors’ starting skills in advance of next year’s racing season.

Their coach, Jim Edwards, says they finished 13th of the 15 SAISA teams taking part on that weekend in late February, but “were with the fleet in almost every race.”

With an eye toward competing in all of the regattas next season, Edwards has identified a few racing skills to focus on for the remainder of this school year. “Our areas of needed development are mostly at the start,” he says, “and understanding how to make the rules work for you.”

Team Photo: Bottom Row – Samantha Thall, Zack Bruno, Ben Bruno (Junior Team Member), Coach Jim Edwards, Kara Wheeler (Skipper) Top Row: Emma Conley, Nicole Edwards (Skipper), Alexis Edwards, John Paxton, Emma Wheeler.

Helping The Team Get Off To A Good Start.

“Our sailors can hit a start very well,” Edwards said, a few days after returning from the regatta in Charleston, “but we are not used to having 15 boats at the start. We understand the rules, but need to work on how to better position the boat to take advantage of the rules.”

“We will be looking for any local sailors who want to help” with that Edwards says. That could take the form of more experienced sailors crowding the starting lines at practices so the students could hone their maneuvers.

Emma Wheeler and Zack Bruno in the competition in Charleston.

“I would like to have as many people as possible join us — adults included,” Edwards says “when we have race practice or team racing practice.”

Volunteers are welcome, he says, to help coach with other aspects of sailing, too. (The program is free now, he says, “so we cannot yet afford paid coaches.”)

He says that he can also make boats “available for all other sailors to come join us for some team racing soon. In another example of it ‘taking a village’ to build the teen team, Edwards notes that the fleet of FJ sailboats used in the practices was bought with funds donated by the Deaton family.

Back home in Oriental, the Pamlico County Sailing Team practices several days a week in and near Oriental’s Harbor.

Members of the Pamlico County Sailing Team prepare to smartly round Marker #8 during an afternoon practice near the Oriental harbor breakwater. Coach Jim Edwards is looking to fine tune the team’s maneuvering at the start of sailboat races.

Since October, Edwards and the dozen students have been practicing near Oriental’s harbor on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings. The group is made up of students from several schools — Pamlico High, Arapahoe Charter, Epiphany — who practice together but would compete for their respective schools at regattas such as the one in Charleston.

A teen team is something that didn’t exist until recently. It’s an outgrowth of the youth sailing camp that Jim Edwards organized four years ago. Those week-long day camp sessions trained many children and teens how to sail. The Bow To Stern sailing classes continue this summer. Meanwhile, for the next few months, the Pamlico County sail team will be working on making a better start, in order to race to a better finish.

More Photos:

Team members Samantha Thall and Nicole Edwards head out to the race at Charleston on February 25.

Emma Conley and Kara Wheeler in the Charleston regatta.

Practice race for the Pamlico County Sailing Team on Oriental’s harbor. They generally practice on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and Saturday morning. (The FJ boats were purchased with funds donated by the Deaton family.)

Boats in the FJ fleet. There are extras to use for sailors to help create a crowded starting line. .

To contact Jim Edwards about the practices, email bowtosternyachts@aol.com