I made fun here of a sailing club I used to belong to, calling it Goose Poop Beach Sailing Club. Truth is that the years I spent there, with good friends and my own kids, were some of the happiest sailing experiences of my life.
It’s strange how those little lake sailing clubs like GPBSC often develop some of the best racing sailors in the country. It also dawned on me this week that four of the kids who dominated the racing at GPBSC when I was there have, as adults, all gone on to make interesting contributions to the sailing world in quite different ways.
In the late 80’s and early 90’s these four kids from GPBSC, in turn, all won the junior sailing championship for all the lake sailing clubs in our region. I think I’m right in saying that, between them, the four youngsters from our club won the regional junior championship in eight out of nine consecutive years. (And it would probably have been all nine years if I hadn’t taken two of the four on a trip to see their grandparents in the UK one summer.)
But what’s more amazing is what those four kids have achieved since…
One is the President of the US class of one of the most popular sailing dinghies in the world.
Another is the North American Marketing Manager for one of the largest manufacturers of small sailing boats in the world.
The third was part of the design team for a US America’s Cup syndicate.
And the fourth worked as an engineer for one of the leading nautical rigging and hydraulics companies in the world.
It’s amazing where the journey leads when you start from Goose Poop Beach.
Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back
Tags: No Tags