“You’re out in the open water and it’s a lot bigger than you and it just takes all your stress and just kind of blows it away. There’s not another sound out there, just the wind,” says Cameron Sarik, the owner of Northern Virginia Sailing School in Woodbridge. That is just one of the wonders of sailing Sarik has come to know and see with some of the people he teaches at his school, including many active and retired military, and it is something that Sarik and the American Sailing Association hopes more veterans can take advantage of through a new program.
Operation Vet Sail: A Salute at Sea is a special program that will begin this Veterans Day, Nov. 11, and run through Veteran’s Day 2019. With Operation Vet Sail, active and retired military members and their immediate families can take advantage of discounts at affiliated sailing schools to learn how to sail; Sarik’s Northern Virginia Sailing School is one of the affiliated schools, there is also the Pentagon Sailing Club in Washington, D.C. The hope is that through sailing, veterans who may be suffering from stress, PTSD or other physical ailments can heal.
“[Sailing] helps them build their confidence, their self-esteem,” says Sarik. “It’s good to just have a bunch of veterans on a boat together that can talk and work as a team again and feel confident.”
Sarik teaches his sailing students how to pay attention to the weather, the current, the tides, the terminology and equipment and how to handle a boat. Sarik also hopes to eventually offer special events for veterans and their friends and family.
Obviously, November is not the height of sailing season in Virginia. The Northern Virginia Sailing School does stop its on-the-water sailing lessons around mid-November, reopening in April. But Sarik plans to make on-land classes available to those who may want to take advantage of the discount before the spring, providing lessons on knots, dock drills and possibly even practice docking the boat, if there isn’t any ice on the Potomac River.
“We have an obligation to give back and show appreciation for these men and women who sacrifice so much for our freedom,” said Lenny Shabes, CEO and founder of the American Sailing Association, in the press release announcing the Operation Vet Sail program. “When they sail they take responsibility for the lives of others as well as their own, giving them coping skills and strategies to take control and deal with stress.”
For more information on Operation Vet Sail, including seeing all the affiliated sailing schools, visit asa.com.
