I am a sailor, Sydney Peach

Oct 25, 2018

Sydney Peach was often found playing baseball, hockey, swimming or playing with her friends before adding sailing to her repertoire.   Looking from the shores of Grand Lake, Sydney (12) would sometimes see sailboats racing on the lake and thought it looked like fun. Shortly afterwards she was enrolled in the Sail Nova Scotia Mobile Sailing School program at the CANSail 1 level hosted by the Grand Lake Yacht Club and quickly became a proficient dinghy sailor. Every now and again a young sailor comes along that exhibits an intangible sixth sense, whether it be a touch, a feel or some other intangible commodity.   In this case Sydney was identified to have an uncanny ability to know where the lightest of zephyrs are coming from.

“They have a rule in the Mobile Program that if the instructor, Carson Murray, blows the whistle three sharp blows, the lead boat has to circle to the back of the fleet. The instructor has never had to do this before but was continually doing this for the week’s duration of the CanSail 2 course with Sydney” recalls proud father Robin.

In a great father-daughter bonding moment the duo lovingly restored a Skunk 11 sailing dinghy for which Sydney now commands. With her new boat Sydney has successfully extended her sailing season beyond sail camp and occasionally helming in Tanzer 22 races with club commodore Doug Caldwell. The 12-year-old has taken mid-fleet finishes against adults on Grand Lake. “The big boats get the glory, but the small boats make the sailor”. Already Sydney can boast a few sailing yarns. “Sailing makes me happy and excited because whenever I am out on the lake sailing I have lots of fun although I have a few incidents” says Sydney.

– Rob Dunbar

Marine writer Rob Dunbar continues his excellent series on young Nova Scotian sailors.