Sailing Helps Youths Take a New Tack

When the Goodwind set sail Saturday from Newport Beach under fair skies, the 63-foot schooner’s crew of 15 included nine teenagers from Sail for Life, a program recently honored by the Orange County Probation Department for its contribution to helping troubled youth.

Founded in 1990 by Tom Hancock in memory of his son, a Navy seaman killed in a motorcycle accident, Sail for Life is a nonprofit organization that works year-round with community youth programs to teach boys and girls up to age 18 discipline and teamwork through sailing.

“The program has had marvelous results,” said Norm Shattuck, assistant division director of the Probation Department.

“Many of these kids haven’t even been to the beach,” he said, let alone on a sailboat.

Hancock ticks off some of the program’s notable successes: a former gang leader who is now building a career in the Navy, five participants who will be enrolling in college this fall and another who is almost through medical school.

Hancock, who grew up in Southern California and lives in Huntington Beach, volunteers his time. An avid sailor since childhood, he founded the program anticipating that it would not only benefit but captivate youngsters.

The participants, called Sea Scouts, are required to attend once-a-week evening classes at which Hancock teaches them basic crew skills such as how to hoist a sail, as well as water safety procedures similar to those that Coast Guard reservists learn.

The program uses five boats that have either been donated to the program or are on loan for weekend excursions, some of which go as far as Catalina. Each boat sets sail every weekend with a crew of as many as 35 youths, as well as adult volunteers. “When the kids go out there, they actually crew,” Shattuck said. “They do the whole shebang.”

The youngsters, who are enlisted from foster care or rehabilitation programs such as the Joplin Correctional Facility in Trabuco Canyon, are allowed to join the weekend excursions only if they keep their grades up and have their counselor’s permission.

The Sea Scouts themselves have high praise for the program, and especially for the adults who keep it going.

“It’s nice of people to volunteer their time,” said one participant who lives at Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange and was making her third outing Saturday. Sail for Life, she said, “makes you feel like there are people out there that care about you and want to help.”

Information: (714) 969-1848.