By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, approved two requests made by the Little Washington Sailing Club.
That approval should make it easier for the club to expand its program that provides basic sailing lessons to children from 10 years old to 18 years old.
The city will allow the club, under the auspices of Downtown Washington on the Waterfront, to locate its floating platform (used to store sailing dinghies) at J dock, one of the city’s free docks from mid-April through early September. The council also approved the club’s request to be exempt from the two-day maximum stay the city imposes on boats at the free docks.
The requests were explained by Bill Walker, one of the club’s administrators.
“We are kids-oriented,” Walker told the council, adding that the club wants to be self-sustaining.
During the spring and summer of 2009, the club conducted several two-week training sessions and one one-week session. Those sessions taught the basics of sailing and provided opportunities for children to boost their self-confidence, increase their self-reliance and learn teamwork and respect for the environment, Walker said.
“People have enjoyed seeing the boats on the river with those kids,” Walker said.
Jeff Hunnings, owner of Pirate’s Grill and Pub, said he and other downtown restaurant owners and/or managers are concerned that allowing the club to use part of a free dock could reduce the number of boaters who tie up at the free docks and visit downtown eateries and other shops during the spring and summer months, especially during weekends.
Walker said he appreciated those concerns, but he noted that the training sessions do not occur on weekends. They take place from 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. and from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Those hours will not interfere with the lunch-hour rush, Walker contended.
Walker also contended that children participating in the sessions, their families and their friends may find it convenient to eat at a downtown restaurant either before or after a training session.
Councilman Edward Moultrie Jr. was quick to support the club’s request.
“I think this is a positive step,” he said about the club’s sessions, saying they help keep children off of street corners and away from temptation that could lead them into trouble.
Moultrie and other council members also like that the club’s program helps teach children, including underprivileged children, to swim. Passing a swim test is a prerequisite for being accepted into the program.
Swimming lessons provided to underprivileged children help qualify those children for sailing-lesson scholarships, according to the club. The lessons, given at the city’s Hildred T. Moore Aquatics and Fitness Center, are provided by the Boys and Girls Club of Beaufort County.
Area businesses and individuals provided scholarships to five students so they could attend the sessions. It costs $200 for a child to attend one of the training sessions.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.