School sailing club set for year two

The Shelter Island School Sailing Club is well underway for its fall season.


With support from the Shelter Island Yacht Club, Coach Peter Needham is helping 19 students, from both the high school and middle school, set sail.


“We have been privileged this year to have Olympian Amanda Clark coaching the high school team,” Coach Needham reported this week. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for all of the students to have a world-class coach working with them.”


Middle school students learning the ropes will soon be integrated into the high school practices once a week, he added.


This weekend, sailors will split up to compete at two events. Senior Connor Needham will be sailing in Rochester in a two-day event to qualify for the Interscholastic Sailing Association’s Cressy National Single-handed Racing Championship. The top three from this qualifying regatta will go on to the National Championship to be held at the end of October. “If Connor is determined to go to the Championship, he has the skills to make it this year,” his father and coach said.


Saturday is also the Northeast League invitational fleet regatta at Stony Brook. Mackenzie Needham will be skipper of the “A” boat with Katie Cogan as crew. The “B” boat skipper and crew have yet to be named.