If you are an adult who longs for the sea, but have never felt the wind fill a sail or skippered a craft, Sail Orcas has a program for you.

Barry Neville, a Sail Orcas board member, has been the adult coordinator of the sailing program for five years. Classes are held for three hours over the course of four days and on the weekend for two six-hour days. One instructor teaches two students per boat.

“But it’s very adjustable in regards to the time,” Neville said. “It has to be. Adults are very busy people.”

All of the instructors for Sail Orcas in both the adult and the youth programs have been sailing for many years. The instructors include Chris White, Jeanne Skott, Savvy Sanders, Miles McCoy, Mike Douglas, Bob Brunius, Vaughn Ploeger, Tom Saul, Joe Ciskowski, Howard Barbour, Tom Temple, Paul Kamin, and Barry Neville. They have all donated their time; some are also board members for Sail Orcas, which is a non-profit.

“The goal with adults is to take a complete beginner and get them comfortable skippering a boat in West Sound,” Kamin said.

Pairs of people (generally couples) are usually sold a set of lessons, which costs $600. They have free boat access for the remainder of the season, and they can sign up to take the boat out at any time. The following year the fee for access to the boat is $75 and the boat is available at any time.

“They are sailing Cal 20’s, a common fleet boat for small sailing,” Neville said. “The Cal 20’s are keel boats, 20 feet long, pretty stable craft. They have good visibility and they are comfortable but not unmanageable.”

The adult program, because of the contributions of the volunteer instructors, indirectly support the youth program. Adult instructors are volunteers, and their fees go to support the program. This makes it affordable for the rest of the membership as well.

Kamin just took a donation of a 26 ‘ Laguna from Bob Anderson of Deer Harbor. Anderson donated it because he knew it would be an asset to the teaching program.

“But he gave us this boat generously because he knew we could sell it down the line, after we’ve put some TLC into the craft,” Kamin said. “This is just one of the great win wins about this program and this community.”

“We are always open to donations, and we are extremely grateful to be the recipients of such a generous gift,” Neville said.

For more information on the adult and youth sailing programs, visit www.sailorcas.org