Working the wind: Program offered by North Flathead Yacht Club teaches next generation of sailors

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian/Photographed by LINDA THOMPSON of the Missoulian

Watch a slideshow about the Yacht Club

SOMERS -The first thing Annie Hill learned was to duck whenever the wind blew.

"Because the boom kept hitting me in the head," she said.

Sure enough, the boom is exactly the right height to crack her in the noggin - which is precisely what it does just a moment after Annie's finished explaining how well she's learned to duck.

"Ow!" she cries. "Just like that!"

Annie is 8 years old, and she's turning circles whether she wants to or not, wrestling the rudder on a small square sailboat that looks - and handles - a bit like a floating bathtub. It's even more like a bathtub after her big brother Noah glides by and dumps a bail-bucket full of water into the boat.

Sailing instructor Scott Galbraith helps rig 8-year-old Annie’s boat before casting off from the North Flathead Yacht Club’s marina.

And so it goes, all through the morning, at one of the only public sailing schools for kids on Flathead Lake.

The children here work rudder and sail and rope, trying to make the most of a too-calm morning in Somers Bay. Their teacher, Scott Galbraith, tosses tennis balls into the water, and the kids practice steering to collect as many as they can.

"If it gets dull," Galbraith said, "we flip the boats and do capsize lessons."

But it's never dull.

Annie has collected a boatload of balls while Noah was busy trying to soak the teacher. Now she pummels her brother's boat, and he, in turn, gathers them up and pummels Galbraith.

"It's the circle of life," the teacher explains as he tosses the balls back into the bay.

And somehow, along their way around the circle, these kids are getting the knack of what it is to harness wind in a sail, to capture the elements and to control them, if only for a moment.

"I learned primarily by trial and error, messing around with my brother's little sailboat, so to offer real lessons for kids is fantastic."

So said Pete Sauer, the organizer behind this program.

Sauer grew up just beyond the bay, in Lakeside, and now operates a business called Sail Montana. He's also a member at the North Flathead Yacht Club, where he's convinced members that a youth sailing program is an important part of keeping youngsters in the sport.

There are church camps on the lake with sailing lessons, and private clubs have offered classes to members' kids in the past, but so far as Sauer knows, this is the only public program on the lake.

"And our program," he said, "is still in its infancy."

After just three summers he's still learning, too - and the budget, if not the boom, keeps hitting him in the head.

"We really need more boats," Sauer said, "especially for the older kids. But it's always a struggle to find the money. We're trying to basically self-fund the whole thing."

The $150 tuition buys 10 summertime lessons, from the third week of June to the middle of August. Actually, the classes are free - the $150 is considered a temporary yacht club membership for the young sailors-to-be.

"The yacht club has been very open to this idea," Sauer said, "but it is a private place. It's a place for members."

And so Annie's a member now, and Noah is, too, learning to travel upwind and downwind around the bay.

"It just takes them a couple times to figure it out," Galbraith said of the students, "because these boats are pretty simple."

So simple, in fact, they can be assembled by children.

Galbraith slides boats off the rack while Annie packs out the centerboard, the boom and sail, the rudder, and begins fitting the pieces together.

"I like sailing," she said. "I like hitting the waves in my grandpa's boat, when I'm in the front dangling my feet."

Fortunately, there are no waves today, except those trailing in Galbraith's wake as he motors around in his power boat, riding herd on his young sailors.

Galbraith, like Sauer, is pretty much self-taught, learning to sail on Idaho's mountain waters. Since then, he's sailed freshwater and salt, race boats and tall ocean ships. He's taught in Massachusetts and in Maui and in California and, now, in Montana.

"Generally," he said, "Flathead is a great lake for sailing."

A consistent northerly in the morning, shifting to southerly by afternoon, westerly by evening.

It's perfect for seasoned sailors, Galbraith said, "but the kids don't have a real concept about where the boats go with the wind, or against the wind, so they spin a lot of circles."

Occasionally, the wind scatters his students across the bay - into the shallow reeds or toward the rock island topped by an osprey nest - and Galbraith must track them down in his motor boat, lacing the craft together in a rowdy chain to tow them ashore.

The young ones bounce along in the bathtubs - the Optimus boats - while older kids steer the pumpkin-seed shape of a Laser. What Sauer would really like is a small fleet of double-handed collegiate race boats, but those run somewhere around $8,000; so for now they use the Lasers, "which are single-handed, and not very stable," Sauer said. "It's not a matter of if the kids are going to capsize, but when."

Which is OK, really, because learning to swamp a boat is all part of the curriculum.

"The whole goal of the class," Galbraith said, "is to get them comfortable in a variety of boats, in a variety of situations."

Eventually, they'll graduate to keel boats, which are rigged much the same but are bigger and harder to maneuver.

And some, like Noah, will likely get into racing.

"I like the competition," the 12-year-old said. "It can be a one-guy thing or a team thing, and I like that, too."

Noah likes sailing because it's quiet, and peaceful, and because it can be fast, and because of Scott Galbraith.

"I tell them to collect as many tennis balls as possible," the teacher says, "and if they run into each other while doing it, I get to tip them over. Generally, somebody goes in every day."

Often, it's Noah.

Sometimes, the students attack like tiny pirates to take over their teacher's boat.

"That's when there tends to be a lot of swimming," Galbraith said, "and kids go into the water."

Today, Noah beats the rush by rolling himself into the lake.

It's summer on Flathead, after all, and this is all about fun.

"And it's the kind of fun you can keep doing through your life," Sauer said. "It's a lifetime sport. There are a number of levels to sailing, so you never stop learning, but that basic interaction of wind, water, boat - that's something even these kids get. There's nothing else quite like it."

"A Jet-Ski is just a snowmobile on the water," he adds. "But with sailing, the elements are in control. You're on nature's terms. If there's no wind, you don't go."

And if there is wind, Annie says, "then you'd better duck."

Reach reporter Michael Jamison at 1-800-366-7186 or by e-mail at mjamison@missoulian.com. Reach photographer Linda Thompson at (406) 523-5270 or by e-mail at lthompson@missoulian.com.