NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— We’ve all seen the sailboats on Lake Pontchartrain, but did you know that you can learn to sail, even if you don’t have a boat of your own?
A local nonprofit is making sailing an activity for anyone who wants to try it. The nonprofit is called Community Sailing New Orleans and they’re motto is ‘sailing for all.’
Executive director Jacob Raymond stated, “Our 2 major focuses is working with youth who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to get on the water and adaptive sailing for people with disabilities.”
Community sailing has been in the works for the past 10 years, but they opened their doors right before the pandemic and since then a few thousand New Orleanians have taken advantage of the opportunity.
Click here for information on Community Sailing New Orleans
Khari Parrish is Director of Operations and he stated, “Sailing has these associations that come with it where people thing A, they need to have a lot of money or B, that for some reason there’s a level of danger associated with the activity and you see all of that kind of wash away from the first couple of minutes that they get on the water and they get on those boats.”
With sailing opportunities 7 days a week, there are a host of programs for anyone with an interest.
“Adults, we have a veterans program, Special Olympics sailing team, programs called Women in the Wind, and the ability to take our boats out through an access pass as well,” said Raymond.
September 28th-October 2nd is Community Sailing Race Week with a host of events including a huge patron party and Barbecue Bash.