Come hear sailing’s greatest this Saturday

Come Hear Sailing’s Greatest This Saturday

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki

September 24, 2014 at 11:10 am Detroit

What would you say if you had a chance to listen to some of the greatest names in sailing talking about their sport?

Well, you can.

The National Sailing Hall of Fame, based in Annapolis, is announcing this year’s inductees right here in Detroit this weekend, with activities at Bayview Yacht Club and the Detroit Yacht Club.

Why Detroit? Well, Detroit is one of the nation’s great sailing cities, with more races for weekend sailors than most other sailing cities.

Past and new Hall of Fame inductees will be here for a weekend-long celebration of sailing with emphasis on the sport’s future – it’s junior sailors.

The festivities begin Saturday, Sept. 27, with panel of sailing greats answering questions from junior sailors coming from just about every club and high school sailing team between Port Huron and western Lake Erie.

The panel will be at 11 a.m. at Bayview Yacht Club and is open to the public. It will be followed by the Hall of Famers sail on classic yachts which will be visible from the shore at Bayview.

These are the only events of the weekend’s activities open to the public. Other events, including a dinner and the induction ceremony, require tickets.

The panel will be moderated by author, television commentator and America’s Cup sailor Gary Jobson and will include: five-time Rolex Yachtswoman on the Year Betsy Alison; Harry Anderson, whose impact on so much of sailing from dinghies to America’s Cup is iconic; Dave Curtis, who has more championships than we have room for; and Olaf Harken, who with his brother Peter has invented or developed untold amounts of sailing hardware and improvements.

You won’t want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to hear so many iconic sailors talking about the sport.