In pictures: Season begins for Great Slave Sailing Club

The first Wednesday race night of the summer arrived at Yellowknife’s Great Slave Sailing Club with low winds but high spirits.

The club is one of the few sailing schools in the NWT, offering courses, child and youth summer camps and social sails.

Samantha Stuart, the club’s communications director, was accompanied by her 10-year-old son Aaron Jordan for the race. It was Aaron’s first time crewing on his mom’s keelboat.

This is Stuart’s first year sailing a keelboat – a typically larger sailboat with a fixed fin or bulb-shaped part extending from bottom of the boat – and her second year sailing dinghy boats, a small, open sailboat used for recreation or racing.

“It’s been a long winter,” said Stuart. “I’m glad it’s summer again. We lifted in on the weekend and this is my third sail so far this summer. And it’s only Wednesday.”

Each race night involves members sailing their boats out to the offshore start line. At 6:40pm, the race begins and boats hurry to complete the pre-determined course. The race is self-timed with sailors tracking their race times on the SAP Sail Insight app.

On this Wednesday, the race was off to a slow start. With winds struggling to reach five kilometres an hour, boats found themselves drifting more than sailing.

“I’m looking across the water at pure glass and we’ve not moved from the start line in 35 minutes,” Stuart laughed. “So my competitive side of myself is coming out here, but it’s fun.”

“Any day on the water is a good day,” she added.

Jordan helped his mum sail the boat, pulling in ropes to adjust the sails and practising his steering, though he was not as optimistic about the lack of wind.

“I didn’t know it would be this slow,” he said while lying down on the deck. “If I knew it would be this slow, I wouldn’t have agreed [to come].”

He told Cabin Radio his favourite part of sailing is going fast.

For Stuart, community is one of the most best parts of joining the Great Slave Sailing Club.

“This boat really isn’t about me,” said Stuart.

“It’s about the experiences and getting new people out on the water. I welcome anyone who wants to crew and learn about sailing and help me learn, too. It’s an adventure.”

Roland Laufer, the sailing club’s social director, was out on the water for Wednesday’s race. He remembers joining the club three years ago when he purchased his boat.

“We did not know how to sail at all,” said Laufer. “But the sail club has so many members. They helped us out.”

What Laufer enjoys the most about being back on the water is the solitude.

“The most amazing thing is when you sit in your sailboat and you have your sails up, and there’s no other noise other than the wind and water,” said Laufer.

“No motor, no electronics, no cars, nothing. Just us and the lake.”

Due to the low winds, the first race of the season ended early. Stuart and Jordan remained in high spirits as they returned to shore.

For the weekend, the club planned a “pirate weekend” in Horseshoe Bay, with a potluck on Saturday evening and a pancake breakfast the following day.

The weekend will conclude with a treasure hunt.