PORT ARTHUR — For most, sailing means hours of preparation for just a few moments of sheer terror.

But not the kids at this year’s Port Arthur Yacht Club summer sailing camp.

As winds picked up Friday afternoon behind the breakwater on Lake Sabine, little sailors, like six-year-old Madalyn Wickizer, charged into their tacks, missing each other by only a few inches.

“It was a little hard the first time I did it but I just got used to the wind,” said Evei Shipley, 6, who sailed with her sister Lilei Shipley,10, during the four-day over-night sailing camp. “I was a little scared at first.”

The summer camp teaches young people, ages 6 to 17, more than just wind direction, setting the sails, knot tying and water safety, it teaches the children independence, according to Paul Vera, camp director and Commodore of PAYC.

 Vera said that at the beginning of the camp just four people had sailed before, most of them under the guise of an adult, but by the end they all would be comfortable behind the tiller.

“Today we’re learning how to go into the wind,” said Vera. “It’s a little bit more windy than we like it, but it has been really good.”

The yacht club provides five instructors, meals, housing, 18 small boats and a fresh water swimming pool.

Sailing students go through three hours of classwork each day and learn how to measure wind direction and wind speed and what to do if you capsize, before going out on the small day-sailboats, also called dinghy’s, which range in length from about 10 feet to 15 feet.

“The kids go out on the boat all by themselves and it is just like learning to drive a car,” said Vera. “There are parents who can never believe that these kids can do it on their own but there out there doing it now.”

PAYC hosts an annual youth regatta, which always falls on the date with Mardi Gras, and some of the young sailors from the camp end up competing the tournament , as well as other competitions in the Gulf Coast regatta youth circuit, said Vera.

Kirk Wickizer, a summer camp instructor, brought his six-year-old daughter up into the sailing community and she now shares his passion and talent at the tiller.

“Winds are up a bit today but the younger ones are doing really well with it,” said Wickizer.

bjanes@panews.com