Long-time St Francis Sailing Foundation grantee Alameda Community Sailing Center (ACSC) has preparations for a busy 2025 in the works. The addition of a fleet of six 420s opens up new opportunities for the center, especially for teen sailors eager to build their skills, notes Emily Zugnoni, ACSC program director.

“This is the first year that we are starting off with a fleet of 420s, so we are hoping to do a bit more advanced team sailing, getting the spinnakers out, using the trapeze more regularly for our teen sailors,” Zugnoni said. “Last year we weren’t able to do a whole lot of that because we didn’t have many instructors with US Sailing Level 2 instructor certification but this year we are putting a whole group of our instructors through Level 2 training who will be qualified to teach more advanced sailing.”

In 2024, ACSC put some 600 people through its various programs, kids and adults, and this year is hoping to get 600 juniors alone through its mix of summer camps and after-school sailing programs in spring and fall.

“We’re focused on doing more of what we have been doing and doing it well,” Zugnoni said. “We’re aiming to get our weekend learn-to-sail classes which we have done for years running every weekend or multiple classes on one weekend whereas in the past maybe we managed one a month or every other weekend.”

Single day adventure sails set the scene for sailors to prepare for destination sailing, whether it be on a Sail Cube or FJ, and ACSC sailors can look forward to more of those this season planned for summer camps and after-school programs as well as on weekends. Each adventure sail will be organized accordingly for a different age group; a nearby sail for the 7–12-year-old sailors, maybe over Treasure Island for the 11-14 years Feva sailors, and something further afield for the teens and adults sailing FJs.

“We always have a few adventure days sprinkled in where we sail from ASCS to lunch at some other destination – sail there and sail home – we’ll start doing them on weekends and may call them Sunday Fundays,” Zugnoni smiled.

A full community-based organization, each ACSC program has a different tuition rate, for example, a two-week summer camp comprising ten full days costs $1155, a standard camp cost for aquatic / sailing camps although Zugnoni notes that ACSC programs offer more time than others. After-school sailing ranges from $300-$600 for a six-week program depending on how many days are attended.

ACSC continues to grow with more staff, more boats, more participants, with people learning about its awesome waterfront venue in Alameda and its programming word of mouth as well as through camp fairs and the Alameda Parks & Recs catalog. Outreach to specific groups who ACSC feels will benefit from sailing experiences often results in scholarship offerings to these groups with good retention. One challenge that the organization currently faces is growing its Board of Directors, Zugnoni acknowledges.

“We had a lot of solid volunteers who had been with us since the get-go and it’s time to bring in some new faces so we’re looking for people who want to volunteer a lot of time and who may want to join the board.”

Zugnoni has been in her current ACSC role for six years starting as an instructor with ACSC 11 years ago. She grew up sailing with her grandpa who taught her that sailing doesn’t have to be complicated, and she’s proud that this attitude is one that ACSC has nurtured over the years as part of its culture.

“Grandpa was always a less-polished kind of sailor who always taught me that sailing doesn’t have to be so formal, anybody can do it, you don’t have to wear a specific outfit or act a certain way, sailing is for everyone, so seeing that we have been able to maintain that approach at ACSC and grow that makes me happy – it makes the sport more inviting!”

Interested in volunteering or a board role at Alameda Community Sailing Center? Reach out to Zugnoni at emilyzugnoni@gmail.com.