Volunteer Needs

Sailing Instruction

Adult volunteer instructors teach sailing to youth and adults, ensuring everyone has a safe and fun experience while learning to sail small boats.

Each ESA class has a lead instructor, who is responsible for developing content and managing execution. Adult instructors help the lead instructor deliver the content and evaluate the students. We maintain great instructor-student ratios in our programs due to the quality and dedication of our instructional team.

Instructors must know how to sail small boats and be able to work well with students at all skill levels. All instructors must be certified in CPR, AED, and first aid, and all instructors of youth programs must undergo a background check and complete anti-abuse training.

We encourage our adult instructors to complete US Sailing's Level 1 Instructor Certification course, and ESA will share the cost of that course.

Safety Boat Operations

Our priorities are safety, fun and learning in that order. Whenever we're on the water we operate safety boats (16' 40 HP outboards) to respond to any situation that may develop.

Safety boat skippers maneuver their boat in tight quarters to assist sailors. They support instruction delivery, setting marks and coaching students as needed. Skippers must hold a Florida Safe Boating Card and be confident powerboat operators.

Safety boat crewmembers help sailors by steadying boats, helping sailors in the water and getting into the water to help a sailor if needed. Crewmembers must be confident swimmers. Skippers and crew are CPR/AED/First Aid trained.

ESA offers in-house training for safety boat skippers and crew.

Beach Operations

ESA's Shore Crew are critical to maintaining a safe environment for learning. Their work allows instructors and safety boat crew to focus on the needs of the students.

Shore crew monitors the weather, using online apps to warn of upcoming hazards. They maintain radio contact with the safety boats to communicate critical information to and from sailors. As needed, they administer basic first aid and coordinate emergency response for more serious injuries. They maintain accountability for youth students, ensuring positive handoff from and to parents/guardians. They help rig, launch and recover sailboats.

Shore crew requires no prior knowledge of sailing or boating; we'll provide training on all of our policies and procedures. All members are CPR/AED/First Aid trained.

Administration

Like any business, ESA has needs beyond support for our primary operations. We have volunteer opportunities for maintenance, marketing, bookkeeping, event planning and more.

We also have leadership opportunities available. Our board of directors consists of four executive officers, four at-large board members, and the immediate past president.

We're a working board. Each board member is involved in the execution of ESA's many efforts.

Boat and Sailing Center Maintenance

This team tends to all of ESA's maintenance and capital improvement needs. This includes boat maintenance and repair, groundskeeping, and facility maintenance and improvement.

Boat Towing

Our safety boats are stored a short distance away from our sailing center and need to be towed back and forth for sailing activities. If you have a 2" ball hitch and can pull 2,000 pounds, you're all set for towing.

Additionally, we require people to tow safety boats and racing sailboats to regattas in Florida.