Sint Maarten Yacht Club (SMYC)

The Youth Sailing project aims to expose local kids to sailing, while teaching them valuable and life-saving skills.
It is a continuation and expansion of “Quick Win Round 2”, which mainly focused on replacing the sailing boats that were destroyed by hurricane Irma, but also introduced the sub-project Swim-2-Sail; working with children from local public schools to help develop the necessary swimming skills.

The Round 4 project will continue to build on that foundation and add two more local schools to the mix, to be able to maximize the usage of the boats. In addition, the sailing program will be expanded to further allow kids to sail in the open sea in Simpson Bay as well as in the Sint Maarten lagoon. To accomplish the former, a bigger dinghy boat is needed to guarantee safety and smooth operations, since sailing is a way to introduce local children to the vital marine industry, which reportedly represents a considerable percentage of the Gross Domestic Product of St. Maarten.