Bristol Yacht Club and the East Bay Sailing Foundation welcomed world class sailors to town over two days in late July for a unique experience that some lucky young sailors will remember for a lifetime.

SailGP is an international sailing competition using high performance F50 foiling catamarans — boats equipped with wing-like hydrofoils mounted under the hulls that, at speed, actually lift the boats up and out of the water.

This year, the U.S. SailGP Team hosted its inaugural Foiling First: Learn to Foil Camp, an athlete development program created to advance diversity and inclusion in the sport as it builds the first-ever professional pathway to foiling in the US. And they chose the East Bay Sailing Foundation’s junior sailors as their first students.

One of Foiling First’s goals is to use foiling as a catalyst to advance change in the sport of sailing; expanding the talent pool, educating young athletes and coaches about the importance of inclusion and equity in sailing, and including communities that may have previously been excluded from the sport. To that end, members of the U.S. SailGP Team partnered with RISE, a national nonprofit working to eliminate racial discrimination, through sports. Junior sailors participated in an educational workshop put on by RISE senior director of curriculum Dr. Collin Williams, who discussed how advancing diversity and inclusion benefits teams and the sport more broadly.

U.S. SailGP Team athletes Jimmy Spithill, Rome Kirby, Andrew Campbell, and Cooper Dressler delivered safety briefings, equipment overviews, and on-shore instruction to 35 local sailors over the course of the two-day program. Out on the water, each sailor had the opportunity to get two individual hour-long, on-water coaching sessions.

New Skeeta and Nikki foiling platforms, designed to allow new foilers an easy transition between traditional sailing and foiling, were provided by Melges Performance Sailboats.

“The other athletes and I couldn’t help but smile all day,” said U.S. SailGP Team helmsman (and two-time America’s Cup winner) Jimmy Spithill, in a statement. “When you see the next generation get their first taste of foiling, it takes us back to our first time taking off and flying above the water. We see this as starting point to fill the American talent pool and we want to be sure we’re casting a wider net and help to advance inclusion and diversity in our sport.”

“I heard kids come off the water saying ‘this was the most fun they’ve ever had sailing,’” said Kristin Browne, EBSF chairman. “We can’t wait to continue in our partnership with the U.S. SailGP Team.”

It wasn’t just fun for the young sailors — their instructors, many of whom learned to sail themselves through EBSF, enjoyed the SailGP Team visit.

"The foiling clinic was awesome,” said instructor Ella Hanley. “The kids absolutely loved trying the boats out and working with such accomplished sailors, and I'd say the same for the instructors. It was just so cool and something completely new and exciting for the program."

The United States SailGP Team is currently accepting applications from sailing organizations interested in joining Foiling First, at FoilingFirst.com. For more information on the U.S. SailGP Team and SailGP’s #RacefortheFuture, visit SailGP.com or follow the team on Facebook and Instagram.