Read PDF - Southwinds Magazine

SailLaser Jacksonville manager Daniel Borrer
with one of his new Laser Pico sailboats.
The newly opened SailLaser Jacksonville office at
Fleming Island Marina.
SailLaser Performance
Opens Fourth U.S. Center in Jacksonville
By Dave Montgomery
Dinghy sailors of north Florida alert! LaserPerformance has
opened a new sailing center, SailLaser Jacksonville, at Fleming
Island Marina on the St. Johns River. According to manager
Daniel Borrer the center will serve several purposes. It offers
basic sailing instruction for adults, teens and younger sailors; it
will house the JustSail boat club which, for a monthly fee, provides
members the use of any of the center’s entire dinghy fleet;
and, it will offer new and used LaserPerformance products for
sale. LaserPerformance is the parent company of such wellknown
sailing and racing dinghies as the Laser, Sunfish, 49er,
Club FJ, Club 420 and Vanguard 15. During the summer,
SailLaser Jacksonville will offer summer sailing camps to children
from ages 5 to 17. A total of five two-week camps are being
offered. In addition to Borrer, the center has two US SAILINGcertified
instructors and two more available if needed.
The Jacksonville SailLaser center is one of only four
in the nation operated by LaserPerformance. Other locations
are in Miami, Chicago and Newport Beach, CA. According to
Borrer, Jacksonville was chosen because it offers good, inland
sailing on the St. Johns River. The marina is an ideal location
since it is primarily a sailboat facility with a swimming pool
and showers. It has plenty of room for the SailLaser program
and is very supportive of family sailing activities. Further, he
adds, there is no other program in the area offering sail training
in brand-new and nearly new dinghies like the Bahia, the
Pico, the Bug and the standard Laser. Borrer says, “By providing
young people and new sailors with a positive sailing
experience, expert instruction and the use of new and like-new
equipment, we can definitely expand and increase interest in
the sport of sailing.”
The current fleet of dinghies available for sailing students
and “JustSail” members includes 3 Lasers, 8 Laser
Picos, 1 Laser Bahia, 1 Zuma and 1 Bug. Expected soon are 2
Sunfish and a Dart 16 catamaran.
Borrer admits he had a late start on attracting students
into a summer sailing camp but he’s expecting the program
to build over time and become well established in the
north Florida area. He says LaserPerformance is committed to
community outreach through its SailLaser centers worldwide.
He has contacted the local Boy Scout council to offer merit
badge training for any of the scout troops who want it. He’s
looking to re-establish a local Laser racing fleet, and he plans
to offer the sail center to college sailing teams that wish to
train during the winter months. Borrer points to SailLaser
Miami as an example of how successful the program can be.
The Miami center has been in operation since 2006 and all five
summer sailing camp sessions are almost booked solid. The
JustSail program has 54 members at the Miami center.
Fleming Island Marina, where SailLaser
Jacksonville is located, is just south of Orange Park, FL, on
U.S. 17 at the Doctors Lake Bridge. Anyone interested in contacting
the center may call (904) 215-4773, or visit www.saillaser.com/jacksonville.
SailLaser Miami is located at Kennedy
Park next to Coral Reef Yacht Club in Coconut Grove. The
phone number is (305) 285-3442 or www.saillaser.com/Miami.
50 September 2010 SOUTHWINDS www.southwindsmagazine.com