Dear Friends and Families,

Welcome to the Manchester Sailing Association and the 2010 summer season. Did anyone notice how the summer-like weather hit in early spring, right around the time we opened our on-line registration? Surely the sign of a great season on the way.

Here at MSA, we've always got summer on our minds. Planning for the summer of 2010 began in September of 2009 and continues right through this spring. As usual, we've made some changes that we think you'll love, but we've maintained the overall structure of MSA that keeps families coming back year after year.

Thanks to the overwhelmingly positive response to the new Sea Urchins schedule in 2009, we will continue to offer our youngest sailors the opportunity to sail four days in a row, which greatly enhances their educational experience. There will be eight one-week sessions, meeting Monday thru Thursday afternoons. As with last year, we'll have our popular Adult class on Friday afternoons. What a great way to start your weekend! Other classes and schedules can be found under the "Classes" and "Registration" tabs on this site. In case you haven't noticed, we are now 100% online with our registrations, bringing ease and efficiency to the process and saving a few trees along the way.

Hiring went very well and, as usual, you'll recognize some old faces and be making a new friend or two among our Instructor ranks. Our priority is always to find the instructors that will most effectively teach your sailors while maintaining all the fun and excitement that are synonymous with sailing. Check out the "Instructors" tab and learn about the 2010 crew.

Thanks to the generous support of all our friends in the MSA community, we have been able to continue with the capital improvement of our sailing fleet, once again adding brand new Optis to the mix. New boats are always great, but we are happy to receive donations of used boats and equipment anytime. In fact, this summer our Race Team members will have access to a donated Megabyte and we hope they will join the competition during the Manchester Yacht Club One-Design series (Opti and 420 racing will also be welcome this year!). Donations of all types help us to maintain MSA as a true community sailing program.

And speaking of community sailing programs, the Manchester Sailing Association Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Manchester Sailing Association has received the US SAILING Community Sailing Council Outstanding Seasonal Program Award for 2009, given annually to a program that has made notable contributions to promote public access sailing. Our goal is to be even better in 2010!

The first of our two-week sessions begins June 28th, late enough that even those of us with multiple snow days should be out of school on time. We'll be sailing straight through to August 20th this year. Just in time for the Board of Directors and I to start planning for the summer of 2011! Sign up for one session, sign up for all four, but make sure you sign up soon because classes fill up quickly and waiting lists grow even faster! As always, we hope the flexibility of our schedules allows you and your family to take advantage of all the opportunities that the summer offers you while still getting some quality time out on the water with us.

Every summer at MSA is a journey to fun, excitement, new friends and a lifelong love of sailing. The journey starts right here, so get ready!

Doug Nebel, Program Director
MSA Office (978) 526-8345