A free week of sailing lessons every June

I'm the commodore of our local yacht club. That sounds grander than it is. We're a small, democratic sailing club on a lake.

The best thing we do all year is the learn-to-sail week.

What it is

Every June, in the second week of the month, the club runs a week of sailing lessons. It's free. You don't need a boat and you don't need to have ever been on one. Bring a life jacket and we'll handle the rest.

We teach on Sunfish. A Sunfish is about fourteen feet of fiberglass with one sail and one rope to worry about. It's simple enough to learn in a week and fast enough that people race them at a world championship level. That's a rare combination.

The basics

Sailing comes down to a short list, and a week is enough to get comfortable with it.

• Where the wind is coming from, which is the whole game.
• How to steer with a tiller, which works backwards from what your hands expect.
• How to trim the sail.
• How to tack, which is turning the front of the boat through the wind.

Why it's free

Sailing has a reputation for being expensive and closed off. A small club is the opposite of that. The boats belong to the club, I'm one of the teachers and the lake is right there. The only thing between most people and sailing is that nobody ever invited them.

So we invite them. Some people come back and join. Some go home with one good week on the water. Both count.

Why I keep doing it

The best part of the week is watching someone who was nervous at the start sail a boat by themselves at the end. That doesn't wear off, however many times I see it.