Good afternoon Commissioners. My name is and I am the of the Treasure Island Sailing Center. On behalf of our Organizations Board of Directors, staff, sailors and supporters, I want to thank you for your time today- we are thrilled to be here to discuss our vision of what can be accomplished if granted a long term lease.
As Bob & Rich noted, we have a long history at TI. We started in 1999 in a leftover naval hut and some hoists and docks left over by the Gold Rush 2000 Olympic Sailing Trials. Our first boat was loaned to us by the navy and the first class was taught by one of our Board Members and included 8 girls from the Life Learning Academy. After a few years of running small outreach camps and classes for our community, the problem was quite clear and, in fact, outlined in a report we provided to TIDA in 2003. Despite San Francisco being one of the best places in the world to sail, and being one of the most forward thinking cities, sailing was still completely inaccessible to the majority of San Franciscans who were not members of a Yacht Club. Further, there were few sailing venues safe enough for beginner sailors and virtually no youth sailing outreach or education programs. Most surprising was how removed kids were from the Bay that surrounded them. Most of the kids we taught had never been on the Bay and many had never been over the Bay Bridge.
In this early report, we stated our mission as a multi-use community sailing center that provides instruction and facilities to accommodate sailors of all skill levels, socioeconomic backgrounds and physical abilities. We envisioned TISC as a training ground for small boat sailors from novice to the Olympian and a site for local national and international regattas. We described why the integration of community sailing classes at a center with a vibrant racing community was the best way to mentor, teach and motivate young kids new to sailing.
And over the last 18 years, our organization has stayed true to this mission. Our vision is simple: we want San Francisco to have a first rate community sailing center that provides universal access to sailing on the bay, and we serve all children in our community who want to go sailing by teaching them more than how to sail. 4
Community sailing centers like TISC provide a place for our community to recreate and connect with the Bay, a place for our kids to learn and a place to grow.
And although people from all over the Bay Area utilize and enjoy TISC each year, close to 90% of participants are from San Francisco.
Our programs include al levels of training for youth and adult sailors as well as those with physical or developmental adaptive needs. 7
We have orientation and introductory classes like Set Sail Learn, a hands on STEM program for 4 th graders that teaches experiential science lessons on renewable energy, maritime math & history and ecology of the bay, while providing a fun sailing experience. Set Sail Learn brings the Bay to life through ACTIVE hands-on lab sessions, sailing and creative lesson plans and instills a sense of environmental conservation and stewardship in youth. Most importantly, it opens a door to the Bay, to outdoor activities, and to the world of sailing; every child receives an invitation to return to TISC for after school/out of school camps and classes.
Our Summer and after school programs provide beginner through advanced sailing opportunities to an average of 800 kids per year and includes a progression program that teaches life lessons through sailing. Kids think they re just learning to sail. What they re really learning are skills like goal setting, teamwork, and communication that help them build confidence, self reliance and leadership skills
And as kids grow up, they are encouraged to participate in High School Sailing programs and our junior instructor training program, both of which lead to college sailing and full time sailing instructor job opportunities. In fact, we are home to the UC Berkeley Sailing Team and the Envision Academy High School Sailing Team, and are proud to say that some of our recent grads are sailing on college teams.
By working with various sailing and organizational partners, we also provide sailing opportunities to children and adults with physical and developmental challenges.
In fact, for all of our outreach programs, our community partnerships are critical. In the very beginning, we had to go into neighborhoods and beg kids to try sailing camp. We had to convince their families that sailing was an activity that their child could do. We spent years developing partnerships with community organizations that have helped us open doors to children in our community. Now, with over 33 community partnerships, kids in our community grow up with the assumption that sailing is for them, that they can do it, and that it is fun.
In addition to our Youth and Adaptive Outreach Programs, we provide various opportunities, like Opening Day on the Bay, for people of all ages to enjoy Clipper Cove. 13
We also provide adult sailing classes and host social sailing leagues where new sailors get to try racing in the Cove.
And true to our beginning roots, racing is still a large part of what we do at TISC. We are home to the Cal Sailing Team and host weekly Thursday night racing. We also host regional and national regattas which are a great way for our newest sailors to get introduced to sailboat racing. 15
All in all, over the past 18 years, we have served thousands of sailors, an approximate 18,000 over the last 5 years alone. 16
More importantly, we have shown that we are a sustainable non-profit organization that is true to its mission of providing access to the bay, access to sailing, and access to a place where kids from all backgrounds can grow together.
We are proud with our progress to date, but we have more to do. Our vision is to provide a best in class sailing center for San Francisco that will change our community and the sport of sailing by providing more access to sailboats, more education opportunities, and more pathways for kids to master the skill of sailing. We have more work to do to ensure that our programs develop excellence in stewardship, citizenship and athleticism. And your approval of our long term lease is the most critical next step to making this happen.
18 years ago, when TISC began, community sailing centers were a fairly uncommon in the US. Most sailing happened at Yacht Clubs. Now, there are over 329 registered sailing centers in the US, 29 of which are sanctioned by our governing body, the US Sailing Association. We are proud to be one of those sanctioned centers. In fact, earlier this year, TISC was awarded the Jim Kilroy Outstanding Outreach & Inclusion Award, a national recognition from the US Sailing Association to a Program that has made notable contributions in promoting public access sailing by identifying and actively including people who would normally have no access to sailing. Still, we are even prouder to have been chosen to be one 7 sites to host Olympic Development Programs and one of 2 sailing centers that will host the US Sailing Team for training clinics. 19
Therefore, our future will build a Puddles to Podium Pathway for our sailors. Our vision, in collaboration with US Sailing and other local partners, is to add a Youth Development Team that provides a pathway for kids to participate in regattas locally, nationally and eventually internationally. We will complement this effort by bringing our country s best sailors here to train for clinics and regattas during their spring season of training, bringing more national and world championships to TISC, and developing a more in depth STEM Program that reaches beyond 4 th graders providing higher dosage classes and curriculum and culminates with opportunities in the facility for advanced sailing through technology that will help our young sailors master the skill of sailing, win medals and explore careers in technology. 20
Why do we think Puddles to Podiums is such an important concept for TISC s future? Because we know that striving for excellence creates better people and better leaders. We know that having world class coaches will help our coaches be more effective, having world class athletes visiting and training out of our center will inspire and teach our young athletes and that world class technology and facilities will help advance and educate our students. We also know that heroes in a sport create hope and inspire grit and determination. Just as Tennis gave us heroes like Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King and the Williams Sisters, TISC will help raise heroes through sailing.
And we know that the drive for mastery of skill drives opportunity and there are countless opportunities for careers through sailing. A core part of our future will be connecting our kids with education and career opportunities in the sailing/maritime industry, in education and in STEM careers. 22
Our vision from the beginning was to have sailors of all backgrounds and skill levels training, learning and recreating out of TISC. This is the only way to ensure that any and every sailor with the passion, aptitude and motivation will have every opportunity to excel. And the successes to date are just the beginning of what we know we can accomplish.
So how will a long term lease allow this all to happen? The most critical part of a long term lease is its permanence. A 66 year lease provides the permanence necessary to raise the funds needed to build a best in class sailing center. As you can see, our plans include water and land side improvements that will increase community access and increase the size and scope of our programs. 24
Our first step will be to develop the grounds. Our dry storage will include 50,000 square feet and accommodate about 235 boats of various sizes. We will also build a Bosuns Locker which will be used as a classroom, and maintenance building. There will be some flex space for handicap parking and child drop off though we are actively exploring ways to encourage the use of public transportation to the island, including instructor based child pick up/drop off sites in the city at the bus and ferry terminals.
The first waterfront facility to be built will include a launch area, 2 hoists and 2 ramps to floating docks.
The second waterfront facility will include a scenic overlook and an ADA accessible gangway to our Youth Sailing Dock. This dock will house most of our small boats used in our beginner through College Sailing Programs.
Although we are still early in our planning and design, we expect our primary building to be 2 levels and total @ 14,000 square feet, with an equal open area just outside the building. There will STEM classrooms and technology labs, flexible meeting and office space, a large event/meeting area for large clinics and regattas and a kitchen that can feed a couple hundred kids at a time. We will also have a publicly accessible information area and a nautical plaza that will provide information to the general public about how they can get out sailing.
The terms of the lease call for 66 years from commencement and will allow us to fundraise for our facility and our programs in a way that we have never been able to before. It includes performance milestones to ensure that we are delivering the best in class sailing center promised, and includes checks and balances to ensure that education of our youth and accessibility to the community are always the priority.
Although a more detailed list of milestones is included in the lease, included is: - the construction of a permanent fence and covering within 2 years - The construction of a waterfront boat hoist and docks within 4 years - And the construction of a 1 st phase structure/building within 5 years of lease commencement
We have also provided guidelines for our Outreach Program Scholarships that ensure the continuation of our mission. We provide full scholarships to those whose household income are equal to or less than 200% of the US Federal Poverty level and a partial scholarship to those within 300% of the USFPL. In reality, our motto has always been to never turn a child away and we have been able to provide scholarships to those in need since our inception.
Additionally, we think it is critical to provide access to adults, regardless of income so we have built in a Volunteer Rewards Program that allows adults to trade volunteer time for access to boats.
We respectfully ask for your support of this long term lease. Although we had no idea getting to this point would take 18 years, we are glad to have had the time to demonstrate the value that a sailing center offers its community, and as described, this long term lease is just the beginning of our next chapter, to a better center with more recreation, education and skill development opportunities than ever before.