Something Good for SailMaine

We recently spent a summer Saturday with our good friends at SailMaine participating in their Second Annual SailMaine Festival and Regatta. One of the main principles that the Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team was founded on is the commitment to giving back to our sailing community. When we have an opportunity to give back and have fun racing in our home waters, it’s even better.

SailMaine is a community sailing center located on Portland’s working waterfront, just blocks from Sea Bags headquarters. This organization is important to us because they work to provide affordable access to sailing for a variety of audiences, from junior sailors and high school sailing teams to adults and special needs individuals. A participation requirement for this race is the commitment to fundraise for SailMaine’s programs. This year’s goal was $50,000 that will go towards scholarships, and we are thrilled to share that the goal was met!

The Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team was the top fundraising team raising a total of $7000. The second and third highest individual fundraisers overall also came from our team; captain, Erica Beck Spencer and co-captain, Emily Carville. Erica got creative in her fundraising efforts, and taught a women’s racing clinic, where she asked for donations to SailMaine in lieu of payment.

While achieving the goals of the fundraiser was gratifying, the conditions on race day were frustrating. The day provided very light wind and a strong current ripping through the waters making the single race of the day over four hours in length. In the end, we were sitting about two boat lengths from the finish for what felt like 15 minutes unable to move the boat. It was super challenging to stay focused in these conditions, but we managed to pull out second place in our division, and we were the first J/24 across the finish.

Despite the elements working against us, as the crew at Sea Bags likes to say, any day on the water is a good day. It was a true honor to raise so much money for our beloved SailMaine – winning that part of the event was the high point.