Jaeha LeeNew York

NYU Sailing Club, part 1 of 1

Starting a sailing club before I was a sailor

I had only recently started sailing. That was partly why I started the club.

At NYUFounder

Context

I started sailing recently. What I liked about it, beyond being on the water, was what it asks of people. You can’t sail a boat well on your own terms. It takes teamwork, trust in the people next to you, and constant adjustment to things you don’t control.

On a keelboat, holding the tillerOn the water in a life jacket
Fig. 1 Learning on a keelboat, September 2025.

The problem

For most students in New York, sailing is something you see from the shore. I didn’t think NYU students had an easy way to try it. It has a reputation for being expensive, technical, and mostly for people who grew up around boats.

I wasn’t an expert. But I had just been a beginner, which is a useful thing to have been when you’re designing something for beginners.

What I did

I started the NYU Sailing Club. Not being an expert meant building everything from scratch: finding partners and contacts who could get us on the water, designing how membership would work, coming up with events, and checking whether students actually wanted any of it.

I also designed it to be more than a sailing club. The plan has a few parts:

  • Learning to sail properly. A path toward ASA 101 Basic Keelboat certification,1 the standard first step for sailing a small keelboat.
  • Easier ways onto the water. Kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding, for people who aren’t ready to commit to sailing.
  • People from outside the usual circles. Private speaker sessions with guests from finance, business, technology and the arts, and mentorship from alumni.
  • The rest of the culture. Workshops on the etiquette and social side of the sport, and a Founder’s Sail.

The first goals are deliberately modest: 20 to 30 members, regular outings, and a service project.

What I learned

I didn’t start it because I was the best sailor in the room. I started it because I wanted to create a room where people could learn together.

You don’t have to be the expert to do that. Being a beginner meant I could see what beginners need: a low first step, people to learn with, and a reason to come back.

Footnotes

  1. The ASA is the American Sailing Association. ASA 101 is its introductory course and certification. ↩