Kids Aboard Boating, Fishing & Watersports Magazine
For Children & Families
Posted Wednesday, January 24, 2007
There will be no need to hide the women, children and silverware when the rakish Tallship Unicorn sails into cities along the east coast this summer. The crew is not the scurvy pirate gang commanded by Capt. Jack Sparrow. Unicorn’s crew of teenage girls might steal your heart, but not your treasure. They are Sisters Under Sail.
The non-profit Sisters Under Sail program is clearly not your ordinary summer camp. It is a leadership program for girls ages 13-21 aboard a 118-foot square-topsail, gaff-rigged schooner that has been completely refit for comfort and safety. It is commanded by professional tall ship sailors, primarily college-age women who serve as role models for the fledgling mariners.
Sisters Under Sail was founded by Dawn Santamaria, co-owner and executive officer of the Unicorn. Her four daughters provided the inspiration for the program. The other owner is her husband, Jay, President of BeamPines, Inc., a New York firm that conducts leadership training programs for high-potential executives.
Says Dawn, “I saw the life-changing impact that sail training aboard our working tallship offered my own children. I realized I had a wonderful ‘life’ teaching laboratory available to me. The girls take on leadership roles willingly and with confidence when given the opportunity. They blossom right before your eyes.”
Sisters Under Sail is a fusion of a real-life sea experience and expert knowledge in building confidence and leadership skills. They stand watch, take the wheel, set sails, navigate, swab the deck, bond with their shipmates and keep journals of their adventure.
In addition to its normal schedule, Santamaria conducts special, sponsored programs for disadvantaged teenage girls.
Last summer the Sisters Under Sail program and a leadership program for women executives were run in conjunction with the American Sail Training Association’s Tall Ship Challenge in the Great Lakes, sailing from port to port. On one sail, from Chicago to Port Huron, Michigan, girls with one day of experience found themselves without engine power in a squall. “The girls stepped up to the plate, listening to orders from the captain and hauling the main and foresails to maneuver a 150-ton steel ship. It was exhilarating for them and so rewarding for me to see the strength and courage they mustered.”
Santamaria is now signing on girls to crew on this summer’s voyages, which ranges from Halifax, NS to Atlantic City. Except for one 11-day voyage from the Canadian Maritimes in July, each leg of the trip is a five-day Sisters Under Sail program open to six young women. The five-day program costs about $1,000.
“Hopefully,” says Santamaria, “they’ll leave the Sisters program with more confidence, and life skills that will help them stay on the right course.”
The 2007 summer program schedule:
Details of the Sisters Under Sail and other Unicorn programs are available at www.sistersundersail.org and www.tallshipunicorn.com. Dawn Santamaria can be reached at dawn@tallshipunicorn.com. Unicorn will have a booth at the Chicago Strictly Sail Show, Feb. 1-4.
