Madison Youth Sailing offers a progression of classes to take your child to the next level in their sailing adventure.

Returning Families: Check out our progression chart below to help guide you to the next best lesson.
New Families: Welcome! The following classes are great for your first time sailor: Kinderpram, Beginner Opti, Adventure Camp - see descriptions below for more details.

Regardless of previous sailing experience, level or ability, we will do our best to work with you to find the right class for your young sailor. If you'd like to talk to our director or parent leader, reach out via our Contact Us page and we'll follow up with you ASAP to figure out what makes the most sense for your sailor and family. 

Class Descriptions

Kinder Pram
​Our introductory class for our youngest sailors (ages 5-7), this once-per-week class focuses on introducing sailing in a fun, social environment. Through this class, kids will learn general water safety rules, basic sailing knots and seamanship. The children will become familiar with understanding wind direction, boat parts, points of sail, steering and how everything works together to control a sailboat. This will be taught through on-the-water instruction as well as sailing related arts, crafts and games. Activities are designed to build confidence to sail in Optimist sailboats. During the first session each student will be given a very basic swim check while wearing a life jacket in order to assess their comfort level in the water. We encourage parents to stay at the lake and learn alongside your kids or grill out and enjoy the MYSF community.
Kinder Pram is a once-per-week session over six weeks offered either Monday or Tuesday evenings.
Recommended Ages: 5-7
Pre-requisites: None

Beginner Optimist
An introductory class to sailing on the ubiquitous “Opti” sailboat, new sailors will learn the basics of rigging a boat, basic boat handling, sailing fundamentals, seamanship (knots, weather, etc.), sportsmanship, and water safety. Each day the sailors will leave with a new set of skills as they take steps to learn how to become a successful sailor on and off the water. Most days, sailors will be paired with another classmate on the water as they learn new skills like steering, trimming the sails, and becoming comfortable around the water.
This class is run in 2 formats: 2 week morning sessions or a 6 week evening session.
Recommended Ages: 6-14 
Pre-requisites: None

Green Fleet
Are you returning to MYSF for another summer or have experience sailing independently and ready to take your Opti sailing to the next level? Our Green Fleet class is ideal for kids (ages 8-12) who want to have fun, grow their skills through independent sailing, and learn the basics of racing. This class explores introductory racing concepts like basic racing rules, starting sequences and simplified race courses. For those who feel ready, this class offers the opportunity to travel to local regattas with other youth sailors from around Wisconsin. Many MYSF students enroll in multiple Green Fleet sessions to create a summer full of sailing!
*Sailors in this class need to be comfortable with the idea of “single-handing” their boat. This involves controlling the sail and steering simultaneously. If your sailor is not quite ready to begin learning to single-hand, consider some more “tiller time” in the Beginner Optimist class before signing up for Green Fleet.
New for this year: 3 week class sessions! Each session will include regatta coaching for an Inland Lake Yachting Association-MYSF supported regatta.
Recommended Ages: 8-14
Pre-requisites: Beginner Optimist, previous summer of Green Fleet, other independent sailing experience

US Sailing Reach STEM - Adventure Camp
Adventure Camp is adapting in 2025 to include US Sailing's Reach STEM curriculum. This class is for sailors between the ages of 10-17 years old, whether you’re new to sailing or are returning to MYSF and are ready for group sailing in a larger boat. This camp utilizes a fleet of two-person or “double-handed” Club 420 sailboats to teach sailors how to sail as a crew, each having individual responsibilities, but working together as a team. Through this class, we will integrate US Sailing's Reach curriculum and interactive lesson plans with sailing around Lake Mendota.
Learn more about US Sailing's Reach STEM curriculum at: https://www.ussailing.org/education/youth/reach/
Recommended Ages: 10-17
Prerequisites: None

Madison Youth Sailing Racing Team
Our Madison Youth Racing Team is back this summer for our returning racers, new racers who attended a regatta through our Green Fleet program or others with prior racing experience. This concentrated racing program groups our racers together for two 3-week camp sessions throughout the summer and prepares them for 2-3 events. 
New for this year: 3 week class sessions! Each session will include regatta coaching for an Inland Lake Yachting Association-MYSF supported regatta.
Recommended Ages: 8-14
Pre-requisites: Green Fleet, prior regatta attendance through Green Fleet, other racing experience
Reach out to [email protected] if you would like to discuss if this is the next step for your child.