Sailing at the Point

It’s a brisk early-June Saturday morning on the North Shore just downriver from the Point. A light breeze is moving in from the west on the Allegheny River. Almost a dozen high school girls and boys from several Pittsburgh and suburban schools gather at an under-used concrete riverfront amphitheater, jabbering away while looping their arms through the straps of life jackets.  

The early class of students is getting ready to step onto a ramp connected to a floating platform just off shore in the shadow of Acrisure Stadium. There are sailboats to rig and launch. Although most of the students have never been on a sailboat before joining the sailing program, they’re excited to take on the shifty winds that blow mostly from the Ohio River and further west.

Sailboats on the river, adjacent to the skyscrapers of Downtown Pittsburgh, is not a sight one would expect to see in the Steel City. Onlookers from the North Shore bike trail and Point State Park point at the sailboats, and some take pictures of the unusual sight. It’s a scene that will be repeated all summer and into fall on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

The Point of Pittsburgh Sailing League (PPSL) just began its fourth year of offering learn-to-sail and sailboat racing opportunities. While open to all Pittsburgh area high schools, the organization’s focus is to provide the opportunity to sail for those who traditionally have not had access to the sport of sailing. PPSL has an outreach effort to Pittsburgh Public Schools and is a certified Out-of-School-Time provider in the city school system. The program is proud of its no-turn-away policy based on one’s ability to pay.

The organization understands that sailing has an access problem. Sometimes it is an issue of distance to a lake or bay. But in many cases, factors of income and traditional practices of sailing organizations have played a role. PPSL is proud to be part of the efforts of numerous sailing programs to change the image of sailing and expand access to this lifelong sport.

The students have completed rigging the boats. Sails flutter in the morning breeze. One by one, the newbie sailors push the 14-foot sailboats along carpet-covered rails on a converted gas dock and down a ramp into the calm waters devoid of river traffic. The weekend powerboat crowd doesn’t arrive until early afternoon — well after the sailors are back at dock. Using a cleat hitch knot, which they just mastered, the sailors secure the boats to the 50-foot floating platform. After a final review of the sailing lesson and a last-minute weather check, they’re ready to head out.

Despite the assumption of river current, the sailors know that except for the impact of storms, river current is negligible. Because it is early in the season, instructors or returning experienced sailors are on board to work with the new sailors.

A safety boat is already on the river. The operator watches out for river traffic, and to make sure the sailors are okay. There’s a radio to communicate with commercial boats and a horn to signal when sailors need to move out of the navigation channel.

The sailing area is on the Allegheny River downriver from the Fort Duquesne Bridge to the fountain at the Point. The sailing area, safety boat and channel clearance procedure are part of a safety protocol that was reviewed by the commercial boating industry and the Coast Guard.

With the help of many, the sailing program is doing well. More than five years ago, state Sen. Wayne Fontana secured a state grant that enabled us to purchase a fleet of sailboats, a dock, and a safety boat. A license agreement with the Sports and Exhibition Authority permits us to connect the seasonal floating platform to the amphitheater. Corporate sponsors, currently ALCOSAN, UPMC and IMG Energy Solutions, in addition to individual donors help to support our low fees and no-turn-away policy based on ability to pay. Our location provides a high degree of visibility for corporate logos placed on the shore side of our dock. PPSL volunteers, all U.S. Sailing Association certified instructors, provide sailing instruction.

After graduating high school, many of our students may never sail again. But we believe they will remember the time they sailed on the river. Others may go onto college sailing. The Moraine Sailing Club, based at Lake Arthur about an hour north of the city, has a great community sailing and racing program that our sailors can join. And maybe one day, one of our sailors just might be at the helm of a cruiser sailboat on a bay, or even the ocean, remembering heading out from a dock on the Allegheny River on a June morning.

We hope our still-young sailing program is just the beginning. This year we bought a larger sailboat to add an adult learn-to-sail program. Future plans include seeking support to expand our dock and increase the size of the sailing fleet. Our goal is to make PPSL a part of the landscape of Pittsburgh. Then the sight of sailboats on the river will be another building block that advances a positive image of our vibrant city.