Mount Carmel Catholic High School in Chicago marked its 125th anniversary this year.

Located just blocks from Jackson Park Harbor and Lake Michigan, it wasn’t until two years ago that the Caravan Sailing Club became part of the school’s extracurricular activities in the fall of 2023.

The club has yet to enter high-profile sailing competitions, but on a Saturday morning practice last month, seven of the club’s nine members learned an important lesson.

The boom of the Club 420 dinghy they had taken into Jackson Park Harbor bumped a crew member, causing the boat’s mast and sail to lose tension.

The student wasn’t hurt, but the boat started drifting.

Though not as serious as capsizing, the situation offered crew members the most important truth of sailing — they must depend on each other.

“The first thing we do is check on the sailor then work as a team to right whatever’s wrong with the boat,” said the club’s head coach, Tim Baffoe, a 2000 Mount Carmel alum who also teaches English.

Wednesdays after school, club members receive dryland instruction in Mount Carmel’s gymnasium. They learn knot tying, boat anatomy, signals, safety and lifesaving, Baffoe said.

While both settings are essential for learning, the water is where skills and character are tested.

To get the boat back on course, three crew members voluntarily entered the harbor to swim/push the boat back to shore.

The sun peeked out, but brisk winds were blowing and temperatures only climbed to the high 40s near the lakefront. Fortunately, the swimmers wore life vests as well as dry suits over their clothing, preventing the frigid water from touching their skin and causing hypothermia within minutes.

Freshman Matthew Smith, who joined the club last fall, did not let being in the water dampen his enthusiasm for sailing. “I like sailing and boats,” he said. “My grandpa had a sailboat and we fished on it in Mississippi.”

Much like Caravan Club members, the program itself depends upon the cooperation and support of others, including highly skilled volunteers.

Karen Harris, former commodore for Jackson Park Yacht Club and president of the Jackson Park Yacht Club Foundation, spent the morning working with the Mount Carmel students. So did Bob Szyman, a retired Chicago State University recreation professor who helped establish Mount Carmel’s sailing program.

The high school club also operates with the blessing of Marlon Harvey, a 1980 Mount Carmel alum who now is commodore of the Jackson Park Yacht Club. The Beverly resident and retired Chicago Police Department mounted patrolman also serves as community founder of the Chicago Police Sailing Association and organizer of the Gold Star Regatta, which benefits the families of fallen police officers and first responders.

Harris, the former commodore, recently instructed the Mount Carmel Caravan sailors on how to set up and take down a sail. She also offered plenty of pointers, including how to safely step from boat to dock and back again

“We (the foundation) work with several organizations and schools, and hold sailing camps in the summer,” Harris said, adding that the foundation aims to diversify the sport dominated for centuries by white males.

Harris and the Jackson Park Yacht Club Foundation also helped to establish a sailing club at Gwendolyn Brooks High School in Chicago.

“It’s really about STEM, which is essential to careers that pay,” she said. “Sailing involves geometry, so we’re teaching them math and STEM and they’re so focused on what they’re doing they don’t realize it.”

Sailing demands undivided attention, which requires kids to give up screen time, which can help make focusing and learning easier down the line. “There are no cell phones on the boat,” Harris said. But during lessons, motorized rescue boats are nearby.

Sailing opens new worlds and can lead to scholarships to some of the nation’s top universities, Baffoe said.

Some 276 colleges and universities in the U.S. have sailing teams and clubs, according to College Sports America. Among them are Stanford, Yale, Georgetown, Harvard, Tufts, Dartmouth, MIT and Cornell.

High school students who have participated in sailing competitions at the high school level have the best chances for college-level sailing scholarships. They are also more likely to participate in college or university sailing clubs that enable them to form lasting friendships, Harris said.

“We joined MISSA (the Interscholastic Sailing Association’s regional governing body for high school sailing in the Midwest) but we’re not doing races just yet, maybe in the fall or at the end of the summer,” Baffoe said. “We did have a scrimmage against Fenwick last October and Timmy’s boat got the most points.”

Baffoe was referring to Mount Carmel freshman Timmy Carter, of Alsip, who skippered Caravan Sailing’s first dinghy regatta win in a friendly competition with its Chicago Catholic League partner at Burnham Harbor.

The school has billed Carter as the youngest crew member to participate in the Race to Mackinac. Now 15, he serves as volunteer instructor for the Jackson Park Yacht Club Foundation.

Carter enjoys sports and said the fact that Mount Carmel established a sailing club influenced his decision to attend the school. “Mount Carmel offered sailing, hockey and baseball,” he said. “That’s kind of the trifecta for me.”

Like others on track to participate in America’s college sailing teams, Carter is a solid academic achiever. In February, Mount Carmel faculty named him Student of the Month for the Class of 2029.

Carter took up sailing at age 8 after his mother signed him up for a Chicago Park District program. He started by sailing an Optimist, a type of small, square-bottomed sailboat. Before long, he was sailing an RS Feva, followed by a 13.5-foot Club 420. He went on to race keel boats in local shoreline competitions.

“Besides great skills and knowledge, sailing also teaches resilience,” Harris said. “I tell parents, I’m teaching your kids life skills. With some of the younger kids we teach, we have parents who come by on the last day of class and they are amazed that kids can handle the boat, that they understand the main concepts of sailing.”

That’s why Grant Crowley, owner of Crowley’s Yacht Club at 94th Street and the Calumet River, got behind Mount Carmel’s Caravan Sailing Club by donating money. The school used his contribution to buy essential drysuits, he said.

“I’m hopeful for Chicago’s future, due to the lake as a freshwater resource but also for its role in recreation,” he said. “We try to give back. All nine yacht clubs try to give back to the community by supporting programs for youth.”

Club members and supporters hope Mount Carmel will one day sail against other Chicago-area high schools that offer sailing programs, including Loyola Academy, Fenwick, St. Ignatius, DePaul College Prep, Jones, University of Chicago Lab School, New Trier, The Latin School, Walter Payton, Whitney Young, Evanston, Lake Forest Academy, and Culver Academies in Indiana.

Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.