Day-In-The-Life of a Junior Instructor
Name: Adriano Atallah
Age: 15
Teaches at: Horseshoe Harbor Yacht Club Junior Sailing Program
Resides in: New Rochelle
Sailing Experience: Two Years
“All of our consulers in training are perpetually helpful to have as sailing instructors. Not only can they lend us a second pair of ears, eyes, and hands, but it also helps prepare them for the responsible role which they will presumably endow.” Says Horseshoe Harbor Yacht Club Head Instructor Caroline Farina.
For this article, I took a look at a day for Adriano Atallah, a Junior Instructor at Horseshoe.
Adriano Atallah usually wakes up at 6am. Not because he’s he needs that long to get ready for the day, but because he’s studying Latin for school and Arabic out of interest.
After an hour of studying, Adriano eats breakfast, packs his lunch and heads out. Commuting by bike, he leaves his New Rochelle house at around 8am to get to Horseshoe Harbor Yacht Club at 8:30. Then his work day begins. Campers arrive at 9am, so for the half hour before kids are at the club, Adriano and the other instructors get ready for the day. This could consist of planning the day’s events, cleaning boats, preparing sail parts, etc.
When sailors begin to arrive, Adriano welcomes them, and then goes down to the docks with them to help prepare their boats. At Horseshoe Harbor, only Optimist and Pixel dinghies are available to sailors, and Adriano helps out with campers in the Optis.
After a morning on the water, sailors and instructors come back in for lunch, which is usually spent just hanging out with the kids, playing Ping-Pong, cards, or foosball. After lunch, the sailors re-rig and head back out.
“Out on the water, we’re usually practicing maneuvers and doing mock races,” Adriano told me. “Of course, we still leave time for fun. It’s not uncommon that the day ends with a follow-the-leader game, or something along those lines.”
After derigging and cleaning up the dock area, sailors leave. However, Adriano and the entire instructor staff clean up the deck at Horseshoe, lock up the sailing equipment for the night, and after the clean up is done, he heads home.
