LYC has its first full-time sailing director
Lewes Yacht Club has its very first full-time sailing director, as the club prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary this year.
Angus Robertson has an extensive sailing background, having served as sailing director/dock master at Corinthian Yacht Club of Philadelphia for the past 23 years.
During that time, he was also the University of Pennsylvania club sailing coach for 14 years and assisted Drexel and Villanova universities with their teams. He assisted with sailing programs at the Philadelphia Maritime Academy.
At Corinthian, Robertson oversaw all waterfront operations, including summer sailing school, weekly one-design racing from April through September, a fall and spring high school program with more than 40 participants from 25 schools, and all boat launching, maintenance, private lessons and even dock building.
He moved with his wife, Mary, to Milford May 1, and started his new job May 2.
Robertson said nearly all of his career has been spent on freshwater, and he's looking forward to sailing and boating in the saltwater Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean. “This area has a huge potential for sailing,” he said, adding he doesn't have plans to reinvent the wheel but to enhance existing LYC sailing programs.
Robertson said he particularly enjoys coaching young sailors. “If they like what they are doing, kids respond, and that's the greatest thing in the world,” he said.
The club offers youth sailing school in the summer, sailing lessons and weekly sailing races. It also sponsors regattas.
Robertson's long resumé includes: Waterfront director for Cooper River Yacht Club, 1999-2006; adjunct professor at Temple University for Kinesiology – The Art of Sailing; head instructor for Riverton Yacht Club, 1997-99; and creator of East End Yacht Club, which is a virtual club and still in operation.
Growing up in New Jersey, he learned to sail in the early 1970s from an Eastern Bloc Olympic sailor and worked as a boat builder and had a boat repair business early in his career.
He is a certified CPR, first aid Red Cross instructor and boating instructor.
