For generations of Marblehead sailors, Pleon Yacht Club has been a place for kids and teens to learn to sail and form a community. For Will Dailey, a Pleon alumnus, it inspired him to create an exchange program connecting coaches from Marblehead with sailors from a grassroots sailing academy on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
The partnership between Pleon and the Eleuthera Sailing Academy began after Dailey, who had sailed at Pleon his whole childhood, spent two months coaching at the academy in November and December of 2024. Dailey connected with Martin Manrique, who founded and runs the Eleuthera Sailing Academy with his wife, Carlien. After exchanging a few emails and phone calls, Dailey was on a plane to the Bahamas in a spur-of-the-moment trip.
“I lived on this catamaran, like 200-300 feet off shore,” Dailey said. “Every morning I would swim into the beach and go sailing for the day. It was a total blast.”
The small academy operates from the beach of Eleuthera, a small island in the eastern part of the Bahamas archipelago. It serves students from a variety of backgrounds, and the islanders often don’t have access to the same services that are available in Marblehead. Dailey says it opened his eyes to the difference between the two sailing communities. Toward the end of his stay, Dailey and Manrique began discussing setting up an exchange program. The goal was to teach sailing, but also expose coaches and young sailors to different communities — and sailing programs.
“We wanted the Pleon coaches to get exposure to what it’s like at a grassroots sailing program,” Dailey said. “And we wanted the kids from Eleuthera to see what a large-scale junior sailing program looks like where you have a 100-plus kids.”
The exchange began last year where Pleon coaches Ashley Goguet and Lane Kaeuer spent about five weeks during May and June living in Eleuthera and coaching at the academy. Later that summer, Bahamian sailors 12 year old Deja and 14 year-old Denee traveled to Marblehead, sailing at Pleon and competing.
This year, the program continued to grow. Pleon coach Max Dressel traveled to Eleuthera in the spring to coach at the academy.
“The experience was lovely,” reflected Dressel. “I had a wonderful time engaging with Bahamian culture and learning about the different classes of boats that they had there while also expanding on my ability to coach.”
In July, Shamarr, Mymy and Kaykay, three teen sailors from the Bahamas, traveled to Marblehead and stayed with Dailey while taking classes at the Pleon Yacht Club. 16 year-old Shamarr came to Marblehead first, and competed in the Laser class during Junior Race Week. 14 year-old Mymy and Kaykay came later, and spent two weeks taking Pleon classes in Marblehead. At the end of Junior Race Week Shamarr won the top Corinthian award for his sailing performance.
Dailey credits the Pleon Yacht Club and the Marblehead community for supporting the program and making it a success.
Pleon program director Lizzie Ayer helped cover Junior Race Week fees and transportation for the sailors and instructors, and several families helped with housing the sailors. Dailey was thankful for the welcoming atmosphere that the Pleon community gave the sailors.
Dailey spoke about how life on Eluerthera can be outside the comfort young people take for granted in Marblehead. For Dailey, the program aims to share the experiences that Pleon gave him growing up.
“Pleon is a really special place, and growing up there it had a huge impact on me,” said Dailey. “So really the goal of the programs was to create an opportunity for those kids to experience the same thing.”
