The Story Of SailAhead

Sailing is not always about racing but it can be a sport with a healing touch. This is the offered as the perfect example by SailAhead. This is founded by Sean and Kilian Duclay from Huntington Station, New York who offer sailing as a therapy for US armed forces veterans in order to help them heal the scars of war experiences.

The brothers talk about their background and how their parents have helped them develop a passion for sailing. Sean, who is only seventeen years of age, talks about how their parents always owned a boat and their current possession is a Beneteau 411. The parents also sailed with a Hobie Cats model for a long time and the brothers sailed the boat with their parents till 2012.

While Kilian is at Stony Brook university, his brother attends Walt Whitman High School. Kilian talks about the mission of SailAhead which has a mission to offer the veterans a purpose through sailing. He talks about the sailing mission they undertook with Hobie Cats during winter in Oyster Bay, which was backed by Plainsailing.com. He states that extreme sailing is a sport they are passionate about.

The fun is when the weather is extreme as it offers fresh challenges to steer the boat. Kilian stated that when they invite friends over they get hooked to the adventures and come back by themselves. The brothers decided to offer the same experience to war veterans.

With the news that suicide rates are high among these people and about 75000 veterans are in Suffolk county, they formed SailAhead in 2013 and now they offer partnerships to different war veteran organisations around the Long Island region. They have mentored with Dawn Riley who is director of Oakcliff Sailing and they look for ways to help people find sailing give them a morale boost in their lives.