Sailing Initiative for Veterans

Oakcliff Sailing Center is a unique training and coaching center where human values of character, leadership, responsibility, hard work, team work, competitiveness, brother and sisterhood are taught and developed.

These core values are of the utmost importance in order to stay safe at sea while also trying to win races.

Oakcliff recognizes these core values are also shared by our valorous military personnel from all 5 branches.

It is because of these shared values and the sacrifice of these men and women, especially of those exposed to great danger, that Oakcliff’s Acorn brothers Kilian and Sean Duclay, took it upon themselves to create the Sailing Initiative for Veterans. This new program is designed for Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Serious Trauma or Illness.

Sailing Initiative for Veterans provides an often new, but definitively liberating experience for Veterans. Learning to sail and being supported by others while on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean exposes our veterans to positive and constructive stress. It forces them to work with others as a team to make the boat work! Simply put, sailing is possibly the best therapy for many.

With the enthusiastic support of Oakcliff, the Duclay brothers began this program in the winter of 2014 and have already had tremendous results, especially considering the initial sails have been ‘frostbiting’. Here is what some veterans have said:

This was the best therapy I’ve ever had

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you …

You’ve made my year, not my day, my year!

I’m hooked!

You have no idea, on how much good you’ve done to me!

Acorns Kilian and Sean are both convinced that so much more can and must be done!