Watch and Listen: Cal Poly Sailing Members Speak on Their Experiences With The Club

While many Cal Poly students spend their weekends at the beach, some choose to participate in a different activity by the water. 

Cal Poly Sailing, also known as CP Sailing, is a Cal Poly-affiliated club sport team that practices at the Morro Bay Yacht Club on the weekends. 

Communications senior Cory Quillen joined CP Sailing during his freshman year at Cal Poly. 

“I had never sailed on these types of boats before, so it was a bit of a learning curve, but I knew it was something I had always wanted to do” Quillen said.

The team uses calegent FJ sailboats, which are 14 feet long and hold two people per boat. 

These students come together from a variety of different majors to compete in different regattas multiple times a quarter. Depending on the time of year, the amount of competitions vary. 

Quillen said he looks forward to the busy weekends and traveling with his teammates for regattas. 

“That’s my favorite part. Those events are always the highlight of college. We went to Hawaii recently, which was an awesome experience” Quillen said. Play00:00-02:11MuteSettingsEnter fullscreen

Club members have traveled to Hawaii, Los Angeles and the Bay Area for CP Sailing regattas. 

Aerospace engineering senior and CP Sailing team captain Kai Ponting, from Maui, HI, has been sailing competitively for the past ten years. 

“I raced competitively in high school and when I was looking for colleges, my criteria was that it had to have a sailing team. So basically I was dead set on joining Cal Poly sailing” Ponting said.

Ponting leads the weekend practices and helps lead their weekly meetings every Tuesday night in the Baler building at 8 p.m. 

Despite the intimidating boats, Ponting and the rest of CP Sailing encourages anyone to join regardless of their experience levels.