Charting a Course for Troubled Youth : Sailing Program Has Given Some a Way Out of Gangs; It Deserves Continued Support

It might seem far-fetched to try to get teen-agers to replace cocaine and alcohol with bowlines and halyards, but there is evidence that the experiment is working. A program called Sail for Life has the worthwhile goal of steering youths in trouble with the law onto a better path.

A 16-year-old aboard a 64-foot teakwood schooner sailing from Alamitos Bay one weekend last month said he embraced the opportunity to sail on Saturdays to avoid the gangs in his Anaheim neighborhood. He has gone to sea often enough to count his shipmates, not the gang members, as his friends. A young woman who said she never liked the ocean has been sailing often enough to change her mind and now is talking of a career as a professional sailor on a cruise ship or a yacht.

The program is the brainchild of Tom and Michelle Hancock of Huntington Beach, who volunteer their time and money to run the program. The Hancocks also have rounded up other adults as volunteer instructors and as people willing to listen to the problems of young people who have spent time at Juvenile Hall and are trying to go straight.

Tom Hancock, 54, can also serve as a role model. Now he is a construction foreman and operator of an insurance agency with his wife. But he said he spent much of his time from age 11 to 21 behind bars for everything from stealing a horse to armed robbery. He credited a probation officer with showing him how to turn his life around, and he works with the Orange County Probation Department on Sail for Life.

Some of the teen-agers sail because it is a chance to escape Juvenile Hall for a few hours. Others learn they enjoy watching the sails fill and steering a course. The Hancocks also are available to discuss whatever is on the minds of their apprentice sailors, a valuable assist to Probation Department counselors. The outings provide an example of another way of life and the chance to make new friends. Cheers for the program.