A sailing tradition on shediac bay

For more than 70 years, youth have learned to sail on Shediac Bay through programs that now live on at the Greater Shediac Sailing School.

Greater Shediac Sailing School’s mission is to provide high‑quality sailing instruction for youth ages 5–18 in our community, using Sail Canada’s CANSail curriculum in a safe, supportive environment where students have fun, build confidence, and develop a lifelong love of sailing.

Youth sailing has been part of Shediac Bay since the 1950s, with generations of local kids learning to sail, race, and love the water at Shediac Bay Yacht Club Sailing School. Many of today’s GSSS parents first discovered sailing in those programs and are now sending their own children to do the same.

When the former yacht club sailing school closed, it left a real gap for youth on the bay. A small group of parents and community members decided that the long tradition of learn‑to‑sail on Shediac Bay needed to continue, and they came together to create the Greater Shediac Sailing School.

Those founding volunteers set up a new independent non‑profit, secured a home at the Pointe‑du‑Chêne wharf, sourced boats, and hired a team of Sail Canada–certified instructors. Their goal was simple: to keep high‑quality, CANSail‑based instruction available for the youth of our community, and to pass on the same love of sailing they had grown up with.

From the very beginning, GSSS was designed as a continuation of the tradition started at the Shediac Bay Yacht Club Sailing School, not a replacement. We still use the CANSail system, we still award many of the same trophies with the same names dating back to the early days, and we still celebrate theme days and a big end‑of‑season banquet.

GSSS opened its first season in 2023 at Pointe‑du‑Chêne wharf, starting out modestly with a kitchen space and boats stored in a container. In 2024, the school moved into a new building on the wharf and began improving the surrounding beach and launch area to give sailors more room to rig and launch.

In 2025, we invested in significant renovations, building out a dedicated classroom to support better on‑shore learning and briefings. By 2026, the building was moved to a permanent location on the wharf and the school was fully settled in, with expanded facilities to match the growth of our programs and community.

Our trophies and traditions are a living link between the old school and the new one. Many of the awards that were first presented decades ago on Shediac Bay continue to be awarded today at GSSS, recognizing sportsmanship, improvement, teamwork, and racing achievements. Theme days, weekly routines, and the end‑of‑season banquet all echo the experiences that past generations remember from their own summers on the bay.

Today, parents who once learned to sail here now watch their children rig boats on the same waters, carrying forward a tradition that has shaped sailors, instructors, and lifelong friendships for more than half a century.

The Greater Shediac Sailing School is now an independent non‑profit sailing school based at Pointe‑du‑Chêne wharf, focused solely on youth learn‑to‑sail and racing programs on Shediac Bay. We are proud of the team we have built, the community that supports us, and the many sailors who have passed through our programs since re‑opening.

Most of all, we are committed to ensuring that youth sailing on Shediac Bay remains strong for generations to come—so that every summer, new sailors can discover the same joy, confidence, and sense of adventure that this bay has offered since the 1950s.