Please help us continue and expand our programs.
Sarah Helming
Director of Programs and Events
Sarah has been involved with SailMaine since 2005 when she came onboard as a high school sailing coach. In 2007 the high school program had grown from 24 to almost 70 sailors at which point her role evolved into program director. In 2008, Sarah took on the role of junior program Director and also took on the title of Events Director. In the Fall of 2010, Sarah became SailMaine's second full time staff member as the Director of Programs and Events.
Sarah found her love for sailing at an early age at the Southport Yacht Club in Southport, ME and while attending The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT., where her interest in racing dinghies grew (especially team racing). She graduated from Boston College in 2002 as an Elementary Education / Human Development major with a minor in business and competed on the Varsity sailing team. In 2002 Sarah was honored as an All-American Sailor by the ICSA while she was a member of the Eagles Sailing Team.
Professionally, Sarah worked at Portland Yacht Club in Falmouth, Maine as Assistant Director of the Junior Program, from 2005-2007. She has been the head coach and Director of several other sailing programs, including the Nantucket Yacht Club, Nantucket Community Sailing and the Southport Yacht Club (Southport, ME). Additionally, she taught high school special education at Thornton Academy from 2006-2010, completing her State of Maine Special Education Certification through the University of Southern Maine.
Through her work at SailMaine, Sarah has found it important to get involved in various organizations that support sailing in Maine and beyond. These include: board member of GMORA (Gulf of Maine Ocean Racing Association) as a SailMaine representative, assistant secretary of the Northeast Sailing Association, encouraging junior sailing in Maine, and NESSA (New England Schools Sailing Association) executive board, supporting high school sailing in New England.
When she's not working at SailMaine, you can find her in the winter skiing in the mountains and in the summer sailing J24s (on an all-female team), or on KAOS, a local Frers 41, flying the chute in the GMORA series. She currently lives on the West End of Portland and is proud to call Maine her home.