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A sailing endorsement from a man who has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, lived on a boat for three years and raced from the Canary Islands to the Carribean should mean something.

When Mark Upham says the sailing is good, his opinion should be trusted.

And that is what Upham said about Thunder Bay. The wind and relative predictability of the conditions are great for sailing he said.

"Thunder Bay is really an excellent body of water to sail on," he said.

He currently competes in yngling races in Alpena, and teaches sailing classes with the Alpena Youth Sailing Club.

Alpena Youth Sailing Club President Pete Wilson said the youth sailing club started in 2001 and offers a variety of classes to teach both kids and adults how to sail.

The club trains youth how to sail 8-foot Octomus sailboats in the Thunder Bay River.

Wilson said the goal is to teach kids to sail for fun.

"That's kind of our primary focus," he said.

Sailing on a freshwater lake the size of Lake Huron has similar conditions to the ocean but is more accessible, Wilson said.

Sailors in the Alpena area also can sail the many inland lakes in the area. This does not require as seaworthy a boat, and has warmer water, Wilson said.

Either option usually offers sailors with some kind of wind to power the sails.

"Very rarely do you not have wind in our area," Wilson said.

The AYSC offers classes for beginner and intermediate sailors, as well as classes on sunfish racing, and yngling - which is a fixed-keel uniformly built boat.

Tim Rumbles, chairman of races at the Alpena Yacht Club, said yngling is something that makes Alpena unique.

Rumbles said yngling boats have the same design in each boat. Measurements and sails are the same from one boat to the next.

"It levels the playing field for all the people participating," he said. "It really brings it down to sailors ability."

There are four areas in the country that have yngling fleets. Rumbles said communities in Rhode Island, Iowa and Minnesota also race the sailboats.

In 1994, Alpena hosted the North American Yngling Championships, and the sport has grown since then.

The four areas that compete take turns hosting the event, Rumbles said. Alpena is unique because it offers such a large freshwater lake.

"People from the other fleets have been extremely happy with the conditions here," he said.

There are about 18 boats in the Alpena area, Rumbles said. When the sailors aren't competing in the annual national championships, they race twice a week in Thunder Bay.

Upham said Thunder Bay can also occasionally be sailed in the winter.

While the conditions aren't usually right for it, there are a handful of iceboating enthusiasts.

Those frozen, chosen few race 12-foot boats that can reach up to 60 miles per hour.