Staff Stories: Cece
Cece Hopkinson, our 420 Race Coach, is our sailing instructor spotlight for this week! Cece grew up in Laurel Hollow sailing on her family boat throughout Cold Spring Harbor. At the age of 7 her parents signed her up for sailing camp at the Cold Spring Harbor Beach Club. Cece, however didn’t take to sailing right away and did not sail the following year. By the time she was 9 most of her friends had started sailing, which gave her the courage to get back in a boat! The second time around, with the help of her friends, she wasn’t so afraid anymore; in fact she loved it!
Cece continued to get better and at age 11 decided to start racing sailboats. The first boat she raced in was a Pixel, eventually moving onto 420s when she was of high school age. Cece attended St Marks High School in Massachusetts. Unfortunately for her they did not have a sailing team, so she had to wait for summer to get back on the water. The only sailing she was able to do in Massachusetts was frostbiting in Marblehead!
After high school Cece attended the University of Virgina, where she double majored in sustainability and studio art. During her freshman year she walked onto the UVA club sailing team and practiced regularly on Lake Anna. She became the technical manager of the team as well as helped everyone get their boat ready for regattas. After sustaining an injury early in her senior year, Cece transitioned into a new role as team coach, leading the UVA squad through her last season.
Cece graduated from UVA this year and is pursuing a career in sustainability consulting and graphic design. She loves up and coming sustainability technology and how prevalent it all is in the world today. Even though she is a sailing instructor, she could easily be an educator at The WaterFront Center as well! However, Cece’s passion is sailing and she loves seeing the kids get into racing on the technical side of things. She loves when they ask questions about the minutia of racing, because it shows her how much they’ve come to understand the sport.
In the summer, you can find Cece sailing on big boats and Lasers, racing with her friends for fun. In the winter, you can find her on the top of a mountain skiing, but no matter what time of the year you can always find her painting. This is only Cece’s second year as an instructor, but we are so lucky to have her as our 420-racing team coach!
