DAVIS ISLANDS, Fla. — 12 months after Hurricane Helene devastated the Tampa Bay area, the Davis Islands Youth Sailing Foundation is still working to rebuild from the storm's destruction.
Last year, the foundation was searching for a handful of its missing boats. And while all the boats were eventually found, the damage forced the organization to get rid of a majority of them.
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"We just finished up an effort of disposing of probably 20 boats, and we have equipment that we can use to replace a percentage of that," said Karl Felger, executive director of the foundation.
The lost boats were older, but Felger said the hurricane accelerated their replacement timeline. And the cost to replace them can run anywhere between $6,000 to $12,000.
"At any given point, if you're trying to replace one, that can be a financial burden. If you're trying to replace 20 of them, it definitely puts a strain on us in regard to what we're trying to do," Felger said.
Despite these challenges, the foundation has pushed forward to try not to turn a single kid away.
Colin Anderson, a 17-year-old high school student, is one of those kids who has been with the program for years.
After the storms, he helped pick up the pieces because he values his time on the ocean with his friends.
"It took a lot of effort to get us back to a working condition, but I think it really kind of brought our community here," Anderson said, " I kind of felt the need to get out here and make sure we could get back up and running and get back to teaching sailing and having our get-togethers."
Felger says students are sharing the remaining boats for now while they explore additional options to rebuild their fleet. But in the meantime, the focus is on making sailing accessible for all.
"We're probably scratching the surface of starting to feel normal again, so almost a full year and we're still feeling the impacts of it," Felger said.
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