The wind shifted after he came to Virginia. Living in Martinsville gave him access to Smith Mountain Lake, and in 1974, he bought his first boat, a Laser dinghy.

His family was hooked, especially the two children.

"They wouldn't let us go anywhere else on the weekends except to go sailing," he said.

Now, Hazlehurst lives in Richmond and takes to the water in a 34-foot German-made Dehler yacht. And he and other members of Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville are determined that sailing -- particularly racing -- not depend on wealth.

That works great for Bonnie Black of Mechanicsville.

One of seven crew members aboard Oracle last Saturday, she bustled about Hazlehurst's boat as it jockeyed for position among 17 others hoping to harness wisps of wind on a 3-mile course on the Chesapeake Bay.

Black fell in love with sailing years ago and now is an avid racer.

"I wanted to buy a boat but realized I couldn't," she said.

Not a problem at Fishing Bay.

Hazlehurst and other boat ers in the club welcome crew members in hopes of building enthusiasm for a flagging sport.

"It's going down. That's why we're spending as much time and effort as we are. It's not a cost factor; it's a time and availability factor," said Hazlehurst, who coordinates the club's crew training program.

The club, which was formed in 1939 by a group of Richmond residents, for years held classroom sessions in Richmond for new racers. Now it's taken a different tack, emphasizing recruiting through on-the-water training. Three introductory sessions were held last month, and prospective crew members can sign up in advance on the club's Web site for one of the series of races under way this season.

Even if you don't do that -- still no problem.

"You can basically show up here, and you will not be left behind. They want people that badly," said Liz Arnold of Midlothian, another of Hazlehurst's crew.

Some captains teach and some are ultra-competitive.

"Any kind of experience you want, I think you can find here," Arnold said.

Santo Perri of Summit, N.J., was having an unusual experience. He'd never sailed before.

"This is peaceful," he said as the Oracle made its way out of Jackson Creek. "You get used to the everyday traffic and come out here . . . "

He let the sentence trail off like a dying wave.

Perri had come with Tom Ministri, a Fredericksburg resident who is moving to Richmond. They share a tie in the commercial real estate business.

Ministri was one of the veterans on Hazlehurst's boat, as were Tom Carlson of Glen Allen and Scott Turpin of Roanoke.

Hazlehurst -- lean, tanned, weathered and bearded -- made it clear he was the captain as the boats readied for the morning start.

"Tom and Tom will man the jib sheets," he said. "We've got to get the jib sheets up faster than we did last week."

The Oracle was racing among boats in the B class, one of three categories based on speed. Boats also were handicapped to level the playing field even more.

The fastest boats, the A class, set out first. Five minutes later, the starting gun sent the Oracle and its competitors on their way toward the first orange marker a mile distant.

"Racing is what makes it fun -- the challenge," Carlson said. "You'll win a race by a boat length or two, so the winner is the one who makes the least mistakes."

The crew's objective was to improve on the previous week's last-place finish. Light, fickle winds kept the boat to under 3 knots (speeds can reach 9 knots in high winds), and though the Oracle rounded the final orange marker ahead of a competitor, the handicap system erased the edge.

"We were doing great until the last half hour," Ministri said.

Usually, crews can expect two or three races a day, but the lack of wind, coupled with a steady drizzle, forced officials to send the boats back to their berths.

Though the weather and the finish might not have been up to expectations, Perri's smile showed that the day had produced at least one winner.

"This was great," he said. "I loved it."