Travis, Spencer, Ryland and Royce Weber have made names for themselves in local, regional and national sailing. They have been members of national championship-qualifying sailing teams. 

Travis, 20, and Spencer, 18, have earned individual national titles representing the Surf City Yacht Club on Long Beach Island. 

"Racing against local kids on the island is fine, but after a while you begin to realize that there are limits as to how far you can go and how good you can get," Roger said. "The only way you're going to get better as a sailor is to seek out better competition. 

"We started traveling as a family to away events because of the higher levels of competition. And the more we traveled, the better they got." 

Originally from Montville, Morris County, Weber bought a summer home in Surf City on Long Beach Island and eventually moved his family there year around. 

In the early 1990s, he teamed up with Point Pleasant resident Dev Colie to establish the Jersey Shore Optimist Team, which initially included 10 children and was coached by a college student Mike Hare. 

Weber, an avid sailor who never raced competitively, and Colie, a professional sail maker, supervised the team. 

In its first three years, the Jersey Shore Optimist team traveled from Maine to Florida and produced three national Optimist champions. Stuart Colie, Dev's son, won titles in 1994 and '96, and Spencer won the crown in 1995. 

Spencer won the 1996 Byte North American Championship in Kingston, Ontario. In the spring, he will be going for his third Cressy Cup as the National High School Laser champion, a title he won in 1998 and last year for Southern Regional High School. 

For the last three summers, he coached the team his father co-founded, which has since been incorporated into the Surf City Yacht Club's youth program. 

"When I coach kids, I tell them the same thing I was told when I raced Optimists, and that is 'If you want to be good you have to be willing to put the time and effort into it, and one day you'll get there,'" Spencer said. 

After graduating from Southern in June, Spencer hopes to attend either the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the United States Naval Academy, where his older brother, Travis, is beginning his third year. Both institutions have exceptional sailing programs. 

Travis, a 1998 Southern graduate, is a two-time national sailing champion. In 1995 he won the Balboa National Pram championship, and the following year he won the Laser Radial National title. He races FJs, 420s and Lasers for the Naval Academy. 

He said college racing differs significantly from high school and youth racing. 

"In college, the courses are much shorter and each race only takes maybe 15 minutes to complete," Travis said. "A lot of it is done in rivers and in short bodies of water where there's not much room for error. In a race that's a mile-and-a-half long you, can make a mistake and maybe correct it. In a short race, if you make a mistake, it's much harder to come back." 

Ryland, 15, and Royce, 12, have yet to claim a national title, but both seem to be on their way. 

Ryland, a freshman at Southern, was 12th out of 52 boats at the North American Laser Radial Championships in Canada, an event won by Surf City Y.C. teammate Jeff Bonanni in August. 

Ryland was 17th out of 53 boats in the CORK (Canadian Olympic Regional Kingston) Laser Radial Championships, also in August. 

"The competition is a lot of fun," Ryland said. "A lot of people can't see how sailing can be so exciting, but it is." 

Royce was ninth in a fleet of 122 boats in the CORK Optimist Championships and was fifth out of 64 sailors in the New Jersey Optimist Championships. He was 14th out of 213 boats in the Optimist National Championships at Pensacola, Florida, in August. 

Their achievements stemmed from a father's desire to provide a healthy outlet for his sons. 

"Sailing is a great sport, and I just wanted them to get involved with it as something to keep them busy during the summer," Roger Weber said. 

"You give kids five minutes free time these days and you never know what they are going to get into." 
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