Youth Sailing Opportunities - What's Coming Up In The Next Few Months!!

Published 13:16 on 4 Apr 2022

We cannot wait for the Club to be busier over the next few months as the weather warms up, and more of our regular activities restart! Over the next few months there are lots of opportunities for our younger members to get involved, below is a brief over view of what is going on at Spinnaker Sailing Club, and at other venues in the area!

Club Racing!

It has been fantastic to see so many of our Optimist and Topper sailors racing this winter. Don't forget all our members are always welcome to join in with Club Racing, on Wednesdays and Sundays! If you are feeling a little nervous please do speak to one of our Class Captains, James, Neil or the Race Officer for a few pointers! You can also ask for a "red streamer" from the race hut to show to other racers you are new to racing, a bit like having P plates on your car!

RYA Training Courses

We still have a few spaces on our RYA Training Courses over the Easter Holidays, especially on the Youth Stage 1 & 2 Course running 11th - 15th April. We then also are trialling running an RYA Stage 1 Course alongside SYT on Sunday Mornings from April 24th!

Spinnaker Youth Training

Our very popular programme of regular sailing for our youth sailors, Spinnaker Youth Training, kicks off again on Sunday 24th April! As always it has been very popular, but there are still a few spaces left, particularly in the Improver Group. If you cannot book on, or are not sure which group is right for your child please email training@spinnakerclub.co.uk and we will do our best to help you!

Jubilee 8 Hour Endurance Race

We hope that our 8 Hour Endurance Race on Saturday 4th June will be one of the highlights of 2022! This event is open to Club members and visitors and we know it will be a great day of racing, and meeting other sailors! We hope to see lots of our own sailors racing as teams. If you would like help finding a team, or would like to know how the race will run please speak to James Oborne, Nick Smith (Topper Captain) or Emma Barker (SYT Representative).

British Youth Sailing Regional Junior Championships and RYA Onboard Fun Fleet

This year the Regional Junior Championships, and Onboard Fun Fleet, are being held in Portland on 18th & 19th June 2022.

Last year a number of our sailors attended this event in September and had a fantastic weekend of fun and racing! This event is one of the highlights of the RYA's Junior Calendar, and anyone who would like to be selected for the Regional Training Group Programme next Winter needs to attend! There are 3 options to choose from when entering. The Championship Fleet is for the competitive racers who want to see how well they can do against the best junior sailors in the area. The Coached Regatta Fleet is for sailors newer to racing, the racing is run by the coaches from the Regional Training Group who offer support, tips and encouragement to all sailors in the fleet! Last but not least there is the Onboard Fun Fleet, this is for sailors less interested in racing and want to have fun sailing with others from across the south coast! James our Chief Instructor will be one of the instructors supporting the Onboard Fleet again this year so there will be a friendly face for anyone who is a little nervous about going somewhere new!

Sailors who are entering the Championship and Coached Regatta Fleets need to supply their own boat (all boats are supplied for the Onboard Fleet). The Club is looking at how we can potentially help with transporting boats to this event and back. If you think you might need some help please let James Oborne or Emma Barker know so they can look at the options.

Last year at this event Spinnaker Sailing Club received the South Regional Junior Championship Development Award for having the biggest increase in entries from 2020, and one of our sailors Jess also claimed 1st place in the Topper Regatta Fleet, let's see if we can keep the Development Award for a second year, with even more taking part than last year, and see if any of our racers can bring home anymore prizes!

Last updated 09:41 on 20 December 2023