West Sussex OnBoard Festival at Lagoon Watersports, Hove
by Marina Johnson, RYA 20 Sep 2012 10:53 BST
15 September 2012
West Sussex OnBoard Festival 2012 © James Stewart / Lagoon Watersports
Forty children from the West Sussex area gathered last Saturday (15 September) for the annual West Sussex OnBoard Festival at Lagoon Watersports in Hove.
The youngsters, aged 8-14, took part in a celebration of learning to sail when they competed in some fun races in Laser Pico dinghies. Inspired by a summer of Olympic and Paralympic sailing they also took part in a torch relay on the water.
The kids had all learned to sail through the Royal Yachting Association's OnBoard scheme, which introduces youngsters to sailing through schools, clubs, training centres and youth groups.
The young competitors had come from Sussex Yacht Club and Felpham Sailing Club as well as from the host club at Lagoon.
Half of the group went sailing, while the other half went windsurfing and swapped over, so that everyone had a chance to try both.
For the sailors, a number of 'challenges' were set. These included stand-up sailing, 'high fiving' other sailors in passing and even attempting a headstand on the bow of their dinghy. Incredibly Cameron from Sussex YC managed a headstand, and stayed upside down most of the way across the Lagoon!
The majority of the participants hadn't windsurfed before, so as well as learning the basics, a few simple games were thrown in for good measure, with everybody falling in on quite a few occasions!
The final activity was the torch relay across the lagoon. A fantastic effort was put in by all, with Team 2 just edging out to take the win. All competitors went home with a certificate and a goody bag.
"We had a fantastic turnout,especially as some kids travelled quite a distance to take part," commented Sam Rowe, the OnBoard Development Officer who organised the event. "Despite the building breeze which reached force 3-4, the sailors all coped very well with minimal capsizes.
"OnBoard is growing in strength in Sussex with the number of young people participating in sailing and windsurfing increasing all the time," added Sam. "A massive thank you to the volunteers behind the scenes making it happen, and also to James and his staff at Lagoon Watersports for making the event a great success."
Over a ten year period OnBoard aims to introduce a minimum of 500,000 children to sailing and windsurfing in the UK, converting over 10% of them into regular participants. So far it's nicely on track.
For more information about how to get involved in sailing visit the RYA's website www.rya.org.uk or the OnBoard website www.ruob.co.uk