Ripon Sailing Club Junior Prize Giving Party
by Jennie Clark 16 Oct 2016 17:22 BST
15 October 2016
Ripon SC Junior Prize Giving Party © Ellie Clark
Over 50 young sailors celebrated the end of the 2016 season on Saturday 15 October with a huge party at the club. With trophies kindly sponsored by local Volvo dealership 'Mill Volvo' the event heralded the end of an amazing season on and off the water.
As one of the first RYA Champion Clubs, Ripon SC has had a strong focus on junior and youth development for many years now and with membership at the club booming it's to be expected that the number of junior sailors would rise incrementally, but this year's programme has shown that not only has the club seen more young helms on the water, those young helms have been making their mark on the open circuit too. In September a total of 17 RSC sailors took part in the RYA Zone Championships, this being the 3rd largest club entry in the UK. No mean achievement for a club with 350 memberships and just 70 acres of inland water!
Royd Brayshay, Junior Sailing Secretary, thanked the parents, coaches and supporters who had made the season's activities possible, before handing over to Commodore Bernard Clark to present the prizes. Royd's speech made mention of the achievements of some of the club's youth sailors too, including Ollie Kent and Ellie Clark's winning of the RS Tera Pro and Sport Northern Championships and Northern Series, and their efforts at Dalgety Bay in early September which saw Ollie crowned RS Tera Pro Scottish Champion and Ellie as Europe Class Junior Champion.
In addition to the prizes for the competitors in the Launchpad and Kickstarter series, Fiona Spence, who has co-ordinated much of the Saturday club activity, made a number of special awards including most improved in the Optimist and Tera fleets, best wiggler and most helpful sailor.
Prizegiving over, parents and young sailors enjoyed a delicious meal and were then entertained by club member and magician Bob's Your Uncle (with real live rabbit!) and club member and ace DJ James Watt.
2017 will be the club's 60th anniversary year and it's fantastic to see such a vibrant junior sailing scene living up to the club aim of being a place for family friendly sailing!