Ripon Sailing Club prepares for another busy season of training
by Jennie Clark 27 Oct 2017 20:17 BST
27 October 2017
Ripon Sailing Club were delighted to host a Dinghy Instructor Course funded by the Andrew Simpson Foundation and run during the half term holiday.
A total of five club members and seven visitors from clubs across the North of England joined coaches Ed Curtis and Kev O'Brien for a week which put them through their paces and made sure they are ready to meet the demand for training at their centres during 2018.
Ripon Sailing Club's Push the Boat Out event brought in over 130 new members to the club, most of whom had no experience of sailing. The club pulled out all the stops to add in additional courses and find additional instructors delivering their most ambitious programme of training and coaching yet.
Knowing that the demand would be there again in 2018 the club has been busy working on a skill development programme and the 5 extra dinghy instructors will join another 2 new instructors and an additional Senior Instructor to expand resources.
Coaching resources are also to be increased with a grant funded 6 person Level 2 Race Coach course being held in November and planning is now underway for the 2018 season to maximise the benefits the additional volunteers will bring.
Preparing candidates for the course has seen the club busy with first aid and powerboat training – resulting in additional Assistant Instructors gaining experience over the summer months, 10 more PB2 certificates being issued and 10 new and re-certificated First Aiders.
Club Commodore Bernard Clark said, "these additional dinghy instructors, and the race coaches, will help us to continue to deliver a high volume of quality training to our current and future members. It is absolutely vital that clubs like ours are able to support people as they try out the sport and provide them with the skills to enable them to develop a love of sailing. We are incredibly grateful to Tim and the team at the ASF for their support and look forward to 'putting something back' by our continued fundraising for their work."