First OnBoard Festival in Merseyside and Cheshire

The first OnBoard Festival in Merseyside and Cheshire © West Kirby SC

Fun for kids on the water was the theme when West Kirby Sailing Club hosted the first ever OnBoard Festival in Merseyside and Cheshire on Saturday 29 August. OnBoard is an RYA led initiative to give more kids the chance to learn to sail.

Organiser Luke Shaw welcomed a total of 27 children to the event, coming from West Kirby SC, local Scout groups, and from Astbury Watersports. The young sailors enjoyed a fun introduction to sailing in a treasure hunt, relay races, and fleet races.

Brisk Force 4 winds gave the youngsters plenty of fast sailing, with a good sprinkling of capsizes to add to the excitement. The kids were placed in two groups, with the more experienced ones sailing RS Fevas, including boats kindly lent to the event by RS Racing. Less experienced sailors were in pairs, sailing Laser Picos.

All went out for a short sail to test the conditions before the Feva sailors got down to racing, and the Pico sailors set off on a treasure hunt. First to the treasure but in controversial style were the local Scouts, Charlie, Owen and Aaron. Their map of where the treasure lay was blown away by the brisk winds, so they resorted to asking bystanders for clues to guide them. But first to return safely with map still in hand were the West Kirby SC team of Sam, Alex and Will, who were declared the winners.

Another winner was Hettie Dunlap, age 7, who won the Merit prize in the Pico group. It was her first time sailing a Pico, but it won’t be her last. “It was great! I am really looking forward to doing it again,” said Hettie.

The kids ranged from age 7 up to 16, and it was one of the eldest sailors, Rob Kinsella,16, from Astbury Sailsports, near Congleton, Cheshire, who took the top prize in the racing group. Crewed by George Challiner from West Kirby, Rob was the winner of the RS Feva racing group. Rob took the West Kirby OnBoard Festival Trophy for 2009, and he was also commended by the instructors on his positive attitude and good sportsmanship.

Luke Shaw, OnBoard Development Officer for Merseyside and Cheshire, summed up the event, “Today was breezy, but the instructors and sailors were tenacious and enthusiastic. West Kirby really pulled out all the stops today after a tough first year for them as an OnBoard centre. For most of the season they were without sailing water after the lake had to be drained to allow repair of the sea walls. But now West Kirby are firmly back on the map for OnBoard and for sailing generally, and are looking forward confidently to the future.”

West Kirby Sailing Club is the OnBoard centre for Merseyside and Cheshire, and the club is also a national leader in dinghy team racing.

Run by sailing’s National Governing Body, the RYA, OnBoard is a highly successful industry supported grass roots programme which seeks to make sailing easier to get into for young people. Over a ten year period the programme 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 www.ruob.co.uk