Yorkshire OnBoard Festival at Pugneys Country Park
by Susie Nation-Grainger, RYA 8 Oct 2010 09:33 BST
2 October 2010
Yorkshire OnBoard Festival 2010 © RYA
Fifty five young sailors from Yorkshire took to the water at Pugneys Country Park last Saturday (2 October) to demonstrate their sailing skills at the Yorkshire OnBoard Festival 2010.
Watched by friends and family around the lake, the youngsters had great fun as they raced around the lake in teams to collect clothes from the shore in the ‘dress the pirate’ relay, before taking on the challenge of the obstacle course which included a slalom run and 30 seconds of hoola hooping on the shore.
It was then time for a mass ‘Chase the Instructor’ game before finishing the day with a treasure hunt around the lake collecting stars which were later swapped for treasure-sweets!
The youngsters aged 7-15 have all been introduced to sailing through the RYA’s OnBoard scheme at their local clubs; Pennine SC, Otley SC, West Riding SC, Beaver SC, Doe Park Water Activity Centre and Pugneys Country Park.
“The festival was a huge success” said Onboard Development Officer Liz Wrigglesworth who organised the event. We had over 50 competitors and every Yorkshire OnBoard club was represented. All the competitors and team captains got into the competitive spirit with lots of friendly rivalry between teams throughout the day. I’d like to say a massive thank you to LaserPerformance for supplying us with 30 Bugs and to all the volunteers who helped make it such a fantastic fun filled day.”
After an action packed day it was announced that the yellow team were the overall winners and they were awarded with OnBoard medals.
Run by the RYA, OnBoard is a grass roots programme which introduces sailing and windsurfing to young people aged 8 to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres.
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 or the OnBoard website.