Tudor Sailing Club Push the Boat Out with their Family Fun Day
by Hannah Barnes 12 Jun 2013 08:41 BST
8 June 2013
More than 100 people took part in Tudor Sailing Club's family fun day on Saturday 8th June, part of the RYA push the boat out initiative.
The organisers had planned a full day of fun and games only to have their plans partially scuppered by F5-6 winds but on the plus side it was a gloriously sunny day. The team swiftly went to plan B with most of the day's games taking place in kayaks instead of sailing boats.
The first race of the day in the kayaks was a simple out to a buoy and back again affair, with Lizzie taking the honours closely followed by Daniella.
Then was on to the duck hunt – a flotilla of yellow plastic ducks were taken out and released into the wild. The teams then had to paddle out and collect as many ducks as possible. Winners in race one were the team of Tom and Joe who employed clever tactics of sitting back to back in order to maximise the amount of ducks they could reach.
The most closely contested race of the day was the adult duck hunt, it was all a matter of pride as they raced out towards the duck flotilla. Graham Ducane came up with a new tactic – falling out the boat! This seemed to aid his collection abilities as he managed to come back with 21 ducks and win the race, close second was Cadet Captain, Rob Nicholson.
A few people decided to brave the windy conditions with several adults taking out children in the Optimists. It was interesting to see one of Tudor Laser 4000 sailors trying to get to grips with an Optimist. All those that managed to go for a sail really enjoyed themselves despite the breeze with the majority of the boats managing not to capsize.
The afternoon activities included a BBQ with burgers and hot dogs which was very popular, the social committee had also stocked the freezer with ice creams, Danni did a sterling job selling them.
The afternoon also saw the 'sailing' of the bottle boats which had been built over the course of the day from fizzy pop bottles, garden canes, carrier bags and lots and lots of sticky tape. The craft were of various designs and some serious work had gone in by dads and granddads 'helping' to build boats. Sadly the one thing that unified the ramshackle 'fleet' were their ability to capsize with all of the boats succumbing to the windy conditions. Despite this all the boats made it back to the slipway relatively unharmed.
The final activity of the day was the treasure hunt with the children being given special pirate maps and led around the sailing club and ground following clues. First team back were Danni & Daniella but in the spirit of the day all the children were given a reward for being good sports, taking part and more importantly having fun.
Tudor member Nick M said "I really enjoyed the fun day as did our friends that came along. They thought the club was great, the people friendly and had a good time, so much so they are now considering getting a boat and returning to sailing and maybe joining.
I also had great fun, it was good just play in boats I had never sailed before (Oppie and Wayfarer) and not be racing."
For more information on Tudor Sailing Club please go to our website www.tudorsailing.org.uk or 'like' us on Facebook.