All set for 2014 season at St Edmundsbury Sailing & Canoeing Association

by Mike Steele 20 Mar 2014 15:22 GMT 20 March 2014

The St Edmundsbury Sailing & Canoeing Association is getting ready for the start of the Club's 2014 sailing season, which commences on Sunday 30th March.

Our first major event will be our 'Antigua Sailing Day' regatta, which will incorporate a Laser Masters (over 35s) Open Meeting, which will be held on the 27th April. The event has received sponsorship from the Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority, as a result of press coverage of our inaugural Antigua Sailing Day being picked up by the Antigua Sailing Week Race Committee, last year. The Club has been offered a steel band and bottles of English Harbour Rum as prizes, so it should be a fun occasion.

As last year, we will be running an RYA 'Push The Boat Out' Club Open Weekend, which will be on 17/18th May. This event has again been registered as a BBC Sports Taster (sailing) Activity. We are hoping for an even more successful outcome than the 150 visitors and 80 sailing tasters that we gave, twelve months ago, which resulted in a dozen new family members joining the Club. This made it one of the most successful PTBO events in the Eastern Region and also earnt the Club the RYA's Social Media Award for promotion of the event.

As a new initiative, we are introducing 'Have a Go' sailing sessions, on one Sunday afternoon per month, to encourage new members. We have already recruited ten Club members to train as Assistant Sailing Instructors, with a view to extending our training capabilities, and expanded our Club hire/training fleet to fifteen boats. It is a key attraction of the Club that you do not need to own a boat in order to sail.

We are also starting a series of Junior Sailing Sessions; monthly Topper race training and will be holding a Junior Regatta in September, in response to the influx of new family members with young children.

These events are being run in addition to regular race training activities; Women on Water sessions; WASH Disability sailing; Sea Cadets; Young People Afloat and Suffolk Scouts' sailing activities. A full calendar of events is available on the Club website, www.westsuffolksailing.org.uk