Starcross Yacht Club - Developing junior sailors
by Peter Solly 27 Jun 2023 14:12 BST
SYC Friday night training © Peter Solly
The 2023 season has started well for Starcross Yacht Club's junior section. As well as the regular Friday evening straining sessions, which are once again oversubscribed, the club has already offered several different opportunities this year.
Sorcerer's Apprentice
Starting in April, the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" has seen older juniors paired with experienced Merlin Rocket helms, who took them out to experience a different type of boat and a traditional spinnaker. The sessions have proved great fun, and have generally been focussed on one-on-one boat handling and match racing. They have really enthused the juniors about sailing in different types of boats, and helped to broaden their understanding of the different opportunities as they get older. Some Merlin sailors are often on the lookout for new crew members, this is a great way of building a cohort of keen and competent juniors who may be able to step in.
RYA Regional Champs
The RYA Regional Junior Championships is a great event for young sailors looking for a first event away from their home club, as well as the more experienced who are competing at the top of the championship fleets. SYC has supported these events for several years, and this year had 25 sailors travelling to Royal Torbay Yacht Club - for many, their first foray away from Starcross.
The Tera fleet, Feva Championship fleet and the Topper 4.2 Regatta Fleet were all won by Starcross sailors, with some excellent individual performances. But what is most pleasing is watching how much fun sailors in all fleets had, and the satisfaction they get from competing (at whatever level), and improving. The number of Starcross sailors in the Rookie fleet is particularly exciting, as it shows the strength of the younger and less experienced sailors who are now starting to develop their skills, which should stand the club in very good stead over the coming years.
SYC won the Shield for the club with the biggest increase in number of sailors attending (an increase of 13, narrowly beating Exe Sailing Club, who had an increase of 12); and was narrowly pipped at the post by Parkstone for the Shield awarded to the club with the greatest number of attendees.
Assistant Instructors
SYC is working hard to provide interesting opportunities for older children to keep sailing and remain interested, this is one of many initiatives it is running. The Assistant Instructor (AI) program, which has been very successful in previous years but took a break during the covid years, is back. This year there are 5 experienced juniors who are training to be AIs, and several of them have their eyes on a DI qualification through the summer. This is a great way of Friday evenings still being fun and interesting, as well as providing a very useful stepping stone to DI tickets and future employment.
Last weekend one of the AIs, who is doing their DI course next week, was out doing some one-to-one coaching of a younger sailor in an RS Tera. This was very successful for both parties.
Moving up...
In Mid May, RYA Regional Performance Manager (and SYC member) Duncan West gave a Transition Talk about moving up into a new class. Well attended, with visitors from other clubs as well, this gave a thought provoking way to consider how best to transition into a new class. This is often a difficult time, and there is a risk of drifting away from sailing, so Duncan's talk - which focussed on what to consider and what questions to ask yourself - was very useful. Particularly relevant for those moving from single handers into double handers, was the part about communicating with your partner, both in the boat whilst sailing, and also off the water about plans and aspirations.
Afterwards there was a BYO BBQ, and an camp-over. The BBQ was very well attended, and the brief rain shower passed fairly quickly, leaving a dry and pleasant evening. Nearly 25 people camped, and Saturday morning dawned idyllic and sunny. With an early high tide, people were keen to get on the water early, and happily the wind filled in to a perfect 10-12 knots. Once again, sailing conditions were incredible, and juniors were given an opportunity to sail in different boats to those they normally sail. Parent and AI helms took juniors out in RS200s, two cats (a Hurricane and the Club's Dart 15), as well as sailors pairing themselves up to sail a Feva, 29er and several toppers. By the time things wrapped up just before lunch, there were a lot of tired and happy sailors!
August Regatta
The legendary and hugely successful Starcross August Junior Regatta - 19-22 August 2023 is now open for entries, and welcomes both local and travelling boats.
Thanks, as ever, to the large and enthusiastic team of volunteer's who help to make all of these things happen. SYC is an entirely volunteer-run club, and such an excellent program is only possible so much help and support
www.starcrossyc.org.uk