Great Year For Sailing In Lincolnshire
by Karenza Morton.
Date: 01 January 2011
More than 275 Lincolnshire school children have been introduced to sailing or windsurfing during an impressive first 12 months for RYA OnBoard at the Lincoln and District Sailing Association (LDSA).
OnBoard is the RYA’s nationwide grassroots programme giving youngsters from local schools, community and youth groups opportunities to sail regularly at low cost, and the scheme was introduced at LDSA in October 2009.
LDSA is a well-established and successful association of Lincolnshire schools promoting sailing to students. Manned mainly by qualified volunteers, around 40% of LDSA’s 25+ instructors are young people who were first introduced to the sports through LDSA.
More Opportunities
Having adopted RYA OnBoard last winter, LDSA, based at Hykeham Sailing Club at Apex Lake, is already looking forward to creating more opportunities for an even greater number of youngsters in 2011.
Mick Parsons, LDSA Sailing Development Officer, said: “Having RYA OnBoard underpin the work we do with schools has enabled us to obtain extra funding from the RYA for volunteer development and recognition, which has made a difference to the number of sessions we are able to offer and the fact we can give even more young people the chance to continue sailing at reduced cost.
“There are now 13 Lincoln area schools linked with OnBoard and we ran around 1,500 individual taster sessions for these local schoolchildren in 2010. These are really encouraging numbers for the health of the sport in our county but numbers we want to grow even more next year.”
This year, three Lincolnshire schools specialising in emotional and behavioural difficulties became the latest to use sailing to help their students’ social and learning development through RYA OnBoard at LDSA.
LDSA also entered the popular National Schools’ Sailing Association Team Racing Championships for the first time in 20 years, with the LDSA ‘A’ team finishing a hugely-impressive fifth overall at the event in Worcestershire.
LDSA was not the only sailing success story in Lincolnshire this year.
Skegness’ windsurfing talent Robert York continued to impress on the junior international stage, successfully defending his Bic Techno 6.8 National title on the 2012 Olympic waters of Weymouth and Portland in October having achieved his best career result to date, finishing 11th overall and second British Under 15 boy, at the Bic Techno World Championships in Martigues, France in July.
Witham Sailing Club
Witham Sailing Club in Boston became an official RYA Training Centre meaning the club met the rigorous standards of safety and tuition excellence required to run RYA courses. Meanwhile, Welland Yacht Club in Spalding and Hykeham Sailing Club also received funding boosts to develop the activities at their clubs to encourage even more people out on to the water.
Howard Nelson, RYA East Midlands chairman, said: “It has been a big year for sailing and windsurfing in Lincolnshire and that is down to the commitment of the hundreds of volunteers and professionals who dedicate their lives to making it possible for as many people as possible to get involved, and stay in, the sport regardless of age, gender or ability.”
For more information about getting involved in sailing in Lincolnshire visit www.rya.org.uk
About OnBoard
Started in 2004, the OnBoard programme is giving over half a million young people in Britain the opportunity to try sailing and windsurfing over the next ten years. TEAMORIGIN is the Main Partner (primary sponsor) of the programme and is committed to supporting the programme through a significant financial contribution as well as personal endorsement of the programme by TEAMORIGIN team members over a number of years. OnBoard is supported by Sport England and has five official suppliers: Henri-Lloyd, Harken, LaserPerformance, RS Sailing and Topper.
To date over 210,000 OnBoard beginner sessions have been run across the country, with over 10,500 young people taking up sailing or windsurfing on a regular basis. There are over 180 OnBoard Clubs and Centres, with several more due to join the programme during 2010.
Together the partnership will increase interest and involvement in sailing and get young people out on the water whilst retaining upwards of 10% to become long term participants of the sport.
About TEAMORIGIN
TEAMORIGIN was launched in January 2007 by Sir Keith Mills and is aiming to make sailing history by becoming the first British challenger ever to win the America's Cup. The team CEO is Grant Simmer, 3 times America’s Cup winner and a strong sailing team includes British stars Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy. TEAMORIGIN has committed to participate in at least two campaigns, with the first likely to be the 34th America's Cup. The team will be funded through a combination of private and commercial investment. For more information please see www.teamorigin.com
