Royal Windermere Yacht Club has a surge in interest after London 2012 Olympics (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Royal Windermere Yacht Club has a surge in interest after London 2012 Olympics
2:52pm Monday 27th August 2012 in News
By Allan Tunningley
Joe Porter of Cartmel
Royal Windermere Yacht Club has experienced a surge of interest in their junior training programme following Team GB’s successes in Olympic sailing.
The club typically runs 8 junior courses for local children during the summer holidays, with morning and afternoon sessions spread over 4 weeks. An additional week has been added following sudden demand from parents and children, meaning that almost a hundred children aged 8 - 14 years will have been trained to RYA level 1 or beyond.
RWYC course organiser Amanda Wilson said excitement had been raised by the five-medal-haul achieved by Team GB. “Even Ben Ainslie started as a beginner, and who knows? – we may have the future Ben Ainslie or Hannah Mills here among us”.
RWYC has produced notable champions, with Steve Goacher and Phil Evans three-time world champions in the Flying Fifteen class, and Andy Tunnicliffe crowned world champion (with helm Ian Dobson) for the fourth time in the GP14 class only a fortnight ago in Cornwall.
The club, based in Bowness, held a course completion day on Friday for its most recent graduates. There was sailing for both junior sailors and their parents, and the awarding of certificates, followed by a barbeque.
Joe Porter, aged 8, from Cartmel, said: “The worst thing was having to swim from the boat to an island covered in seagull pooh, but the best was the sailing, especially the capsize practices.”
The club will be running more dinghy training courses at Easter; information is available on the Club website: www.royal-windermere.co.uk
