Dinghy Sailing level 1:- Saturday 26th and Sunady 27th May

Dinghy Sailing level 2 :- Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd June

prior booking will be essential to be excepted on the course. please contact Roger bennett for details.

 

Club Sailing Courses
General

The Club runs formal training courses for beginners every year during June / July. This years course will be held over 4 consecutive Saturdays starting June 18th and some Sundays depending on uptake. Thursdays evenings are then a great time to build on your newly acquired skills with social sailing from 6pm till dusk. You can of course sail on Sundays and Tuesday without taking part in the racing but we would ask you to please give priority to the racing fleet.The aim is to provide members with the skills necessary to sail the Club boats and participate in club sailing at Wraysbury with confidence. The Course covers the syllabus as per the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) levels 1& 2. Course members have to be members of the Club.  If you have a friend who would like to participate they have to join the Club first - We would need to see potential course members either on Thursday evening or Sunday prior to the course, before I can accept your registration. Please contact David Finch or RogerBennett for further details. (See ‘Questions and Answers’ below).

Q & A
1)   What is the overall purpose of the dinghy courses?
To promote all aspects of sailing at Wraysbury and to ensure you can better enjoy your time at the Club.
2)   Does the Club issue RYA Certificates?
No. The Club is not yet an RYA approved training establishment at the moment. All Instructors are RYA dinghy instructors.We are currently working towards becoming a recognized training centre which should be completed next year,but if you need certification we can refer you to a school that will award a certificate on the basis of a one day assessment.  If you get through what we do you should have no difficulty in gaining a Level 2 qualification.
3)   I passed my RYA Level 2 some years ago but am not a competitive sailor and just want take my family or friends out for the occasional sail.  Will I benefit from the course?
If you haven’t practiced since taking your course the answer is almost certainly yes.  Unlike riding a bike, dinghy sailing is not soon learnt and never forgotten, nor is it free of risk to personal safety.  An RYA Level 2 dinghy course taken some years ago will not stand you in good stead today either at Wraysbury or elsewhere.
4)   Are children accepted on the courses?
Yes but only with parents present. We currently have a kids club where they are able to improve there skills without the need to complete a syllabus or structured format of training. They will learn with their peers in a friendly having fun scenario, which may suite some children more than a set course.
5)   I’ve never sailed before.  Should I wait until the start of a course?
Emphatically not.  If you’ve no experience of dinghy sailing you should first come - preferably on a Thursday evening when we will be pleased to introduce you to the boats.  The courses are quite intensive.  They are not the place to find out whether you like sailing.

Beginners  -  June/July 2011
 We can train at a ratio of 6 to 1, instructor to student , but this is limited by the number of club boats we have.
We aim to take all courses through to a Sunday (or a Tuesday evening) to provide a bridge to the Club sailing programme.  Practice time and advice are also available on Thursday evenings but I would like to emphasise that this is not a structured programme and is not a zero cost substitute for the Saturday courses.
Crewing
A common misapprehension is that training means helming.  It’s certainly good if you can take the helm and perform reasonably well.  One day you may be glad you can but some sailors prefer that that responsibility is normally taken by someone else.  From the helms person’s point of view it’s always nice to have someone at the front of the boat who knows what they’re doing and can look after their end of the boat and work with you. 

For details and enrolement contact

Rogerbennett110@hotmail.com

or

David Finch
01753 866819

davidvfinch@yahoo.co.uk

Kids Club

Over the winter

Kids Training has now come to an end for this year but we are currently planning next yeasr calender. Next year will be more structured and Mike Webb our youth officer has offerd to take this on. Mike has lots of ideas which we will let you all know very shortly. As we are several steps closer to being a recognised training center which we hope to achieve next year 2012, we will be following the RYA youth training program.

Earlier in the year

We have purchased 3 laser Pico’s and 2 Optimists along with 6 brand new Optimist  boats we have managed to get on loan from the RYA for a couple of years. We will run the kids club on Sunday afternoons. This will be for about 3 hours of training and general fun in boats. It is aimed at the young ones so we are aware attention spans are not very long so fun will be the major word here. If you have been waiting to get your kids involved, this is the time so please contact Roger Bennett if you wish to take part. Roger will from time to time communicate via Email so if you have found yourself being missed on these communications please let Roger know. Parents will be invited to help as we must have a parent present. In return we aim to also equip you with some additional skills, particularly in the power boat handling along with general assistance around launching, setting up and foreshore help

 

This years Thursday evening calendar is now finished but we plan to do the same as below next year (2012).

On Thursday evenings from about 6.30pm till 8.00pm we hold informal training sessions to help those that would like to participate in racing but feel it can be a bit daunting. We also plan to teach basic seamanship skills and spinnaker handling. The following are the start racing topics we aim to cover:-

Start proceedure

Up-wind sailing

Down-wind Sailing

Mark Rounding

and rules

We can easily tailor it to fit the sailors that wish to try it on the night.