RYA community award for Life Time Achievement to the Sport.

Earlier in the year Jean Dennis (Principal) was nominated for the RYA’s Community Award for Life Time Achievement to the Sport. The trustees nominated Jean for all her hard work and enthusiasm to both Sailing and the Berkshire Sail Training Centre.

Last week Jean received confirmation of this award and is looking forward to receiving it at an award ceremony to be held later in the year.

The trustees and the rest of the staff and volunteers at the centre would like to express their congratulations on this achievement, and thank Jean for all her hard work and efforts over the last few years, and for making the centre such an enjoyable place to be.

Windsurfing

What a fantastic year so far.  We started the season with the purchase of 10 new sets of windsurfing equipment. With both Jean and Tom now qualified to teach start windsurfing this is definitely a welcome return of the sport to the Centre. We have already had two user groups The Holt School and Reading Home Education try out the new equipment with everyone finding excellent fun. The water temperature is currently 19°c so splashing about on the boards and playing balance games before getting started is no problem.

We have started taking bookings on our summer courses so why not come down and give it a go – you’ll be amazed how much fun it is and how quickly you will start to achieve.

Funboats

Following the success of the Laser Funboats we have now purchased 2. This is with the help of Give a Child a Chance who contributed £1500 to BSTC towards these craft. The first 2 bought have been used for taster and regular sessions with Highland School, The Holt School and Phoenix College, and all groups enjoyed the experience and the facilities at the Centre. We have just ordered 2 more which will bring our fleet size up to 4. If they continue to be so popular we will aim to purchase another 2 subject to funding.

Awesome

We were also successful with our applications to The Youth Opportunity Fund and The Youth Capitol Fund raising £18600. This is a wonderful benefit to both the Centre and the young people who put the application together.

They have been given ownership of their group; as such they have named their club Awesome. The money has been spent on six Picos, one coaching/safety craft and all necessary equipment to support the club. The remainder of the funding will go towards the coaching costs.

These three youngsters have now formed a small committee who decide; with some guidance, what future funding they may require, how to raise it and manage their own budget. The club has been formed in order to introduce and promote sailing as a sport and developing their racing skills. With this in mind they will also manage those sessions, deciding what training they need, when and how that training takes place and organize racing, from one off races to sessions and regattas.

As a youth development centre I feel that this is a fantastic opportunity for both the youths to progress and the staff to learn from them. It will also open up future opportunities as we hope they will progress to maybe attending open meetings in Fevas, Lasers or Toppers, etc depending on the direction they choose to take.

The Club is also an opportunity for youths from different schools and youth groups to meet and work together at our Centre. It would be great if more Centres and Clubs were able to do something similar. Places on the Project, will initially be allocated to Group Users of the Centre who attend state schools. One of the aims will be to encourage some social interaction between our groups and perhaps leading to some inter-schools competition. So far we have 4-6 youngsters in the group which we hope to increase to 12 by the end of the summer. If there are enough students and interest we will continue through the winter changing the Thursday evening sessions to Saturday mornings. So if you’re interested please contact the Centre for details of sessions and perhaps how you can help organize the group.

Work Experience

As a youth development centre we have spent the last few months helping students from local schools and colleges with work experience. We have worked closely with 3 schools and 1 college allowing 5 young people the opportunity to see what it is like “behind the scenes” of being a sailing instructor. We hope they have all had an enjoyable time with us (ranging from 1 - 10 weeks) and we would like to wish them well in the future.

If you would be interested in gaining work experience, helping out, or becoming an instructor please call the centre for more information.

21766 Blue hull

14/03/06

£5,650

21923 Grey hull

7/11/06

£6,200

21685 Grey hull

28/09/06

£6,200

10813

15/09/06

£1,900

10976

20/12/06

£1,900

10975

20/12/06

£1,900