56 kids come OnBoard at West Kirby 

Youngsters enjoy West Kirby OnBoard Festival.

53 children from five clubs flocked to the OnBoard Festival at West Kirby on July 3rd. The event is the annual OnBoard Festival for the Cheshire and Merseyside Region, and there were competitions and prizes at stake for teams and individual sailors.

Weather was perfect with a Force 2-3 and sunshine, with breeze building in the afternoon. In the morning the young sailors polished up their basic skills, prior to taking to the race track in the afternoon. A combined team of Schools Youth Sailing and Canoeing Association  (SYSCA) and Neston High School took the overall team prize, after winning the most races.

Thanks to supplier RS Sailing who brought along six extra dinghies for the sailors to use. In the RS Feva class, the winning pair were Simon Joyce (helm) and Michael Hamilton (crew). Many of the children took deserved merit prizes, see list below. Henri-Lloyd provided great kit demonstrations at the Festival.

Not only the children had a good time, but their parents were given the chance to try out sailing too, taken out by experienced West Kirby members on “joyrides”. Winning Feva helm Simon Joyce said, “I really enjoyed the West Kirby OnBoard Festival. The wind was just right. It got windier later and there were a few capsizes but I didn’t capize myself!”

Organiser Luke Shaw, the RYA OnBoard Development Officer for Cheshire and Merseyside, said, “It was a fantastic day that ended with smiles everywhere, sailors and parents, and people keen to go sailing again- brilliant! 

A big thank you to the Club and all the volunteers that made it happen and the sailors who brought bags of enthusiasm.” Teams at the event were; West Kirby Sailing Club, SYSCA, Neston High School, Astbury Sailsports, and Hoylake Sea Cadets. Run by the RYA,

OnBoard is a grass roots programme which introduces sailing and windsurfing to young people aged 8 to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres. Over a ten year period OnBoard aims to introduce a minimum of 500,000 children to sailing and windsurfing in the UK, converting over 10% of them into regular participants. So far it’s nicely on track.

For more information about how to get involved in sailing visit the RYA’s website www.rya.org.uk or the OnBoard website www.ruob.co.uk.