Doe Park Centre receives regional award 

Doe Park Activities Centre wins award

Doe Park Water Activities Centre at Denholme, near Bradford has won the RYA Yorkshire OnBoard Centre Award 2011.  

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.  

Doe Park has been an OnBoard Centre since April 2010 and was chosen as the 2011 award winner by RYA Yorkshire OnBoard Development Officer, Liz Wrigglesworth:  

“I chose Doe Park to receive the award for 2011 in recognition of their excellent achievements in getting young people out sailing this year,” explained Liz.

“The centre struggled with low water levels during the summer months, making sailing difficult at times, but despite this they managed to run over 300 first experience sessions and gained 16 new regular sailors this season. The centre has also supported all the OnBoard regional events, bringing along their young sailors, boats and staff to help and they were the overall winners of the Inter District Schools Regatta in July.”  

“The RYA Onboard scheme has really given the centre a boost,” said Louise Clarke, Centre Manager at Doe Park.

“To be a flagship centre for such a fantastic initiative and to win the regional trophy has really given the staff and volunteers at the centre something to be proud of.”  

“Liz Wrigglesworth has been really supportive throughout,” continued Louise, “and the regional events she has put on have been really well organised and our young people have come back to the centre feeling really good about themselves.”  

The Doe Park Water Activities Centre is looking forward to the future, as Centre Manager Louise Clarke explains:  

“We have had a great year in 2011 because we received funding for some Access Dinghies so we can offer more sailing to our disability groups in 2012. In addition, in 2012 we will be having an Olympic theme within the centre and this will compliment our annual school and youth regattas. We will be offering Olympic sport taster days for schools and youth groups and also an Olympic week at the centre over the summer holidays where individuals can train and compete in a variety of Olympic sports.”  

“We are hoping to increase the number of regular sailors at the centre by encouraging participants to follow our pathway from having a taster session to attending our public open sessions or joining the Adventure Club. Future developments at the club will make our facilities better and even more accessible.”  

“Through the RYA OnBoard scheme our staff and volunteers have had access to training they wouldn't normally have received. The centre runs an annual volunteering scheme  and home grows most of its staff; I myself came up through the ranks, said Louise.

“The amount of effort put in by our staff members and volunteers shows how much they enjoy what they are doing. Their passion and enthusiasm are what makes this centre work and I can’t thank them enough.”  

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.  

In Yorkshire & Humber we now have 9 OnBoard clubs & centres Pugneys Country Park Leeds Sailing & Activity Centre Doe Park Water Activities Centre Otley Sailing Club Pennine Sailing Club West Riding Sailing Club Beaver Sailing Club Rotherham Sailing Club Humber Mouth Yacht Club The above centres total 101 volunteers, 67 instructors and we work with 56 schools across the region.

In 2011 alone this resulted in 1147 first experience sessions which resulted in 82 new regular sailors.  

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