OnBoard kids beat the gales at Lagoon OnBoard Festival 2010 

Sunshine and force 5-6 winds great young sailors for day of fun and racing...

A group of children from Sussex all gathered at Hove Lagoon on Saturday 17th July for the 2010 Lagoon OnBoard Festival. All of the children had learnt to sail through the RYA OnBoard scheme and were from various schools and youth groups in the local area.   

Despite strong force 5-6 winds, the sun greeted the children at host club Lagoon Watersports.  Fortunately with the Lagoon being super safe and sheltered it made it a perfect spot for the racing in the strengthening winds.   

The afternoon of fun started with some quick games all centred around improving boat handling skills in the flash 'Bugs' kindly provided by LaserPerformance especially for the event. Once the guys had got used to the new boats it was over to instructor Janek for some special go-faster tips and then straight into some hotly contested racing.  

The first individual races were won by a triumphant Milan Trayner in his first ever race event! "That was amazing! Racing is really fun and it was great to race against other kids from the area. I was also very happy to beat my brother”, commented Milan.  

Mark Saul OnBoard Officer for West Sussex ran the event accompanied by Lagoon Watersports race expert Janek Payne. Mark commented: "I think Janek and I had as much fun as the kids! It was great to get on the water with them and have some fun.   All the kids did really well as it was super windy out there!  

“Also massive thanks to Ian from LaserPerformance for bringing down the Bugs and for providing goodie bags and tee shirts.”  

The day finished with a BBQ in the sun and a prize giving where all the kids were presented with Bug goodie bags and Milan was presented with his trophy.   

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 click here 

Lagoon Watersports offers learn to sail courses throughout the summer for more information visit www.lagoon.co.uk