Heresy Heresy.

[oldgit]

Trying to organise a day for the youngsters ( and possibly no so young) at our MOTORBOAT club.
Have been in touch with our local RYA rep to possibly hire a trailer load of Octibats.
Have got a bit of funding and the nod from our Lady Commodore.
Have picked a nice quiet summer day with neaps to hold the event and provide a little in house light refreshment.
Contacting our insurers about cover.
Now definately need some advice from the sailing fraternity.
Get some of the local sailing clubs involved, they might possibly get a few recruits ?

What interesting little pitfalls await an optimistic/naive organiser from the darkside

 

[ShinyShoe]

Who is 'instructing' your oppi's

Who is safety cover?

Does RYA kit include buoyancy aids

Need to practice tack ashore with boat on tyres, too much to explain afloat. (Back foot (aft foot) crosses over boat. Hold mainsheet in from hand. Tiller with thumb on end of tiller extension. Push tiller extension until tiller reaches gunwale. Look FORWARDS. Pivot on the back foot facing FORWARDS. Push tiller extension over water (wave to fish) then centre it. Sit down on new gunwale..All without changing hands. Thumb points at your bum.

Mainsheet hand now takes the tiller extension lower down while holding the mainsheet. Now let go of original hand on tiller extension. Free hand now takes mainsheet. Tiller hand now moves to end of tiller extension.

If they have done it right ... They can now bring both hands to their chest and giving a thumbs up while holding the controls. Set course. Carry on. Repeat.

For first session - you need two marks set at 90degrees to wind direction probably 200m apart. They sail a sausage round them.

They usually sit too far aft.

Control number of boats. Small is good. They will scatter like shotgun pellets no matter how hard you try.

Set an area on the water to sail. They will leave it. But you gotta try!

Force 3 is probably as strong as you want for absolute beginners.

Brief on capsize: stay with boat. If boat turns over on them - try to swim out. But plenty air underneath to stay for hours. Do NOT swim to shore.

Brief on MOB: don't try to swim after boat - you won't catch it. Put one hand up to be seen. Float. Wait. Shout if no-one seems to have noticed you.

Sweets on a safety rib are a god send to bribe cold kids!

It's often far better to do first sail on a crewed dinghy with an able sailor who increasingly hands control. They can learn to feel how steering works etc without needing to tack etc.

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

Lucky kids these days, to get such thoughtful tuition.. we were just put in the dinghy at Hoo and got on with it..
Perhaps they will prefer it to Gin Palaces, 'Once you can tack, you'll never go back'

 

[ShinyShoe]

Ohlin? You probably also had a transom mainsheet and tacked completely differently. (Facing aft which means you look at the controls and have no awkward hand behind back steering... But... Means you can't see where you are going and is slower (allegedly).)

Did you learn in an oppy or in something two-up?

 

[Ohlin Karcher]

Two-up, and made of wood..I didn't know these were singlehanded, I see why they need more instuction in advance!

 

[ShinyShoe]

Indeed. Two up in an oppy always makes the balance tricky, if one of the two is me it certainly does.

So if you have two it can be easier and harder! They are single handed. Two absolute beginners - twice the people to get things wrong! Usually find easier to swap kids over. They can learn watching others make mistakes too!


I think the oppy has always been centre main. So you maybe never experienced facing backwards when tacking!

Lots of people learned just like you. In a gentle f1-2 with no gusts and some ability to round up people it's not all bad (although if they go on to sail "properly" future coaches may curse self learned bad habits!)...

The snag is as the date is fixed, OP needs to have a plan for all weather. Much easier for a dad to pick a nice day to let kids have a go.

Beyond F6 is not dinghy sailing weather.
F6 is no place for beginners in most boats really
F4-5 - oppy can't really be refeed. Sails like a bitch with no sprit. For begginers in their own in those conditions they will either flurrish or perish!

In strong winds 4 gusting 5 with absolute beginners and no choice of other craft, I've put one oppy out with 30m of line. Then all sailors in rib. Then reach across wind... Let them sail and steer but use the rib to correct steering to keep on reach. Let the tack and again rib to correct. It takes a wee bit of practice to match speed etc..

 

[DJE]

Kids at our club start at seven years old in Oppies. The occasional six year old is up to it but not many. Usually the beginners start two-up with a slightly older child as "instructor" then they try it on their own after a bit. The child instructors are usually about ten to twelve years old but there is lots of adult supervision and safety cover. Adult instructors don't fit in Oppies very well. We are lucky that we can arrange this in very shallow water where adults can wade in to help launch and recover the boats. Instructors in kayaks can be handy and can keep up with Oppies in the sort of conditions that beginners will be out in.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Kids at our club start at seven years old in Oppies.

At my local place the basic sailing is done in Funboats, which appear to be more or less bombproof. Because it's a freshwater loch in a fairly deep valley, the wind is almost always parallel to the shore, so they can tack to and fro across the loch without ever getting far from base or needing any great skill.

 

[oldgit]

Who is 'instructing' your oppi's

Who is safety cover?

Does RYA kit include buoyancy aids

Need to practice tack ashore with boat on tyres, too much to explain afloat. (Back foot (aft foot) crosses over boat. Hold mainsheet in from hand. Tiller with thumb on end of tiller extension. Push tiller extension until tiller reaches gunwale. Look FORWARDS. Pivot on the back foot facing FORWARDS. Push tiller extension over water (wave to fish) then centre it. Sit down on new gunwale..All without changing hands. Thumb points at your bum.

Mainsheet hand now takes the tiller extension lower down while holding the mainsheet. Now let go of original hand on tiller extension. Free hand now takes mainsheet. Tiller hand now moves to end of tiller extension.

If they have done it right ... They can now bring both hands to their chest and giving a thumbs up while holding the controls. Set course. Carry on. Repeat.

For first session - you need two marks set at 90degrees to wind direction probably 200m apart. They sail a sausage round them.

They usually sit too far aft.

Control number of boats. Small is good. They will scatter like shotgun pellets no matter how hard you try.

Set an area on the water to sail. They will leave it. But you gotta try!

Force 3 is probably as strong as you want for absolute beginners.

Brief on capsize: stay with boat. If boat turns over on them - try to swim out. But plenty air underneath to stay for hours. Do NOT swim to shore.

Brief on MOB: don't try to swim after boat - you won't catch it. Put one hand up to be seen. Float. Wait. Shout if no-one seems to have noticed you.

Sweets on a safety rib are a god send to bribe cold kids!

It's often far better to do first sail on a crewed dinghy with an able sailor who increasingly hands control. They can learn to feel how steering works etc without needing to tack etc.

Some thoughts.
Exactly the constructive critical comments. was hoping for .
We are seriously going to need some major help from a sailing club with experience of begineers to even consider organising this on site.
Was thinking that paperwork or lack of interest would be the major hurdle but some of the comments above are giving me pause for thought.
Now thinking perhaps holding this jolly elsewhere at one of the local sailing clubs, where all the safety and expertise is to hand.
Going to investigate a little further just how possible/practical it is to "borrow" for a day everything we need by way of instructors/ safety craft/ etc to get this event to happen at RCC .....or just throw in the towel and ship our prospective crew of would be sailors a mile or two downstream for a day.
Thanks for all input.
Think I already know the answer.

We have, possibly like many clubs ? an age profile which tends towards apathy at best and sometimes downright hostility towards youngsters even being in the clubhouse, trying to get a new generation to enjoy being on the water.
In one recent "discussion" , one lady club member felt the need to point out to a gentleman club member that the clubhouse was not a extension of his own personal front room.

 

[JumbleDuck]

We are seriously going to need some major help from a sailing club with experience of begineers to even consider organising this on site.

Maybe my reading comprehension skills, but 'm not quite sure who your target market is. Is the idea to give children already associated with your club (presumably through relatives' boats) a taste of something different, or is it to attract young members in?

There is an awful lot of work in getting all the right kits and people together, so in the former case it might just be easier to hire a minibus or two and make it a day out from your club. On the other hand, if you want more members at your club it's probably better to run it at your club. In which case I would ask local dinghy sailing clubs if they would like to pair up with you. You could offer them something in return, like a cruise and barbecue.

Good luck! It's nice to hear about something which involves young people and crosses the Great Boating Divide.

 

[oldgit]

Maybe my reading comprehension skills, but 'm not quite sure who your target market is. Is the idea to give children already associated with your club (presumably through relatives' boats) a taste of something different, or is it to attract young members in?

There is an awful lot of work in getting all the right kits and people together, so in the former case it might just be easier to hire a minibus or two and make it a day out from your club. On the other hand, if you want more members at your club it's probably better to run it at your club. In which case I would ask local dinghy sailing clubs if they would like to pair up with you. You could offer them something in return, like a cruise and barbecue.

Good luck! It's nice to hear about something which involves young people and crosses the Great Boating Divide.

The Aim.
Purely to organise a day for the youngsters and friends of club members to experience handling a boat .
Our motorboat club (or any other motorboat club I am aware of) simply does not have anything going on that would promote the same interest in attracting youngsters onto the water as sailing clubs.
Perhaps it is an indication of a certain bias that the RYA can fund a number of sailing dinghies for loan or hire but appears to be totally unconcerned as regards the motorboating fraternity..
We do welcome new club members but unlike many clubs we are holding our own regards numbers.
It would be our advantage to show the sailing clubs we are not a bunch of ********** (mainly) and it just might get a few more dinghy sailors on their books.

Have had the pleasure of sitting in a marina bar on several occassions with mixed bunch , raggies and stinkplotters, listening to a yacht skipper being equaled voyage for voyage by one of our members, who had spent all his boating life under sail, thing was of course he did the lot with pencil and paper.

Basically swiped the idea from the scouts in West India Dock
On recent rally organised by the ATYC, there was plenty to do for the oldies ie drink/eat and moan about the outrageous expence of running a 50 ft motorboat.
However the scouts basically press ganged all the little uns and any adult not able to run away fast enough to assemble on the dockside.
Everyone was issued with safety kit and something that floated and told to follow the team leader, must have been 20 or thirty craft.
Not one turned back to base although there were one or two "rescues" and several under tow at the end.The tour of the dock lasted around a couple of hours.There were a lot of very pleased with themselves young boaters by the time we got back

 

[Tomahawk]

Where on the Mudway are you thinking of doing it?

 

[ShinyShoe]

Hope I didn't put you off.

RYA funding ==> major funding attached to Olympics. Sailing is an Olympic sport...

There was till last year a junior powerboat competition using RIBs - don't know if you have a RIB in your club. Sort of an assault course with RIBs open to 8yr old plus.

Was sponsored by Honda. I believe they are looking for a new sponsor.

One of your local sailing clubs likely hosts the regional round if it is resurected. Club hold its own round, then send it's best ?2 junior and youth to regional round. Best regional went to national final at SBS.

As a youth, I was never into racing. We have a few at our club (one of biggest Junior sailing fleets in North) who also don't want to race. If a club could propose something to us that involved a cruise if dinghies, with the Mobo's acting as chaperone lunch carriers. Maybe take some non-sailing parents. But not impossible we might be interested....

Children belong on the water not in the clubhouse

 

[xyachtdave]

Oppies are great but I'd get some other things in place in case of too much wind/none. I've done a fair bit with MYC Cadets, nautical team building games, a beach party (supplied our own sand!) with a bonfire and a short evening sail on cruising yachts where lots of wind isn't so much of issue.

Paddle boards are great fun and easy to get people started, maybe rib rides, trips around the bay in a displacement boat, bouncy castle ashore etc.

Pushing a few innocents off from RCC with just their luck and no experience into the Medway (without much safety cover) and watching from your clubhouse will be a problem...

If you can get the little buggers off their phone for an hour or two, I'd call whatever you do a success!!