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RYA PRESS RELEASE
13 July 2010
QUEEN MARY FINALE BRINGS SCHOOLS ONBOARD
An RYA OnBoard Festival was the finale for children from local schools who have learnt to sail at Queen Mary Sailing Club through the RYA's "OnBoard" grass roots sailing and windsurfing programme.
The event, hosted by Queen Mary Sailing Club at Ashford on 08 July 2010, saw teams compete in relay races, challenges and games, using skills they have learned over the last 10 weeks. 35 children aged between 8 and 12 from Ashford C of E, St Ignatius and Clarendons primary schools enjoyed the event, held on a beautiful sunny day with just enough wind for sailing.
The Windstoppers team from Ashford C of E primary school were victorious, and described their win as “The perfect end to a great day!” Teacher Julian Bowskill, who retires this year, introduced Ashford to OnBoard when it started six years ago. His efforts over the years have ensured OnBoard is now a solid part of the school curriculum, and were marked with an award at prize giving.
The programme has been supported by Queen Mary Sailing Club and the Bishop Wand School Sports Partnership. Henri-Lloyd provided great kit demonstrations at the Festival.
Rugby star Phil de Glanville, the former Bath and England centre now representing Sport England, attended the festival, enjoyed a sail himself, and presented the prizes.
All participants received their RYA Stage 1 certificates, and goody bags were presented to the winning team thanks to Harken. Becky Knipe of Queen Mary Sailing Club and Kane Lincoln from London Nautical School were presented for winning their age groups in the LaserPerformance Pico Mainsail design competition. Their prizes for this national competition are a Pico mainsail made in their designs, a two day course at SailLaser, and six Pico mainsails in their design for their sailing club.
James Bullar, head of Nautical Studies at the London Nautical School says: “It is fantastic that one of our pupils won the design competition. When it was announced, we saw it as an ideal opportunity to link sport to art and design and the pupils designed sails which they thought would look fun, and therefore encourage others to get out and have fun on the water.”
RYA OnBoard Development Officer Tim Anderton says, “The event was a huge success, combined with the award of the wining sails from LaserPerformance. All the children who attended had a fantastic time. Many of them have signed up to the summer sailing lessons that are offered at Queen Mary, which will enable them to work towards their RYA Stage 2 certificates.”
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
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