Dear RSGYC Junior parents,
It is that time of year again when we turn our thoughts towards Summer and our RSGYC Junior sailing programme. Our numbers last Summer, 2020, were good, even though we were battling a worldwide pandemic! As you know we opened when we could, as fully as we could and as safely as we could! Our juniors had a fantastic Summer. It was very different for them, but they acquitted themselves fantastically, dealt with social distancing and the shorter, more intense, days on the water really well. Given the huge numbers who continued sailing well into Autumn, they obviously had a lot of fun! Due to the lack of double handers some of our classes were cancelled for a lot of the Summer and when they did return were slightly down on numbers. Many of our Feva sailors, for example, swapped into Lasers for their courses. They are now selling their Fevas and loving the buzz of the Laser! They are a prime example of kids who just wanted to sail, they changed direction, are still improving, building their skillset, loving their sport and spent the Summer sailing with their friends.
Initially we were not, despite our best efforts, able to accommodate our youngest sailors until Autumn last year but this year we anticipate that they will be able to get afloat. We will do what we can when we can, while maintaining our excellent record of safety for all our club community.
We have glorious new rigs for the club Oppies, with a smaller mainsail, a shorter mast with a lightweight boom and a gorgeous foam bumper! These are fantastic for our younger sailors transitioning from Tigers into main fleet courses, they feel safer and can cope with wind conditions many of them would shy away from in the larger rigs. These great rigs mean we can offer courses to this age group while still adhering to all the social distancing regulations and restrictions around single handers. It will be great to have them back down and actively sailing.
Our Senior Instructor from last year, Richard O’Rahilly will be over seeing our Summer courses again, so we will continue to be in safe hands! On the Performance side of our programmes, the coaches, who have been working with our sailors since last Summer, in the DOGs (Dun Laoghaire Optimist Group) and the Combined DL Clubs Laser programmes, will continue to work with your sailors towards Pathways, Irish team trials and of course the 4.7 Laser World championships which, we are hosting in conjunction with NYC at the end of Summer 2021. We are very lucky to have such a vibrant and diverse offering for your sailors.
Aside from all things Junior our Transition Year (TY) co-ordinators are still getting kids qualified! While we are locked down there are safeguarding, VHF, and navigation courses being run online. They will continue to power on behalf of our older sailors, when they can get them back out sailing together! There are clinics in 1720s and team racing planned and they will run as soon as restrictions are lifted for combined groups.
Even in the darkness we are currently experiencing, the Junior Committee, Ronan, and Karin and all our senior instructors, are planning and looking forward to a great Summer for our Team George junior sailors. The link to courses will go live over the next few weeks and then you can really begin to look forward to Summer 2021!
Chat soon, stay safe,
Kate Fogarty
RSGYC Junior Organiser
