St Mawes training and racing weekend attracts 30 teenage sailors 

OnBoard youngsters race at St Mawes

30 teenagers in 15 boats took part in an exciting sailing event when St Mawes Sailing Club hosted their RS Feva Race and Training weekend over 14 and 15 April, with eight boats and some strong sailors visiting from Rock Sailing Club. 

The event was for youngsters who had learned to sail at St Mawes as part of the RYA OnBoard scheme, which encourages children of all backgrounds and abilities to try sailing and windsurfing.

The club offers an extensive junior sailing programme on Saturdays which is free to local children who want to start sailing. On Saturday, Bob Warren from Roseland Paddle and Sail led the coaching team with various race coaching exercises in a fickle breeze in the river and St Mawes Harbour. 

Sunday dawned with bright sunshine and a fresh easterly breeze and three races were sailed before lunch on windward/leeward courses, with no obvious winner emerging.

It was all to play for in the afternoon. The first race after lunch was set on an M course, to encourage the youngsters to use their spinnakers, and this is where the more experienced sailors started to dominate.

The final race was the now traditional beat up the Percuil River from St Mawes Harbour to a turning mark, and finishing off at the sailing club quay, where a tea and prize giving were held. The results were:    

1st Matt Chaplin & Laura Vinton, Rock Sailing Club

2nd Esme Hovil and Ellie Nuttall, Rock Sailing Club

3rd Sam White and Robbie Holbrook, St Mawes Sailing Club

The event was also the first of the RYA OnBoard Traveller series held at various clubs across Cornwall each year.

For more details of RYA OnBoard beginners’ sailing and junior race training with St Mawes Sailing Club contact teamfeva@stmawessailing.co.uk or phone 01326 270256.  

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 www.ruob.co.uk