Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

Tel: 01702 587 563

Dear parents and cadets,

After all these troublesome times the sailing instructor course has been successfully completed.

Now the club has 5 qualified sailing instructors and we are now an RYA approved sailing centre.

Instructors are: Nick, Ellie, Louise, Sam and myself.

Our senior instructor is Adam.

After planning and discussions with the Commodore, the head of our RYA school, and our senior instructor we have the following courses on offer this season:

14-15 May:

Stage 2 RYA Youth Sailing Course – 6 places

25-26 June:

Stage 3 RYA Youth Sailing Course – 6 places

All instructors are unpaid volunteers who offer their free time and work to the benefit of the cadets and their families.

It is important to emphasise that this is the very first step in a long journey for the club. Places are limited, there are RYA rules to comply with. It is necessary to carefully select the right candidates to run our courses successfully. There are many factors to consider. Our newly qualified instructors need support to gain experience and confidence. That is the reason we have to start with experienced sailors, limited numbers, identical boats and sailors of similar age and level of experience. I have made and will have to make tough decisions, will not be possible to please everyone first time around.

I am sorry about the disappointment for those who will not get a place in the first time round, we certainly plan more courses, perhaps even later on this season. This depends on the first experiences and on the satisfaction of our volunteer team.

I am sorry about the delays in communication, I wanted to put the advert out once all key decisions have been met. Did not realise how long planning and negotiations can drag on and on.

14-15 May:

Stage 2 RYA Youth Sailing Course – 6 places

We are looking for sailors who have had some sailing experience already – like doing Piranhas last summer / or having had some tuition from parents or coaches. Sailors should have a desire to progress to a higher level of sailing. Selection will be based on involvement in sailing at the club.

25-26 June:

Stage 3 RYA Youth Sailing Course

after careful considerations it was agreed that we open 12 places for this course

This means running two groups of 6 sailors in each

Special arrangements were needed to make this possible.

The first group was selected from our successful Tera winter squad sailors based on commitment and progress. This enabled our team to open up a second group, which we would like to run in Laser 4.7 for experienced sailors.

(Stage 3 courses are for single handed boats only.)

The cadet committee will select the most appropriate candidates from the applicants based on sailing activity.

As the first step, please, review documents and fill in the application form on the website:

Application deadline is 1st of May 2022

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Course fee is 30 £ to cover the costs of necessary booklets and RYA administration.

We plan to run introductory sessions for members who wish to learn to sail – cadets and adults this season. These will not result in RYA qualification. Regular RYA stage 1 and further courses are planned to start next season.

Kind regards: Andras