One of our senior instructors Will Hamilton has been documenting the summer so far. Here's a short video of some of the typical goings on during one of the Summer Courses.
The summer season so far, if it can be classed as a summer, has been extremely successful. The Irish National Sailing and Powerboat School continues to go from strength to strength with junior sailing programmes numbers showing a year on year increase of over 10% so far. The attraction of the courses continues to be the fun, social and educational aspects. There is something to suit all ages and abilities from 4 year olds right up to 18 year olds.
The sailing schools unique approach to the banding of similar age groups and then abilities creates a learning environment that suits from both the perspective of age and ability. Sailing is not just about the sporting element but also about the social and fun elements and these are central to how the sailing school delivers courses.
Programmes start at age 4, delivered by Muriel Rumball, the school’s secret weapon when it comes to introducing children to the sea, teaching them a healthy respect for the water and the surrounding eco-system. If luck prevails they may even encounter the local family of seals that live in the harbour. Thankfully season to date the seals have been in attendance, it may be helped by the Quay Fish Shop and the left overs they give us to feed the seals.
At 7 years of age we introduce children to sailing in the Optimist dinghies for the first time, with specially adaptable sails depending on the conditions they get on the water most days. At this age the focus is very much on the fun aspects of sailing, getting to share the experience with their friends along the way. There is no special requirement to be able to swim, children just need to be comfortable in the water. The 7 to 10 year old age group are based right in front of the sailing school, sheltered from the wind they get to use the pontoons as a base to go swimming, kayaking and playing many water based games.
The 11 to 14 year age group are based from the beach in Seapoint, these are the sailors with the colourful sails that you can see from the Dart. The advantage of this area is that you can walk about 1km out and the water still only comes up to you waist. The tide can play a big part in our activities on the beach, it is not unheard of that the instructors may end up being the marks with all the sailors using them to race around! For the more experienced of this age group we have an advanced group, this has been well attended this year with many students returning from previous years or for multiple courses.
The 15+ has been very well attended, this age group is often forgotten about in the yacht clubs but our bespoke programmes mean that it continues to grow. With a diverse range of dinghies we can cater for the needs of most whether they want to sail single handed in a Laser or with a friend in a double handed dinghy we have been able to cater for all. This is the age group that you tend to see reducing in the club environment but in the sailing school it grows each week.
As a sail training provided we have a diverse range of activities, Monday to Friday are the summer camps with sailing on Toppers, Pico’s, Feva’s, Vago’s and Lasers. Day trips to places like Dalkey Island have been a weekly occurrence, if the weather is unfavourable we have been able to do kayak races, bin bag sailing and swim races. Adaptability and diversity are all part of sailing school getting the more people on the water than any other establishment in the country.
The Irish National Sailing and Powerboat School also caters for adults with multiple courses, the most popular and fast growing being the National Powerboat Certificate and the Competent Crew, Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper Programmes