Junior sailingAldeburgh Yacht Club has always encouraged junior sailing original in its own class of clinker built dinghy, the Lapwing, with its “red sailed” junior rig.
In 1989 it decided that junior sailing was of sufficient importance to have its own junior regatta separately from the main regatta. This is a five day event held in August every year and it goes from strength to strength with some 150 boat entries and nearly 250 junior helms and crew in 2006.
Nevertheless, junior sailing is more than just one week in August. From mid-May there is junior sailing and training on Sunday mornings (the main class racing in the club being on Saturdays). In July and August the Club employs two full time RYA trained instructors who arrange and supervise sailing for the juniors both during the week and at weekends.
In addition the Club is a recognised RYA teaching centre and as such it organises courses for beginners and intermediate sailors. These also take place in the summer holidays and are run by RYA instructors. The Club currently owns six Toppers, six Optimists, four Lasers and two Wayfarers which are used for training and are available for hire by Club members.
The Club’s policy is that junior sailing should be encouraged at all levels and that the type of boat per se is not important. Juniors should be encouraged to simply “get on the water” with anything that sails and have fun. Nevertheless, to create some consistency and provide better racing, the Club would suggest that juniors sail one of the following boats.
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Optimist
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Topper
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Topaz Uno Plus
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RS Feva XL
- Laser Radial
The Optimist and Topper fleets are already well represented at the Club with 50 and 70 boats respectively. The Topaz and RS Feva are starting to become established with 17 and 8 boats respectively .The latter has recently been adopted by ISAF as the international two handed junior boat and the Club and its training establishment considers that this is the boat if the juniors wish to progress with their racing in a more committed way.
