Case Study: Royal Forth Yacht Club 

Linking to the local schools through the Active School Coordinator

Active school coordinator Jessie Dahl, from the Leith cluster in Edinburgh, was keen to get her schools involved in sailing. Transport is always an issue for schools so she wanted to find a local venue. Fortunately the nearest OnBoard club, The Royal Forth Yacht club (RFYC), was a short bus ride away. RFYC were happy for us to use the clubs toppers and rescue boats and SITC were able to step in and provide the instructors needed; a brilliant team effort. From the initial collaboration Learn2Sail was developed, a partnership between Active Schools, Royal Forth Yacht Club and RYA Scotland.  

Subsequently, in partnership with Angie Sword, RYAS Development Officer the programme was set and a presentation was pulled together to promote Learn2Sail to the pupils.

Ninety six pupils attended a taster weekend in April and the twenty four available spaces for a four week block of training were snapped up by the enthusiastic students. After the last session of the programme parents were invited along and club representatives explained what the club offered to let the students continue with sailing and details of how to join the club.

A volunteer programme ran in tandem with these activities so the club would get extra volunteers. The volunteers were given sessions on the water along with specific jobs such as rigging the boats, assisting launching and teaching basic knots. This was a very worthwhile programme with 24 children gaining not only their stage 1 certificates but a love of the sport.

Many joined RFYC and have been active all season and one young sailor,  Dylan Harkess won the Cadet of the Year award.  

Jessie had successfully obtain Awards for All funding to pay for these activities.

It was so successful we are repeating it all again in 2011 using instructors from the club coaching team