Has anyone else noticed how busy it is at the junior sailing end of the marina these days?  With the schools back from half term, the fall programmes continue apace.  It’s practically dark when these kids come ashore (but luckily not cold, so they really don’t have too much to complain about compared with their opposite numbers overseas).  It’s not just after school sailing for members….. the Endeavour programme is not providing sailing for primary school children this term, but BEN (the Bermuda Education Network) has stepped in and is supporting a programme at West Pembroke school which enables a group of primary students to come to RHADC during the afternoon to learn how to sail.  The group is smaller than it could be due to the Covid regulations, but it is still a fabulous opportunity to get kids out onto the water and learning new skills.  BEN is hoping to extend the programme to include children from Prospect Primary on a different day.

In the past some generous RHADC members have provided junior sailing scholarships to enable promising young sailors to continue sailing at RHADC after going through the Endeavour programme, which of course, is provided without charge.  This has meant opportunities for further development which would not normally be available to them.

If any of our members would like to help BEN with this primary school initiative, to be able to continue it next term, or to help individual sailors who show promise to continue in the regular RHADC after school programme next term, Maria in our sailing office would be pleased to hear from you [sailing@rhadc.bm].  This is a great example of the Club contributing to the community involvement in sailing, and watching the excitement of the youngsters as they rig their boats before launching them is really very infectious.  BEN is a registered charity and so any help directly to them might qualify for a matching gift from a generous employer too – so you might be able to help 2 sailors!  Our thanks again go to Nico and Maria for their hard work and enthusiasm; I know the smiles from these children make it all worthwhile.

This past weekend was the Optimist National Championships.  RHADC had 37 sailors competing, 20 in the Green Fleet (by far the largest contingent) and the others in the Championship Fleet.  8 youngsters from our High Performance class have been selected for the National Squad.  As I said above, there is a lot going on over on the junior sailing side of the marina!

Elspeth Weisberg
Commodore