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The Youth Sailing season starts on Saturday May 2nd 2009 and our action packed programme runs right through to the Laying-up Lunch on November 7th. We’re looking forward to seeing you all for some great sailing, and with our extensive fleet of dinghies from Wayfarers and Picos right through to the high performance Buzz dinghies, we have a wide range of boats available to suit all levels of experience.
There’s a few changes this year, so let’s start with these:
Firstly, you’ll notice a change in the contact list below. This is because after many years of running most of our sailing sessions (and much, much more work in the background!), Andy Free has decided to stand down as our Chief Instructor, and Bob James is picking up the reins. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Andy for all he’s done for FFYS over so many years, and we’re very grateful to Bob for agreeing to take on such an onerous task. Happily Andy will still be instructing with us - always assuming he can still remember how to sail a Wayfarer!
Secondly, we’re going to try to provide a little more variety in the Saturday sessions. We’ll still be concentrating on teaching you how to sail, but weather permitting we’ll also try to include more fun sessions and cruises, etc. Of course, we’re once again including our annual Cruise n’ BBQ, as this is always a very popular event.
Finally, this season we’ll be joining in with the club’s Saturday afternoon race series, and the dates for these sessions are in the programme. The race courses will be suitable for everything from our Picos to the club’s Darts etc, and we’ll provide extra safety boats to cover the FFYS fleet. More details below....
Our amazing team of Instructors will be back this season, and once again we’ll be running several different groups to cater for all levels from Beginner right through to Advanced, and we’ll make sure you end up in the right group. With each group having it’s own Lead Instructor you’ll always have someone to help you make the best of the season.
Along with some great Instructors, we also have a terrific place from which to sail and Felixstowe Ferry is renowned throughout the sailing world as being one of the very best.
All our students are given the opportunity to take formal RYA qualifications but there’s certainly no pressure to do so. We’re not a commercial training school (all our helpers and Instructors are unpaid volunteers), and although we do work to the same high standards (some would say higher!), we place far more importance on learning by experience and the ‘RYA Qualifications’ are really an extra, albeit an important one. So, if you just want to learn the basics that’s fine with us. Or, if you really want to become a qualified Instructor then we can manage that too.
Our normal student sessions take place twice a week (see programme for exact details):
- Saturday’s
- Mornings from 0915 to 1300 approximately
- Afternoon racing (where applicable) from 1330hrs to 1700hrs approx
and
- Wednesday Evenings from 1815 to dusk (May – July)
Parent Note - the actual time of reaching the shore will often be affected by the wind and tide conditions. Our Instructors will always plan the session to get back at the stated time but this is not always possible so please bear with us!
Parents and guardians are very welcome to wait in the clubhouse until their charges have been signed out. Our students are not allowed to stay in the Club outside normal Club opening hours so please make sure you are ready to collect them at the end of the session.
As usual, on Saturdays we will meet inside the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club in the dining area for registration and briefing before we split into groups and get out on the water. It’s very important that all our students arrive on time for each session – if they miss the registration time (0915-0930hrs) they will not be allowed to sail for safety reasons so please don’t be late. Our Instructors will always make sure the club is open by 0900hrs so please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
This year we’re joining in with the Club’s Saturday afternoon racing, which will be run as a series of once-a-month Regattas finishing with a BBQ back at the club. For racing we have to insist on a minimum level of experience, and to this end anyone wishing to helm a boat must have held an RYA Level 2 certificate for at least a full year. However, there’s no limitations on who can crew. To make organisation of the afternoon sessions more effective we’re asking our Students to sign up for these at morning registration so we know how many will be taking part. There will be an extra charge of £1.50 per afternoon session to help cover costs.
Another event which the club have invited us to join is the ‘Try a Sail’ regatta on the afternoon of 27th June. This will be a chance to have a go at crewing on some of the club member’s more exciting boats (Darts etc). No charge for this one, and no minimum experience requirements!
Our Wednesday evening ‘fun’ sessions (open to all students) are extremely popular and you’ll also find the dates for these in the programme. There’s no formal training on Wednesday evenings so it’s an ideal time for some fun sailing and trying out what you’ve been taught. As with Saturdays we meet inside the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club in the dining area for registration and briefing – again, please arrive in plenty of time.
In addition to all our normal sail training, we’ll try and find time to fit in a few other activities including power boat training, a day sail, on-the-water games, and our famous BBQ event. For our Adult Helpers and Instructors we have Monday evening sailing sessions where we get a chance to brush up on our own sailing skills. At the end of our season, we finish with a special lunch and awards ceremony where our students are presented with their certificates and trophies. The enclosed programme shows all the key dates for the season, so please keep this handy.
Where bad weather prevents us from running a normal Saturday sailing session we make good use of the time, either with a reduced programme (including some amazing sailing with the Instructors at the helm, power boat rides, etc) or by catching up on some of the theory work involved, so please make sure you attend each session - even if the weather doesn’t look so good.
All students who attend our sessions will be taught how to prepare the boats for sailing and how to put them away at the end of sailing. This is a vital part of the session so please don’t slip away before this work is complete – anyone found doing so may well be invited to spend the following session cleaning all the boats out!!
How to join us
Youth Sailing is part of the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club and we use their premises for all our events. Our students must become members of Felixstowe Ferry Youth Sailing (FFYS), and also of the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club. You can apply to join FFYS by completing the consent form enclosed (this is essential as you cannot go on the water without it) and sending it to our membership secretary (address below). We have an annual membership fee of £1, which we need to collect from you at your first session. You also need to join the Sailing Club and the annual membership fee is £16.50 for 10-15 year olds, and £35.00 for those aged 16 to 21. A cheque for this amount (payable to Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club) should also be sent to our membership secretary, along with the enclosed completed Sailing Club application form by the 20th April.
If you have already joined the Sailing Club this year, either as an individual or under a family membership, please enter your 2008 membership number on the consent form.
Parent Note - In previous seasons we have reached our maximum number of students in the first week or two of the season, so if you want to join us this year please get your application form back to the Membership Secretary by the 20th April – it’s first come, first served.
To help towards our running costs we make a charge of £7.00 per student per Saturday session and £5 per Wednesday evening session, and this sum will be collected when you arrive and register for each session. Afternoon race sessions cost an extra £1.50 per session.
(If anyone has difficulty meeting these costs please contact our membership secretary to discuss other options, as we don’t want to prevent anyone from sailing)
Helpers and Instructors
The success of Youth Sailing depends totally on our volunteer Instructors and Helpers and it takes a lot of effort to run our sailing sessions. Many of these Instructors and Helpers have come to us as a consequence of having children who sailed with FFYS. That they have stayed with us long after their own children have moved on is a measure of the satisfaction and pleasure they experience in working with our youngsters. In most cases these parents have either honed or learnt the skills and obtained their qualifications with us. To this end we are always keen to introduce interested parents to our activities and to provide training and courses for them to gain RYA powerboat and sailing qualifications. Some of this training is done during our normal sessions and some is done on Monday evenings during the season. If you are interested in helping then please have a word with us - it’s much more fun than cutting the grass!
Health and Safety
Our safety procedures insist that all students sign in at the start of each session (morning, afternoon and evening sessions) and provide a contact number for a parent/guardian, so please make sure you know which one to supply. Students must also sign out before leaving and we ask you to do this before changing as failure to sign out may result in a pointless search being undertaken by the Instructors.
Lifejackets and buoyancy aids will be provided for our beginner group where required. Our experienced students are expected to bring their own buoyancy aids.
NO YOUNG PERSON OR ADULT WILL BE ALLOWED ON THE WATER WITHOUT A LIFEJACKET OR BUOYANCY AID APPROVED BY HIS OR HER LEAD INSTRUCTOR.
Please ensure you have a towel and a change of clothing at each session and please make sure that you’ve got sufficient clothes to keep you warm when you’re on the water. You don’t need the latest and greatest sailing gear, just plenty of layers and even a wetsuit will need layers over the top in all but the warmest conditions. Every season we have students who get very cold out on the water because they don’t realise just how much cooler it is off shore.
Any young person who is taking medication, has a medical condition or an allergy must include this information on the consent form and also inform their Lead Instructor when they register at each attendance.
All decisions relating to sailing will be made by the Senior Sailing Instructor present and must be adhered to. This is for the safety of all those involved.
We look forward to seeing you in May.
Best regards
The FFYS Team
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