Jolly Harbour Youth Sailing Program

Dear JHYC Members (and others),

A lot has been happening with our Dinghy Sailing Project and there is much to report.

Firstly, our Project Director, Yvonne Payne has resigned on health grounds and your Committee have accepted Pippa Pettingell as her replacement. Pippa will endeavour to carry on the excellent work done by Yvonne and her predecessors, Lawrie May, Rick Gormley and Chris Chitty. If it wasn’t for the unselfish efforts of these people, and generous support of others, this newsletter would not be possible.

Pippa is delighted to report that we now have a fully qualified RYA Dinghy Instructor on the beach for Saturday & Sunday every weekend. His name is Tony and he is an excellent dinghy sailor and instructor.

This means we are now able to offer regular dinghy pleasure sailing, training, and racing throughout the year from our location on the northern end of North Beach, Jolly Harbour.

Our fleet now comprises:

Three Lasers

Two Sport 16’s

One Hobie 16

One Topper International One Design

One Fin (currently in need of some maintenance so not available for sailing just yet)

The weekend programme, effective immediately, will be as follows:

SATURDAY MORNING SESSION 09:30 - 12:30

Youth Development

The cornerstone of JHYC Dinghy Sailing is the Youth Development Project that offers FREE Dinghy Sailing Instruction to local Antiguan children between the ages of 8 and 18. Any child that is Antiguan born is welcome to join this training session and will receive “Certificates of Achievement” as they progress through the course. Completion of the course will be Tony’s acknowledgement that they are competent to sail a Laser Dinghy on their own. We are currently working with several Antiguan Youth Organisations but stress that ALL Antiguan born children are welcome.

The Youth Development Project and Dinghy Sailing Programme are ambitious undertakings for JHYC and involve effort in many areas of training, organisation, publicity and sponsor support. If you, as a Member of the Club, feel you can contribute in any way, Pippa would be delighted to hear from you!!

Provision and Maintenance of the JHYC Dinghy Sailing Programme requires money and our very meagre annual subscription fees do not produce anywhere near enough! Harsh but true!!

Unfortunately, reasonable charges will be levied for the remaining weekend sessions and all participants sail entirely at their own risk. ALL sessions are open to ALL! I.e. JHYC Membership is not necessary. Participants must be able to swim 25 yards with a buoyancy aid which MUST be worn at all times on the water



SATURDAY AFTERNOON SESSION 13:30 – 16:30:

Pleasure Sailing & Practise.

If you wish to sail one of our fleet you will first need to demonstrate a suitable level of competence to our Instructor.

To avoid disappointment it will be necessary to “book a boat” for this session with Pippa Tel: 722 8468 or e-mail pippapettingell@hotmail.com



SUNDAY MORNING SESSION 09:30 – 12:30

Adult Dinghy & Junior Sailing Instruction

We aim to provide a structured course covering all aspects of Dinghy Sailing including basic sailing theory & practise, rigging, capsize drill, helming and single handing.

Course numbers are limited and you will need to book a slot with Pippa.



SUNDAY AFTERNOON SESSION 13:30 – 16:30

One Design Racing

On Sunday June 21st we shall be running a series of Laser Races with four boats competing.

The entries are: Al Ashford sailing his own Laser; Tony, Nick White and Chris Chitty each sailing a Club Laser.

The idea is to stage the first JHYC One Design Dinghy Race to gain knowledge of the waters and establish some courses, time keeping and a format for the future.

There will be a Series of 3 races of approximately 30 minutes duration with approximately a 20 minute break in between.

No more Club Lasers are available for this event but if you have, or can borrow, a Laser you are more than welcome to join in. Please let Pippa know to expect you.

Once we have established the format of Sunday Afternoon racing, we shall offer Sport 16 Match Racing and, when we are fortunate enough to be donated yet another Hobie 16, Match Racing in these exciting cats.



SESSION FEES

ALL SESSIONS (except, of course, Saturday Morning) will be charged as follows:

Adult JHYC Members: EC$ 50 per session. NON JHYC Members: EC$ 75 per session.

Junior JHYC Members: EC$ 30 per session. NON JHYC Members: EC$ 45 per session.

Active participants in the Youth Development Project will be eligible for Junior Member rates in the Pleasure Sailing & Practise Sessions.



All participants will be liable to reimburse for any damage caused.

All sessions must be booked and paid in advance. Contact Pippa as above.

Buoyancy Aids are limited so please bring your own if you have one.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We should all be grateful to the following businesses and individuals who have made the above possible.

John Hall of Anjo Insurance for a very favourable policy premium

Swaylings for their generous offer of free swimming lessons for Antiguan children to help them get onto the Youth Development Project

Sunsail Club Colonna for the donation of one of our Sport 16’s

Ron Schofield of Sign Pro for our Dinghy Area Sign

Wayne Gruden for permission to use his land.

Franklyn Braithwaite of A & F Sails for the donation of Fin Racing Sails and free sail maintenance.

Ron Budacz for the generous donation of our Hobie 16

Trish Webster for the loan of her Laser and persuading friends to donate the other two.

Bernie Wong for the loan of his Fin.

Seagull Inflatables for the repair of the safety boat.

Gaye Hechme of CDAL

Angie Dickinson of the Foredeck Bar for her fund raising projects.

Lawrie May, Rick Gormley, Chris Chitty and Yvonne Payne for their unstinting work in the early days to get this programme off the ground. They were enthusiastically supported by Steve Coughlan, Eddie Williams, Sharon Gunning, Tanner Jones and Iain Mellows.

Pippa welcomes the current enthusiasm and help from Alecks Dickinson and Sophia Erdahl, two very accomplished dinghy sailors and hopes to welcome back some of those mentioned above into the programme.

JHYC is now Sailing Dinghies! Come and join in and ENJOY!



Brian - Rear Commodore 2009