For a many years, SYC have been running highly successfully Junior training on a Friday evening, between April and July. Helping and coaching the younger members of the sailing club to learn and improve their sailing and racing skills. We have SYC juniors sailing at Zone, National and International levels, with great results. All this hard work was rewarded in November 2008, when the club was granted RYA Volvo Champion Club status. Well done to all involved in obtaining this award.
The Junior nights wouldn't run as smoothly without the valued help from parents, volunteers, qualified instructors and a handful of the old juniors coming back to pass on some knowledge. We aim to give the juniors a sound base from which they can become great and successful sailors' and more importantly, enjoying themselves.
Last year we have had over 100 applications for our junior nights during the spring and summer months. Making the SYC junior section one of the largest on the river. We have a diversity of boats in our junior section, ranging from Oppies to Laser 2's. Although we don't demand specific classes of boat, we do encourage juniors to sail prefered classes. This helps to keep things simple, it makes training more manageable and the safety of our youngsters is paramount. So most start off in Oppies, then move onto Toppers, Lasers and RS Fevas. Split into groups of 'Beginners', 'Skills' and 'Race', each individual gets the best possible coaching for their ability and experience. Boat handling skills are the lead for all groups, giving each sailor the ability to sail safely on any type of water. We hope as they advance to the 'Race group' they will join in with the main club racing, but most of all, they have advanced their knoweledge and aquired good sailing techniques to carry them onto greater challenges.
Many of our Ex juniors have gone on to many greater things, such as the Mirror world championships, 6 ex juniors going to the Hornet Europeans, with two of them coming home Hornet Youth Eurpoean Champions. We have a handful of very successful Laser and Topper sailors. 2008 saw two of our past Junior girls represent GBR in the 420 class in Athens. Well done to all. The current Juniors then benefit from their experience as many of these talented sailors then return to help coach on Friday nights. But the junior nights aren't just about success or getting you somewhere. Junior nights are about having fun, meeting new people and making new friends doing one of the greatest sports ever invented. The Juniors at Starcross aren't just around on Friday nights, they play a vital part in the everyday racing and a large part in the social life at SYC. You will see many juniors at the Annual Dinner and Dance and they seem to be picking up more and more prizes every year. A brilliant event on the junior calender is the annual Roadford training weekend. This provides a full weekend of sailing, games and general fun for all the family and has been running with great success for many years now.
