School Holidays Sailing Program

This Spring Holidays we are offering a program for all levels of experience!

Level 1 - no experience necessary, learn the basics of sailing and gain confidence on the water.
The Learn to Sail program we are running is a truncated version of the yachting NZ LTS program. We are providing an initial program of approx. 15 hours over 3 days versus the 24 hours in the full LTS program. At the end of our program the kids will be in a position to decide if they wish to continue with sailing as a sport or interest. Those who are interested in continuing will have the opportunity to sail, with coaching provided, on club sailing days.

As part of the course children should learn the following:
- The components of their boat
- Setting up the boat
- Boat handling
- Safety
- Basic knots
- Sailing

Your children will learn how to sail a boat safely and competently in moderate conditions. On bad weather days (too windy) land teaching modules will replace sailing on the water. At this stage our focus is on developing their individual sailing skills not racing skills.

Participants will be expected to:
- Help get the boats out of storage and put away at the end of the session, and get it rigged before lesson time.
- Ask questions.
- Be organized, punctual and have the right attitude to learning and toward other participants.

What to bring:
- The object is to make sure the sailor is warm but not too hot. Bring plenty of layers. Don’t put all of them on until the boat is rigged and ready to go. It is always colder on the water than on land so don’t make the sailor sweat while getting rigged.

- Hot weather: Sunblock, hat/cap with a peak & sunglasses
- Cold Weather: warm hat, extra layers, wetsuit if you have one.
- Windproof jacket/raincoat
- Snacks, drink and lunch
- Pen & Paper to take notes. Memory fades much quicker than ink!

We will provide life jackets for the children and we do have some wetsuits that they can borrow if needed.

Beyond the basic skill of being able to sail a boat, sailing as a sport offers the opportunity to compete at club, school, regional, national, international and Olympic level. Below is a chart that shows some of the potential options for social and competitive sailors.

And just to prove you don’t have to live by the sea to be a great sailor one of our ex junior members, Micah Wilkinson, has been a world champion and sailed at the Tokyo Olympics.