Money well spent at Hunts Sailing Club
by Nessa Weedon-Jones 25 Oct 2012 21:32 BST
20-21 October 2012
Stephen Carver and Tom Charter, plus the Hunts team during the Vago nationals © Jan Carver
Hunts Sailing Club's purchase of two new Laser Vagos following a £10,000 grant award from Sport England has already proved to be money well spent. The club chose the Vago in order to promote growth and retention amongst its young adult membership, and the first outing for the boats was to the Vago Nationals at Rutland last weekend. Here the boats were sailed by young coaches and instructors from the club, all aged 16 – 17, and they managed to pull off 3rd and 4th place overall, despite only previously having had no more than taster sessions in the dinghies.
"The boats are fantastic" said one young HSC competitor "Simple to rig but fast and fun". Having gained useful experience of the boats across a range of wind strengths – Saturday was light, but the breeze grew overnight to produce good winds for Sunday – the Hunts team are now ready to pass on their skills to the rest of the club membership with a combination of race training and RYA courses.
"The funding from Sport England has given the club a real boost" said club Principal Vanessa Weedon-Jones "We have great new equipment with which we can encourage our young members to stay in the sport, plus hopefully persuade young people in the area to take up sailing and get some real outdoors excitement."
The Hunts line up was completed by singlehander Ed Deacon, second overall who was beaten by reigning champion Dave Baxter from West Riding. Stephen Carver and Tom Charter from Hunts were first double hander finishing third, with clubmates Tim Lupton and Tim Lachlan-Cope finishing just behind in fourth.