In our tenth season on the water at Port Erin we are delighted to have RYA Coach Assessor Alan Jones here with us this week training six of our sailors to become RYA Dinghy Instructors. It has been a long week for the team with 9am starts and 8pm finishes, but it has also been a fantastic experience for them, seeing the world from the instructors point of view. They have done loads of sailing, seamanship has come on in leaps and bounds having to consider tides, mooring Wayfarers, capsize drill in the big tubs and being placed in charge of on the water sessions. This afternoon they are out looking at the single-handed method and tomorrow is moderation day, where an independent RYA Coach Assessor will be joining us to make the final decision on who will qualify as instructors.
It brings us much happiness (as well as a slightly aged feeling) that most of these trainee instructors started their sailing careers here at 7th Wave when they were young juniors. We remember Jamie, Connor and Summer taking their first steps on the water many many years ago on our Youth Sailing Weeks. It is a privilege to have been part of their childhood years and to watch them mature into young adults, hopefully by the end of tomorrow they will be instructors.
It is great to watch the 7th Wave family continue to expand, we look forward to helping these guys build the skills and experience they need to run parts of our summer programme next year.