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This is probably the wettest and greyest summer I can remember, but even so, we have had full Youth Sailing Weeks running since the start of July and the weather hasn’t damped our spirits or stopped the fun!

Chris went away three weeks ago for a week, leaving Breesh and me with eight kids for the week. All future staff holidays have subsequently been cancelled! Thanks to Tom Howitt for stepping in to help for the week. It was an enjoyable week. George and Hugh passed their Stage 1, Kit and Laura returning from last year completed their Stage 2, Tia and Isla have nearly completed Stage 3 and James and Greg had a good week building up their experience in the 420 in preparation for Stage 4.

Chris arrived back in work on the Tuesday morning of the following week a wee bit tired after the Steam Packet had made some slight adjustments to their ferry schedule ‘Sorry Sir but you will need to go to Heysham and won’t be home until 6am’. No sympathy from us though, Breeshey had worked many extra hours the previous week! And it was a week of noisy boys and Kate the only girl on the course that week. Kate and her brother Joe spent most of the week in the 420 working toward Stage 4. And the rest of the terrors in Teras! Well done to the boys who all completed Stage 2.

During that same week I ran a Youth Dayskipper Theory course, Becky, Guy, Ben and Alex were are brilliant group to teach, a good bit of boating experience between them and brains which are used to studying made the week an absolute joy. See you all for the final exam in September….

Then there was Marine Day in Port St Mary on the 9th. We were supposed to be running boat trips but alas the weather was set against us! Still it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Which brings us up to last week, another eight kids, another week with Ffinlo! Last week was a cracking week, everyone on the course had sailed before, all were keen and much fun was had. Friday’s Pirate Day was also Kieran’s 10th birthday – thank you for the cake! Matthew, Georgia, Declan, Keiran and Max all completed Stage 2, Ffinlo and Jamie acheived Stage 3 (I think they are our youngest Stage 3 sailors aged 8 and 10 respectively) and congratulations to Georgie Drinkwater who demonstrated some excellent sailing skills and completed Stage 4!

And it was Jon’s turn for a busy run on the water. Every day for the past seven days he has been running powerboat courses; one adult Level 2 which is to be completed tomorrow, 3 x Youth Level 2 on Tuesday and Wednesday, 2 x Youth Level 1 on Thursday and 3 x Youth Level 1 on Friday, followed by 3 x Level 2s over the weekend. Only one more day and you can have a break hun!

And finally congratulations to Ali Hinds who has just passed the Dinghy Instructor course at Plas Menai a couple of weeks ago. She’s already been in helping out this week and is a welcome addition to the instructing team.

…but we still managed to get out on the water every day. Monday was almost perfect conditions for day one of last week’s Youth Sailing Week, with all eight students really getting the hang of it quickly and by the end of day one everyone was happily reaching across the bay and tacking thier boats. Tuesday was a breezy day to begin with, so the morning was theory sessions and a bit of kite flying, then the wind dropped and we were able to get out on the water again in the afternoon. Typical though that shortly after launching the wind really picked up, everyone coped with it brilliantly and demonstrated some excellent lee shore landings in the surf! Wednesday morning; more wind and more theory, we now have a group of expert knot tyers. The the wind dropped a bit and got out for a bit more sailing, until we spotted more big dark clouds rolling in and decided to get back to the beach. Our timing couldn’t have been better, as soon as we got ashore a huge squall came through with some really big gusts. Capsize drill in the shallows concluded the afternoon. Thursday and even more wind. Jon took everyone for a tour around Port Erin Lifeboat during the morning.The afternoon was still too windy for sailing but we got everyone on the water kayaking for a hour or so, then a basking shark was spotted in the bay so Chris took everyone in the RIB for a closer look – lucky kids!!
Friday – and finally a full day on the water!!! A good week had by all in spite of the weather, loko forward to seeing you all back for more sailing next year….

What a windy week we’ve had (two tiller extensions and one Tera mast later)! It has been nearly perfect conditions (except for the grey skies and rain) for a Stage 3 / 4 week, the seven sailors who’ve been with us this week have really enjoyed themselves – and so have our instructors. We like getting the chance to go out in a bit of breeze for some fun. It has been testing conditions for the students with the wind almost always being offshore and therefore really gusty, all coped admirably.

So at the end of this week we have seven students who have all learned how to hike out hard, each has had a go at blasting around in the 420, two man boating being a completly new experience for some and only a few capsized. Tom and Alex have completed their Stage 4 this week and demonstrated a text book righting of the turtled 420 after an impressive capsize while gybing in a huge gust! Photos are on the Gallery

Well done to Sarah Butler who won the Isle of Man Regioanl Final of the Honda / RYA Youth RIB Challenge held in Port St Mary last weekend.

Sarah took the top spot in a time of 1:51, in the 8 – 12 age group, the only competitor in the age group to go under two minutes. This was the first time she had compete at the event and following her win was extremely excited about representing 7th Wave and the Island at the national final at Southampton Boatshow in September.

Heats for the Honda / RYA Youth RIB Challenge on Friday, 30th May in Port Erin. Over the course of the day 7th Wave’s Powerboat Instructors Jon Quillin and Gordy Caren trained fourteen youngsters to handle 4.5m RIBs. The day was brought to a close with each youngster competing in a time trial around a course designed to test their boat handling skills and all of it was part of a UK wide competition.

The Honda RYA Youth RIB Challenge 2008 sponsored by Honda, Ribcraft, Icom and Indespension Trailers is a National Championship in which 8 – 16 year olds, can demonstrate their skills with the goal of winning a 4.8m Ribcraft RIB with a Honda 50hp engine on an Indespension trailer and Icom radio for their club. There are two classes: 8-12 years old and 13-16 years old. The competition takes the form of a time trial around a set of marks and the fastest time wins. The course is set such that skill and control, and not necessarily speed, are the most important factors. Each competitor has two runs, one as a practice run and one as a ‘hot lap’. Both runs are timed and the fastest time put forward.

The Regional finals, sixteen in all, are held by clubs and RYA centres throughout the British Isles. The Isle of Man Regional Final will be hosted by the Isle of Man Yacht Club in Port St Mary on Saturday 28th June. Winners from the Regional Final are eligible to compete in the National Final at the Southampton International Boatshow in September. Of the fourteen competitors in the 7th Wave heats the top three from each age group will go on to compete in the Isle of Man Regional Final.

All the youngsters which took part at 7th Wave were an absolute credit to themselves. Many of the entrants had no previous powerboating experience before attending the training day. After a relatively short training session which introduced them to the very basics of powerboating the youngsters put in some superb times around the course and demonstrated some impressive RIB handling skills.

The RYA is actively promoting youth powerboat training, the RYA Level 1 Powerboat Course is open to anyone aged 8 and over which can be followed up with the RYA Powerboat Level 2 course at the age of 12. These courses are run regularly at 7th Wave for youngsters, adults or family groups.

Overall Results
Age 8 – 12 Time 1 Time 2 Best Time (mins) Overall Place
Michael Moore 2.22 1.58 1.58 1
Sarah Butler 2.23 2.00 2.00 2
Annabel Chapman 2.34 2.12 2.12 3
Jacob Callow 2.48 2.27 2.27 4
Fraser Grant 2.29 2.42 2.29 5
Oliver Fleming 3.22 2.30 2.30 6
Matthew Petts 3.14 3.28 3.14 7
Ffinlo Wright 3.49 3.50 3.50 8

Age 13 – 16 Time 1 Time 2 Best Time Overall Place
Alex Sharpe 1.32 1.29 1.29 1
Robert Bowen 1.55 1.46 1.46 2
Jenny Scaife 1.56 1.48 1.48 3
Matthew Seaward 1.51 1.49 1.49 4
Alex Crowney 1.58 2.10 1.58 5
Robert Moreton 2.18 2.08 2.08 6

Tuesday 27th May was our birthday!!

There was some debate as to how old we are, we thought we were three, but have been reliable informed that actually we are only two. Either way we have just entered our third season and it really doesn’t feel like two years have passed since our first day open. And quite fitting that our first ever sailing student, Ffinlo, is still sailing and here on a course with us this week completing his Stage 2.

Laser 4000, sail number 4096, rigged and race ready.
3 sails -main, jib & spinnaker all good condition.
Hull is blue and also in good condition.
Top cover, launching trolley and road trailer.
Ideal starter boat for high performance and skiff style sailing, with weight equalizing racks system and single trapeze.

£1500 or near offer. Lying in Port Erin. Please contact me for more details & to view.

Jen.

Here we are now entering our third season (and it doesn’t seem like nearly two years have passed since we opened). We are beginning this year with our approval to run shorebased courses, which means that our season starts now! Over the coming weeks we have the following courses running:

Basic Navigation & Safety (2 day course) 19th & 20th January

Yachtmaster Theory on Monday evenings from 4th Feb until 19th May

Picked this up off www.howies.co.uk today. If Turtles are finding there way to Scotland and Wales there’s a small possibility that one might wash up here too. Interestingly, last summer we were approached by a gentleman who has been researching sea turtles around the British waters for some years, he asked to us to keep a record and contact him if there were any sitings. So if you do happen across a sea turtle around our coast, please could you also let us know as well as the Marine Conservation Society…

Today the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is urging British beach walkers to look out for stranded marine turtles after three of the endangered reptiles washed up on beaches in Wales and Scotland since the end of December. Strong south-westerly winds forecast for Scotland, Wales and the South West this week may bring in more turtles, which, if found alive, can be rescued and rehabilitated back to full health.

The strandings started when a juvenile loggerhead turtle washed up dead at Ardnave on the island of Islay on the 29th December. Shortly afterwards the second turtle, another dead juvenile loggerhead, was recovered by staff from the Islay and Jura Seal Sanctuary after it washed up near Ardbeg, Islay on New Year?s Day. The third turtle was a rare Kemp?s ridley turtle that washed up alive at Porth Ceiriad nr. Abersoch on the Lleyn Peninsula on the 3rd of January. This small juvenile turtle was recovered by the RSPCA and driven by Marine Environmental Monitoring to the Weymouth SeaLife Centre, where, sadly, it died a few days later.

?Each winter strong winds seem to blow stray juvenile turtles into our chilly seas. They can?t stand the cold weather, which shuts them down and they eventually wash up on our shores,? said Peter Richardson, MCS Species Policy Officer, ?When they wash up they are so moribund that to the casual observer they may appear to be dead, but actually they may still be alive, and with expert care can be rescued and nurtured back to health to make a full recovery. Under no circumstances should these turtles be put back into the sea, as this will certainly kill them. With strong winds forecast this week we urge UK beach walkers to be vigilant and immediately report any turtles they encounter to the RSPCA.?

MCS is urging anyone who walks or works on UK beaches to look out for stranded turtles this winter and immediately report them to the RSPCA on 08705 555999 or to Marine Environmental Monitoring (MEM) on 01348 875000. Live turtles should not be put back in the sea, but placed in a dry, sheltered place until animal welfare experts can collect them for rehabilitation. Obviously dead stranded turtles should also be reported to MEM or online at HYPERLINK “http://www.mcsuk.org/” www.mcsuk.org where information and photographs are available to help identification.