port erin – 7th Wave

Sailors try SUP

Posted on 19/07/2019Author Jenni

7th Wave sailors go paddleboarding! A huge thank you to Michelle at Saltworks SUP Paddleboarding for running an awesome Water Skills Academy SUP Safety course here last night for our staff members and Jack from Ballakermeen High School who has been with us all week on Work Experience.

We learned a lot about SUP paddling, self rescue, rescuing others and falling in. It turns out that you can capsize a board, there is a SUP equivalent to the sailors “scoop in” method post capsize, towing is possible, there are no ropes to get in a tangle and the sea is warmer than expected!

Expert tuition from Michelle at Saltworks SUP Paddleboarding made the session informative and enjoyable, we would recommend Michelle to anyone looking to learn SUP. Pizzas from La Gusto Pizza rounded the evening off perfectly.

Meanwhile here at 7th Wave our instructing and safety boat team now have a vastly increased knowledge of SUP so we can help you to enjoy your hire experience with us even more.

Our next mission is to get Michelle into a sailing boat…..

Dinghy Instructors 2019

Posted on 14/07/2019Author Jenni

Congratulations to this year’s RYA Dinghy Instructor course candidates. 100% success rate!

The team have enjoyed a challenging week, where in order to become Dinghy Instructors they have had to develop good communication strategies, think independently, been encouraged to make mistakes and to overcome hurdles where things haven’t gone to plan.

Five of the six candidates had all started their sailing careers at 7th Wave over the years. We love watching them grow into good sailors, instructors and young adults. We are super proud of them all!

Many thanks to RYA Coach Assessors Alan Jones and Geoff Stones for running another superb week for us here on the Isle of Man and congratulations to Georgie Quayle, Peter Harper, Edward McEntee, Benjamin Mehta, Charlie Whitbread and William Henthorn on your new qualifications!

#rya #sailingisliving #porterin #ryanorthwest

Luke Crowe is the MYA Young Sailor of the Year 2018

Posted on 31/12/2018Author Jenni

The BT Challenge Trophy for the Young Sailor of the Year is presented by the Manx Yachting Association. This year the trophy has been awarded to Luke Crowe(age 17). He was nominated by the Manx Sailing & Cruising Club in recognition of his achievements in 2018.

Luke started training at the MS&CC in dinghies. This year he has qualified as an RYA Dinghy Instructor and been a great help to the Club.

He sailed with Jerry Coleman on the Sigma 33 Sea Pie de Cultra, doing a couple of Round the Island races and West Highland Week where they finished 2nd in class. Jerry says “Luke is great to have on board your boat as he doesn’t come to tell you something is broken, rather he says I found this broken and have fixed it”.

Luke is competing at Injebreck in a Laser this winter and is committed to volunteering at MS&CC next season to help with junior training.

In July 2017 Luke appeared at 7th Wave as a work experience student from Ramsey Grammar School. It should have been a two week placement, but he stayed for the whole summer volunteering with us. We were so happy to give him a job this year. He’s now a core member of our team, the guy that never lets you down and the first to volunteer at short notice. He travels down to us on the bus as he hasn’t passed his driving test yet. An average bus ride of 4 hours a day – true dedication to the cause! Naturally we fully endorsed the nomination from MS&CC.

Congratulations Luke, an all round top man, I was delighted to present the trophy to him at Injebreck on Boxing Day. A wonderful way to round off an amazing 2018 sailing season.

Baby shark in the sailing session today

Posted on 09/08/2018Author Jenni

A voice piped up over the VHF “The shark is just going around the top mark now”. After almost two months of no shark sightings, this little one popped up in the middle of this morning’s Youth Sailing Week Start Racing session!

There is a theme occurring here…. Ben…. a Start Racing course… a basking shark joining in….

Basking shark hanging out with the team here

Posted on 02/06/2018Author Jenni

A small armada of kayaks, paddleboards and the pink rowing boat took to the water last Friday to get a closer look at a basking shark swimming around the bay. The shark was there for several hours just swimming along with his gobbag vooar wide wide open, getting merrily plankton drunk in the evening sunshine. This shark was smaller than the previous encounter on Thursday, perhaps just 6 or 7m long.

He seemed to enjoy the audience he had around him, treating folk to some really close passes. At one point the there was a kayak and a paddleboard, next to each other, maybe a foot space between them, the shark swam past them, turned around and swam right between the two of them with his fin placed exactly in the gap. It was truly incredible!

Since 5 o clock had been and gone we managed a staff kayak and row boat outing this time round #worstjobintheworld