The Royal London Yacht Club launched a youth sponsorship initiative in
early 2008 for young persons who are either Members of the club or are from
the Isle of Wight
The support in 2008 was split into two areas firstly to introduce
youngsters to sailing and secondly to develop the skills of experienced
racers who may have world class or Olympic potential.
Funds were raised for the youth sponsorship in 2008 from the charity
auction held at the clubhouse in October 2007 and from a large donation
from Member Roger Duckworth’s Highland Developments. We are very grateful
to Members for their generosity in this respect.
Sponsorship was provided in 2008 in the following areas:
Our first Bursary went to the Cowes Sea Cadets who provide a very good
platform for youngsters with an interest in the sea and who are encouraged
to get sea-going experience on T.S.Royalist or the MFV type vessel T.S.John
Jerwood.
Some Members will remember our boatman Garry Patterson who 3 years ago
passed out as their top cadet and subsequently joined the Royal Navy. His
brother Danny was hoping to go on the T.S.John Jerwood during March and his
parents were finding it difficult to raise the money. Our donation made it
possible for this boy to spend a week at sea.
The Club has been a big supporter of the ‘ASTO’ regatta for the past 4
years and this regatta is now part of the Royal London calendar. This year
there were 30 entries providing a day at sea for 300 young people despite
the poor weather forecast. The Club sponsored some Island youngsters on
‘Our Boys’, a locally based Loo Lugger, not the fastest boat in the
fleet but they completed the course in fine style with all sails set.
The Commodore presented the Club’s ‘ASTO Bloodhound’ trophy to the
crew of ‘Pegasus’ for the yacht with the youngest average age of crew,
which included the youngest competitor at 12 years and a few months.
Sponsorship was also provided in 2008 to three world and Olympic hopefuls
namely members Rachel Larman and Henry Bagnall and Chris Rashley who is
from St Helens and has recently been granted membership.
Rachel is a key member of Josie Gibson’s Women’s Match Racing team who
were 4th in the World Championships in New Zealand in 2008 and are
currently one of the top three Women’s Match Racing teams in the country.
Henry is campaigning a Finn and was 14th in their World Championships in
Australia in February and with a break to complete his degree he is back
campaigning again and obtained fourth place at Medemblik and at Sail for
Gold at Weymouth last September.
Chris aged 19 was selected for the RYA Tornado Olympic Squad in 2006 at the
age of 17 and when the Tornado was deselected from the Olympics in late
2007 moved across to the very competitive 49er skiff and in 2008 campaigned
full time with his crew Matt Gotrel.
Last season Chris and Matt were mainly in the top 5 GBR boats at 49er
regattas at Las Palmas, Hyeres, Medemblik, Kiel and Sail for Gold, training
with the RYA Performance squad. They were third in the national rankers at
Weymouth last autumn and as a result gained a place in the RYA Olympic
Development Squad for 2009.
There is no doubt that without the support from the Royal London Members
who contributed to their regatta and training expenses last year and from
member Peter Harrison who provided their boat Chris and Matt would not have
achieved this success.
Also late last season members provided funding for a new larger 49er rig
for Chris and we are most grateful to all those who contributed to this.
Chris is putting a 4 metre high RLYC logo on his spinnaker which should be
good publicity for our Club in its support of GBR Olympic yachting.
We intend to continue the youth funding support in 2009 in the same two
areas, namely to introduce youngsters to sailing which we would like to
increase and also to develop further the skills of our experienced racers
who have world class or Olympic potential.
This will be funded from the charity auction held at the clubhouse in
October 2008 and from a further large donation from Member Roger
Duckworth’s Highland Developments.
We are very grateful to members for their generosity in this respect for
without it none of this would be able to happen.
P J Taylor RLYC Sailing Committee 24 January 2009
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