Putting the Olympic Legacy in Sailing into Action

Photo: Martin Watts

Stuart Bithell, Silver Medal winner in the Men's 470 Class sailing with the new RS Visions funded by Sports England for Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club

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It has been a hectic few weeks at Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club recently. In July, the Club was told that it had successfully applied for a Small Grant from Sport England. Thus in September Stuart Bithell, life-long club member and Silver Medal winner in the 470 Men's Class at Weymouth, was at the Club for the official launching of 2 new RS Vision dinghies for use as Adult Training boats. Since then, the new dinghies have been used to train up 12 new Assistant Instructors and some of these people have already used their new skills as the Club has run an RYA Level 1-2 course for a dozen prospective/new members, with ages ranging from 15 to over 50. A number of people have already signed up for "Have a Go" sessions in the near future.

Martin Watts, Chief Instructor stated: "The new RS Visions are a fantastic new asset for the Club. The Club has always been good at training youngsters. Of the 10 people who made up the team who won this year's West Lancashire 24hr Race against 50 other clubs, nine of them, including Stuart, had learnt to sail at Hollingworth Lake as youngsters. The Club has not had the same success with introducing adults to sailing as it has had to rely on borrowing members' racing dinghies. The supply of the new RS Visions dinghies, funded by Sport England, has completely motivated the Club to expand its efforts to increase the participation of more adults in the sport of sailing and to keep them as long term Club members."

Ben Williams, Sport England’s Regional Lead for the North West, said: “The opportunity to try a new sport for the first time is often all a person needs to catch the sporting bug. The "Sailing For Seniors using new RS Visions" project is a great way for young people and adults of all ages to try dinghy sailing and have a quality sporting experience that will encourage them to stay involved.”