Youth sailing in 2006 got off to a flying start, with a magnificent donation of £500 from the Penmaenmawr Charity Shop, which enabled us to convert
our fleet of Toppers to centre mainsheet in line with the latest recommendations.

Our target for 2007 is to complete the Sports Council Wales 'Dragon Sail' application, which will hopefully enable us to obtain additional funding for a fleet of Optimist dinghies to be used as the starter boats for training.

For those of you who have never come across an Optimist, here are a few details:

• Optimists are designed for children they are safe and straightforward for beginners to use and technically challenging for the experienced sailors.

• Single-handed is best, they didn't learn to ride a bike on a tandem

• Over 150,000 kids in over 100 countries have got to be right The Optimist was designed in 1947 and celebrates its Diamond Anniversary in 2007.

• The Optimist has been designated International Status by ISAF. (the world organising body for sailing) It's an RYA "pathway" class - that means it's recognized as developing technical, physical and racing skills necessary to succeed at Youth and Olympic level.

• 2.31 metres long, 1.13 metres wide, weighs 35kg *Easily transported on top of any car

• Second hand prices start at a few hundred pounds - and Optimists hold their value

• Over 70% of the sailors at the last Olympics learned to race in an Optimist

More information can be found on the International Optimist Class Association (IOCA UK) at:   www.optimistsailing.org.uk

Youth Racing Series

During 2007 the Club Youth Racing Circuit will tour many sailing clubs in North Wales including Penmaenmawr on the 16th of June, and our juniors will be eligible to attend these races using the Toppers.

The club runs coaching programmes following the RYA syllabus taking juniors from learning to sail up to club racing.

The coaching sessions are held on Tuesday evenings at 7:00pm starting on May 8th, with additional race coaching sessions and races will be held on various Sundays throughout the season, dependant on race fixtures at other clubs.

The coaching packages are priced to cover the cost of the training materials, log books and maintenance costs of the boats.

All funds raised by the training and many of the social fund raising events are ploughed back into the training programmes.

Dedicated to the Youth Coaching programme are 6 Laser Picos, 6 Toppers, 6 Laser Radials and hopefully a few Optimists on the horizon. The club has 2 Sailing Instructor, 5 race coaches and 6 RYA safety boat drivers to support the coaching sessions.

We also have a number of mentors to informally coach the juniors during weekend sailing. The club also holds a number of youth social events including discos and the now famous Big Blue day. Big Blue is aimed at introducing new people to the exciting sport of sailing and power boating with free powerboat rides and sailing.

Yet again, the highlight of the year was the awards presentation ceremony in October where certificates of merit/achievement for the various levels of courses passed by the juniors were handed out.

The following prestigious awards were also presented:

• Brian Butterworth Presidents Youth Cup for representing PSC Presented to Will Stafford.
• The most improved junior girl presented to Megan Buckley
• The most improved junior boy presented to Jack Foster
• The Endeavour Trophy for services to the club presented to Ieuan and Dylan Williams.

The club encourages the involvement of its youth in its running and has a junior Captain and committee. If you wish to become involved see Alex Lovell-Smith the junior sailing Captain.

The Youth Coaching Programme Dinghy Used

• RYA Start Sailing Level 1 Pico
• RYA Start Sailing Level 2 Pico
• RYA Start Sailing Level 3 Pico Topper Laser
• Optimists will follow the IOCA (UK) Programme, which is based on the RYA system, but has its own logbook and is specifically aimed at the Optimist sailor.

Course Costs

• Junior Membership £25
• Level 1 & 2 (Including RYA handbooks) £25
• Level 3 £25 Pico £35 Laser

(All juniors must be members of the club and can be included under a family membership)