Dozens Of Children Get OnBoard For Action Packed SWAC Festival!

Dozens of young sailors had a brilliant time at Active Nation’s Annual OnBoard Festival at Southampton Water Activities Centre.

Nearly 70 children enjoyed an action packed day, full of raft building, sailing treasure hunts, tasters and teambuilding activities at the event organised by Active Nation and the Royal Yachting Association (RYA).

The young competitors came from schools and clubs around the south coast including Hill Head Sailing Club, Portchester Sailing Club, SWAC, Princes Mead School, Hamble River Sailing Club, Emsworth Sailing Club and Hythe Sailing Club.

Over the last year many had learnt to sail through the RYA’s OnBoard programme – a grass roots project aimed at introducing sailing and windsurfing to young people aged 8 to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres.

Congratulations to Hill Head Sailing Club who took home both first place (Ben French), and second place (Charlie Holyer and Joshua Lappin). In joint third place were Sophia Daglish and Florence Paget, both from Hill Head, and Ewan Pett of Hythe Sailing Club.

The RYA’s Onboard development officer, Hannah Cockle, who helped to organise the event said: “I was so pleased with how the day worked out. We got all children on and in the water and everyone had huge smiles on their faces.

“It’s great to see so many children in the area enjoying the sport and getting stuck in with some new challenges. Hopefully it will keep their interest up and they will return to OnBoard next year!”

Active Nation’s Max Bradbury-Knight, who helped Hannah organise the event added: “The day was a huge success. We persuaded nearly 70 children to try new activities, get afloat and enjoy practicing their newly learnt sailing skills.

“Each year this event grows and is becoming hugely popular with the sailing clubs which operate locally. Well done to everybody who got on (or in!) the water and I look forward to seeing you again next year!”

If you would like to enjoy some time on the water, don’t hesitate to contact our friendly team at SWAC on 02380 915 753 or email: info@swac.co.uk – we’ll be happy to have a conversation.

Posted on: Friday, September 11th, 2015 by Bita Rezaei

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