BLOWING WIND IN THEIR SAILS
A FAR North sailing institution has added some new boats to its fleet to help kids learn life lessons out on the water.
The Cairns Yacht Club has secured a new 3.5m safety boat and an additional 10 Tackers Optimist sailing vessels, growing the fleet to meet increasing interest in its youth dinghy sailing programs.
CYC sailing training centre principal Dr Scott Davis said the new boats would help the Tackers program meet the growing demand for learn-to-sail programs.
“The additional fleet of Tackers Optimist dinghies, which have been generously shipped from Melbourne by Global Forwarding, will double our learn to sail fleet,” he said.
“Optimist dinghies are small sailing dinghies intended for use by children up to the age of 15.
“They are one of the most popular sailing dinghies due to their small size and simple design and are used by sailing schools and clubs worldwide.”
Saturday sailing Green Fleet sessions for teenagers will also become more readily available with the expansion of the fleet.
All junior sailing programs are run by CYC’s team of teenage dinghy instructors and supervised by senior instructors. The club hosts a schools’ regional championship later this month.