Kintyre Seasports welcomes on board a new instructor
Kintyre Seasports is now able to offer more residents and visitors access to its courses, activities and community projects after welcoming a second full-time instructor to its crew, writes Hannah O’Hanlon.
Naomi Cameron, 22, has joined the Royal Yachting Associationaccredited training centre as a senior sailing instructor.
She is the charity’s third employee, joining full-time operations and development manager Jamie Rodgers and part-time administrator Heather Smith.
Since launching in 2017, Kintyre Seasports has connected education providers, community groups and water sports clubs in a bid to break barriers, and provide health, wellbeing and economic benefits for the whole community. The organisation runs a number of community programmes, including sailing instructor training, communities mental health and wellbeing, and access diving.
It also offers many activities, including dinghy, sailing, powerboat and first aid training, and can issue internationally-recognised RYA qualifications.
As well as being an RYA-qualified senior sailing instructor, Naomi also holds paddlesport and other watersport qualifications; skills that will be particularly useful for the communities mental health and wellbeing programme, and she is working towards becoming a powerboat instructor.
An Essex native, Naomi first started sailing, paddling and rowing through her local Sea Cadets club when she was 10, before becoming an instructor five years ago in a bid to share her passion for being on the water.
“I worked at a couple of the Sea Cadet boating stations and I volunteered on different courses, so the community project side of things is where most of my experience lies,” she said.
“The premise of Sea Cadets is getting people on the water and giving them that experience, so that’s ideal for joining Kintyre Seasports.”
Naomi, who is also currently completing a degree in primary education, had never been to Campbeltown before applying for the Kintyre Seasports job, which she “stumbled across” while looking for a post-graduate job.
“It seemed ideal so I thought I’d apply and see what happened,” she said. “Then I came up here for a visit and absolutely loved it.
“Essex is not exactly a watersports hub, so it’s lovely being this close to the water. Everything has been good so far; I’m really enjoying it.”
Jamie has welcomed Naomi’s arrival, which he says will strengthen the organisation’s resilience and capacity to deliver community projects.
He said: “Naomi’s experience and educational background really impressed us in terms of her application and interview; it really fits with what the Kintyre Seasports project is all about.
“She is already getting involved in developing the programmes we currently deliver and some new ones we have in the pipeline, as well as generally developing the Kintyre Seasports project and moving that forward.
“It’s incredibly exciting; it’s definitely a step-change in the project having another full-time instructor.”
Jamie added: “After a busy winter behind the scenes, where we’ve had less in-contact time and limited on-the-water time, we’re looking forward to getting back out onto the water and getting lots of people afloat, and Naomi starting with us is really key to that.”