News

Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday day,  ESSA – Charity that promotes dinghy sailing and water activities for young people, organised an opportunity for the community to come and try Dinghy Sailing, kayaking and ‘stand up paddling’ as part of London 2012 Open Weekend and the Essex Rural Community Fund at: Central Lagoon, Nazeing

101 peopl e participated including 77 young people plus 50 volunteers.

The sessions ran on Friday evening, and all day Saturday & Sunday.

One of the event organisers Marion Caslake reported:

On arrival the participants quickly got changed, put on a buoyancy aid and helmet and were eager to get out on the water.

"There were light winds which were ideal for our participants to try Dinghy Sailing and the sessions went well without any accidental capsizes. Their confidence grew very quickly as they soon learnt to control the dinghies.

The volunteer safety boat crew and Instructors soon had them tacking and gybing around the marker buoys around the Lagoon. They sailed a single handed dinghy (Topper or Pico) or with an experienced helm in a larger dinghy (Vision or Bahia).

As the weekend was very warm, several young people wanted to try ‘stand up paddling’ as well as kayaking. This is a challenging activity which involves a windsurf board, with a lot of co-ordination needed to balance and paddle at the same time. Accidentally falling off a windsurf board was a great way to cool off and stand up paddling is a fun way to develop paddling skills. Others went out on the sit-on kayaks and open canoes for fun sessions.

6 of the dinghy sailors have since attended again this week, have now achieved their RYA Youth Stage 1 award and are hoping to join us again after the summer holidays to work towards the next stage. Others have show interest in our courses that are due to run in September & October".

For more information about ESSA visit:  www.essa.org.uk/