by Simon Hinnigan

It feels like we’re building up to a busy and exciting 2024 with the club getting ready for training and events both at the club and nationally.  This week we’re feeling particularly proud of ex Bowmoor Optimist sailors Matt Beck and Will Morris, please see Rachael’s writeup below.

In this week’s Bowsprit we also talk about Assistant Instructor Nominations, Member Coaching, Sailing Chandlery Discount and the Dinghy Show (February), Bowmoor 10 Hr Race (July), Byte Nationals (July), and Chichester Harbour Race Week (August).

As always, many thanks to Sunday’s Race Team led by Liz Fewings as OOD, and thanks to Toby and Esther who ran another great Winter Squad training on Saturday (photo below).

From Rachael Jenkins:

If you follow the yachting press you may have spotted that this week Hannah Mills and Ben Ainslie announced the Athena Pathway squad. During the autumn, this squad racing AC40s in Barcelona will seek to retain the Youth Americas Cup for Great Britain.

Over 300 applications were received for the pathway program, with an 18 month period of selection comprising on the water action trials and simulator analysis used to assess applicants skills and abilities.

Fantastically, former Bowmoor junior then youth sailor Matt Beck who is also a previous Waszp European Champion has been selected as part of the team of 6 chosen to defend the Youth Cup. This is particularly special and exciting for Bowmoor as Matt started his sailing journey on our lake, racing his Optimist and then his Laser as part of our youth program.

Matt will be leaving the UK in April to spend his summer in Barcelona preparing for the Cup, congratulations Matt what a journey! 

This inspirational level of performance just shows how far sailing can take you especially (rather than even)  from a little puddle in the Cotswolds! 

Photo's of Matt at Bowmoor:

Aiming to encourage talented youth and female sailors and support their foiling journeys the Athena Pathway also has custodianship of four foiling Waszps, these are based at WPNSA on Portland and give the opportunity to try out and develop foiling to those who would like to be considered for future Cup campaigns.  

A second former Bowmoor Optimist sailor and now a very competitive member of the Aero fleet, Will Morris has recently joined the program and sends us this report;

"For a while now I have wanted to challenge myself further in sailing and I decided I wanted to get into foiling. I reached out to Rachael who helps runs the Athena Pathway which is set up to promote female and youth sailors to reach a high level performance. On Saturday 3rd I went out in the WASZP for the first time in around 20+knots at WPNSA. Noah spent the afternoon with me, showed me around the waszp and came out on the water with me to coach me through my first time foiling. There was a lot of capsizing however, I thoroughly enjoyed my first outing and managed to get flying which was exhilarating. I’m looking forward to my next outing and I plan to try a foiling gybe next."

Good luck Will with gybing, its possibly harder than it looks! 

Both Matt and Will and the progress of the Athena Pathway Squads can be found and followed on instagram - search for athenapathway.

Will and Waszp:

Every year Bowmoor adds to our group of Assistant Instructors (AIs).  As an RYA Training Centre, AIs are trained by Bowmoor SC to assist qualified instructors to teach beginners up to the standard of the National Sailing Scheme Level 2 and the Youth Sailing Scheme Stage 3.

Typically our AIs are youth members looking to progress their skills but could also be adult member with a specialist skill set. 

To become an AI the RYA require each candidate to be assessed by our Chief Instructor and complete the Assistant Instructor training course (20 hours) which will be run by the club.  Sailing ability is a key component of the assessment day as there will be no time to teach sailing skills on the AI training course, where the focus will be on how to deliver training.

We already have eight nominations for this year, if you would like to nominate then please email me by the 16^th February (commodore@Bowmoor.com).  We’ve setup a WhatsApp group for the nominated AIs and to confirm the assessment day.

Bowmoor instructors are currently preparing our lesson plans for the first ever Bowmoor Member Coaching Series, dates here:

• Saturday 6 April
• Saturday 20 April
• Saturday 4 May
• Saturday 18th May

We have 18 places for children (Under 16) and 8 places for Adults (Over 16s). 

So far we have 7 children signed up for the member coaching. 

SAIL CAMP PREREQUISITE: All children who wish to attend sailing camp in May will need to have completed at least two of the four member coaching dates above. So please book now to avoid disappointment.

https://bowmoor.com/product/bowmoor-member-coaching-2024/

We now have a Bowmoor SC discount setup with Sailing Chandlery.  Please use this link https://www.sailingchandlery.com/pages/club-scheme-bowmoor-sailing-club to register and get the discount code that you can use every time you order.

RYA Dinghy and Water Sports Show - The RYA Dinghy Show is being held at Farnborough International over the weekend 24-25 Feb.  If you are an RYA member you can get in free tickets (the discount code is your RYA membership number). https://www.rya.org.uk/events/dinghy-show

Bowmoor 10hr Race - Don’t miss out, as family calendars are filling up for 2024 it’s now time to Save the Date for the Bowmoor 10-hour race on July 6th! Loads more information to follow soon but for now safe to say this will be a cracking event for all; no excuses for double booking!

Byte International Moth Low Rider National Championships  Are being held on the 26 - 28 JULY 2024 at the WPNSA.  Link here https://www.wpnsa.org.uk/events/byte-and-international-moth-low-rider-national-championships.  Last year Bowmoor sailors produced fantastic results in Chichester, 2024 in Weymouth should not disappoint!

Chichester Harbour Race Week – Bowmoor club members are already booking accommodation for the week of 18^th to 24^th August and we'll base ourselves out of HISC for sailing.  A WhatsApp group has been created to coordinate (please reach out to be added).  More details here: https://www.hisc.co.uk/sailing/open-event-pages/chichester-harbour-race-week/

Sunday 11th February
11:30 - Icicle
13:30 - Frostbite
Sunday 18th February
11:30 - Icicle
13:30 - Frostbite
Sunday 25th February
11:30 - Icicle
13:30 - Frostbite
Saturday 2nd March
Supernova Winter Championship (Water Closed)
Sunday 3rd March
11:30 - Icicle
13:30 - Frostbite

The full calendar is published on bowmoor.com/calendar/