Good news for West Lancs training!

Published 9:03pm on 12 Jan 2025

West Lancs has been awarded grants of £3,000 by Trinity House and another £1000 by Liverpool Marine Engineers & Naval Architects Guild to support junior training. Thanks to Cedric Loughran for putting forward our successful applications!

Training Principal Ian Hughes gathered parent and guardian members with the team of instructors on 9th January to discuss the exciting plans for expanding training for juniors this year. The bar was open and there was plenty to celebrate.  Ian highlighted the achievements of the last year and explained the 2025 programme. The grants from Trinity House and the Liverpool Marine Engineers & Naval Architects Guild are on top of the prestigious RYA Sunsail award of £6,000 which the Club won recently against 61 competitive bids nationwide to support our junior development programme. Together with more than £1400 worth of other donations, these funds are essential to upgrade safety equipment and help to fund instructor training, making sailing at West Lancs more accessible to local schoolchildren.

Our growing team of instructors

Ian explained the role and structure of the training team, including Chief Instructor for Sailing Martin Butcher and Chief Instructor for Powerboats Bosun Greg Walker, as well as the Senior Instructors and Dinghy Instructors, many of whom attended the meeting. We also have an increasing number of Assistant Instructors, the first step on the instructing pathway - the next Assistant Instructor course will be on Wednesday 19^th and Thursday 20^th February contact Ian if you want to join.  

Our plans for 2025

Ian set out the exciting plans for this year:

• Junior Sailing will be between 10.00am and 1.00pm on Saturdays which means extending training for juniors from two to three hours
• Club racing on Saturday afternoons is going to start at 2.00pm instead of 3.00pm.
• We are also planning to continue with holiday club sailing during the school summer holidays and we want to extend that to Easter and half term holidays if resources allow.
• As in 2024, Ben and Gabe Hill will continue to provide race coaching to our more experienced sailors and we will provide junior training opportunities all year round.
• WLYC won the National Junior 12 Hour Race in 2024 and it is our intention to successfully defend our title in 2025. We would like to have a second boat enter the 12-Hour Race to give as many children as possible the opportunity to take part so if anyone is interested in helping support such a team please let Ian Hughes know.
• The dates for the Northwest Junior Travellers Series are now in place and well be hosting our round, the Lloyd Hayes, on Saturday 26^th April.
• We have applied to become an RYA Pathway Club. This is a new venture by the RYA aiming to nurture the love of sailing at the grassroots of the sport, as well as to attract more juniors and youth sailors into club, regional and elite racing to broaden the pool of talent for our next generation of Olympic sailors.
• We are continuing with our partnership with local schools and will be providing opportunities for year 5 children from Norwood School to experience sailing activities. Our hope is to extend this to other schools as resources permit.
• This year we'll be holding not one but two open days on each of the May Bank Holidays so please do come down to support your Club and encourage your friends to come too. 

The meeting concluded with a discussion of how to grow the membership and remove real and perceived barriers to the sport of sailing. Parent and guardian members will be invited to further Thursday night meetings before the start of the sailing season.

Last updated 7:32pm on 20 February 2025