| SAILING SCHOOLS / YOUTH TRAINING | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Hobie “Way of Life” provides a fantastic environment for youngsters and teenagers to develop a love and understanding of the great outdoors, whilst cultivating wholesome relationships with like-minded peers. When our youth are at a yacht club or taking part in a regatta, they have no need for, nor interest in, techno toys, shopping malls, TV or cellphones. They simply want to spend as much time together on the water or playing outdoors or even sleeping under the stars. As a parent, it’s such an awesome thing to see your child simply enjoying real relationships in a healthy environment learning many valuable life-lessons. There are two active regions in terms of providing coaching and Hobie-specific training for youth. These two are based in Gauteng and Langebaan. The Northern Regions Hobie youth coach is Belinda Hayward, a former Springbok sailor and currently ranked 3rd overall in the SA Open National Championships. Belinda has successfully managed youth training in this region for the past 3 years, with more than 90% of all new-comers now active competitive sailors in the region’s Hobie fleet. The next BEGINNERS COURSE in this region takes place on 26 – 28 February 2010 at The Catamaran Club (TCC, Bronkorspruit Dam). This beginners course will be for all entry-level and intermediate youth aged between 10yrs old and 16yrs old. This is the entry level into our NRHCA youth programme and all youth interested in continuing with the programme thereafter will be coached and trained by Belinda throughout the rest of the year leading up to the next Youth Nationals in December. For more details, contact Belinda on 083 616-0480 or belinda.hayward@vodamail.co.za The second active region, Western Cape, is managed by Tracy Whitehead, who established the Hobie Cat Youth Club (HCYC) three years ago and has many coaches available to deal with the high youth demand for learning to sail. Tracy runs beginner, intermediate and advanced courses throughout the year for all levels of youth sailing. For more information, see the HCYC website or call Tracy on 083 300-1663. |
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| RECENT YOUTH REGATTAS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From 13th to 19th December, our Hobie youth took part in the South African Sailing (SAS) Youth Nationals at Midmar dam in Kwazulu Natal. This was the fourth year that SAS included the multihulls in their annual Youth Nationals and once again our numbers increased from the previous year. A total of 10 Hobie 16s took part and 6 Hobie Dragoons, all from the Northern Regions (including Botswana) and the Western Cape. Although the weather was not quite what we expected (balmy hot Natal – not!), the wind gave us the full spectrum of sailing conditions and enabled the organisers to get all 15 races in to finish one day early. Overall results were: |
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HOBIE 16 with spinnaker HOBIE DRAGOON |
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