A great post for some great suggestions…
Good day all.
I’ve recently rejoined our YC youth committee and have been tasked with a few specific things to accomplish.
Part of my mission is bringing back some specific types of fun to the whole show. One thing I am working on right now is light air day sailing programming. Meaning there’s no wind in the harbor and shore side activities might be a better use of time.
Once upon a time when I was young we had a great Opti day with a set of games with fun prizes and whatnot. Some of the activities included Throwing a heaving line, trying to hit a target. Tying one handed bowlines around yourself. knot tying races. That kind of thing.
So I’m in search of activities for 10-16 yo that have some kind of seamanship focus. It’s a dinghy based program but we have keel boats available if we wish and we have lots of real estate on an island, so finding a field to set up in is not an issue.
So I am throwing it out to you people for suggestions. I don’t mind spending a bit of money to set some more specific thing up. We could even do stuff like halyard raising races, get a bag of sand to the top of a rig kind of thing. If things involve teamwork, so much the better, but I welcome all suggestions.
Part of my thinking is possibly expose kids who are only dinghy sailors to some bigger boat technology so a winch is not an alien artifact the first time they step on a keel boat.
