September 2006 see picture library here
Robin Oakley, a volunteer St Albans Sea Cadet staff member, just qualified as an RYA Dinghy Instructor. He spent seven days on the Firth of Forth braving the autumn weather and passing the instructor's course at HMS Caledonia under the expert guidance of the Sea Cadets Afloat RYA training Officer Lt Tye Shuttleworth, who wished all students were as good as this!
"It was a tough course but we all learnt a lot and had some laughs," commented Trainee Instructor Robin. "It's certainly taken my dinghy sailing to another level!" The course started with a two day appraisal with a local instructor. Having passed that it moved on to the more complicated, yet logical, "RYA method". It included a written exam and moderation/examination by an RYA assessor not involved in running the course. The internationally recognised RYA National Sailing Scheme, followed by the Sea Cadets, has been designed to help sailors gain basic skills and get involved in the sport of sailing.
Stage 1 is an introduction to the sport of sailing, while Stage 2 sets out the foundations of sailing encompassing rigging, launching, ropework, sailing technique, meteorology and rules of the road. Stage 3 goes further and means the participant is a competent sailor in singlehanded boats, and Stage 4 covers two handed dinghies. For adults there are just 2 levels. For those who want to take if further there are five specialist modules, of which Seamanship is the most popular. Robin is now qualified to train students for all of this.
"Boating is coming home," commented Officer in Charge Peter Lansdown, who is keen to develop and expanded the boating opportunities at the unit. "We've had our cadets in national sailing competitions, as well as getting good results canoeing. Plus two doing the tallships race to Lisbon in the sea cadets tallship TS Royalist. However some cadets have never been afloat with us, and we want to expand our local dinghy sailing and canoeing so we can get all the kids afloat!"
You can help, if you've got an unused dinghy or (plastic) canoe, you could donate it to the unit. One dinghy is required to be converted to a static trainer and others for training and racing. The staff unselfishly give hours of their time to help develop local youth and any support they can get is much appreciated , donations accepted too! Basically the unit, a registered charity, is self funding, with the Navy just providing uniforms and subsidised training. If you can help, please contact Robin on 0777 1807 068 or robin@igosail.com
There's no time to be bored with St Albans Sea Cadets, see www.seacadetfun.com . It offers many fun opportunities and is open to boys and girls from 10 to 17 years and very inexpensive. The unit always welcomes new faces, just turn up at 7.10 pm on a Tuesday or Friday night, at the unit, which is just behind Westminster Lodge swimming pool. Why not give it a try and make new friends and learn new skills, you've nothing to lose!
Adult volunteers are welcome too, as you can see there's great training, and the opportunity to make a real difference to the local community. Our management committee, who meet just once a month, have spaces and we are interested in new faces. Open to parents too!