Smiles on final day of Hamilton Island School Sailing Programme

by Johanna Winstanley on 21 Sep 2014 Hamilton Island School Sailing Programme 2014 - Beautiful sunny weather and an easy 12 knot south easterly breeze met the students as they donned their lifejackets and set up four Opti Tacker boats for the final day of sailing for the 2014 programme on Friday.

Eight students from grades four through six took part in the Hamilton Island State School sailing and leadership programme this year, taking place every Friday during terms two and three. Students participating not only learned the rigours of theoretical and practical sailing skills, but also life skills such as effective communication, being organised, having resilience, confidence and perseverance.

Teacher and sailing instructor Johanna Winstanley took the eight students on their sailing journey, from the classroom, to the staff pool, and finally to the marina side of Hamilton Island where they practiced drills before putting all the skills together in Friday’s fun lesson with a game of relays around a buoy just off shore. Calls of 'Starboard!' could be heard from the students with some strong tactics taking place at times to overtake the boats in front and get an extra lap in. By the end, everyone had lost count of the laps, and the winning team didn’t matter, as all the students felt that they were the winners of the day.

Joshua Flores, year 6, started sailing this year. Joshua is new to the sport of sailing. He gained confidence from the lessons to trust his own abilities in completely new situations. Other students such as Tom Sharpe, year 4, who had some previous experience on Optis, assisted others and often led the way by example. The students could be relied on to always lend a hand and get the job done when setting up and packing down, showing a great team spirit, in order to maximise the amount of time they got on the water each week. Hamilton Island State School is fortunate, in that each year it can offer a group of students the chance to learn a unique sport all the while building their personal and interpersonal skills.

Arriving by plane or ferry, visitors to the island are greeted by the welcoming sight of brightly coloured sail boats being sailed confidently by a group of young students and must certainly think that these children really are very lucky to live in paradise. Thank you to the parent volunteers who lent their time and effort to help ensure the programme ran safely and efficiently again this year.