Local Children Funded to Develop Sailing Skills and Confidence at Royal Lymington

RLymYC Wednesday Junior Sailing © Alex Irwin / www.sportography.tv

The Royal Lymington Yacht Club's new Junior Sailing Development Fund has received sponsorship money to invest in helping local children to develop their sailing skills beyond the Club's popular Wednesday Junior Sailing (WJS) programme. Sponsored by Lymington-based, global technology expert, Bridgeworks Ltd, the finance will enable young people to participate in the RLymYC's year-round junior and youth fleet coaching programme.

Junior and youth sailing has for many years been a strong and important part of RLymYC. A British Youth Sailing Recognised Club, RYA Training Centre and RYA OnBoard Centre, RLymYC has a long tradition of encouraging young people into sailing and developing their skills. A few aspire to the pinnacle and thus far seventeen Olympians have started as RLymYC Juniors, with many others achieving success in National, European and World Championships.

Head of Junior and Youth Sailing at RLymYC, Paul McStay, said: "Our Wednesday Junior Sailing programme, now in its 37th year, provides local children in the community, irrespective of background, with an easy and inexpensive way to get into sailing. With the support from Bridgeworks Ltd, our new Junior Sailing Development fund will take this one step further and enable WJS sailors with a keen passion for the sport to develop further their dinghy sailing and racing skills. Our aim is to provide many opportunities for young sailors to develop their skills towards competitive racing and a lifetime of boating enjoyment."

David Trossell, CEO and CTO of the award-winning WAN Acceleration company, Bridgeworks, said: "Last year we were looking to expand our support of local youth programmes in addition to our sponsorship of the STEM awards at Brockenhurst College. The Royal Lymington (RLymYC) youth programme, with the emphasis on sailing for all, fitted our core sponsorship principle of supporting today's youth to develop their characters and confidence to the extent we are happy to have increased our level of funding, and we are committed to support the Fund for another 3 years."

David is a recognised leader in the Wide Area Network (WAN) and storage technology industry, within which he holds 18 technology patents. He is also committed to supporting British STEM initiatives and developing technology leaders through UK apprenticeship programmes.

The new Wednesday Junior Sailing season starts on 27th April and registration will be open for all local children aged between 8-18 from mid-March. For more information, visit rlymyc.org.uk/wednesday-sailing and keep an eye on the Club's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages @rlymyc.

For more information about sponsorship at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club, please contact Maria Shannon via the office on . Visit Royal Lymington Yacht Club's open day on Saturday 26th March between 10am and 4pm to find out more about the Club and getting into boating!