Young Sailors Take
To The Water

After a short hiatus (caused by the departure of Edo and a global pandemic), sailing has returned to Choice on Friday afternoons with Maths teacher Hannah at the helm.

Hannah said: “I am keen to promote sailing at KAS as we have the three beautiful boats which were custom designed for the school in the 1990s. I am originally from Southampton and love the sea, in fact I’ve been sailing since I was five. I am a qualified RYA sailing instructor and have taught sailing here in the UK and in Turkey. My aim is to restart sailing trips on the school boats.”

During Choice, students from years 7-9 have been working towards their RYA Youth Sailing Scheme Stage 1 Award and eight of them have completed it already. To get their award they had to master launching and recovery, sailing across the wind, turning around, steering and learning the basic parts of the boat. The students will start working towards their Stage 2 Award in the Spring Term.

The students take to the water at the Welsh Harp Reservoir in Brent Cross where they normally sail Laser Picos in pairs or individually (in the photos these are the ones with the blue sail). They also use GP14s (with the white sail) which are larger dinghies that comfortably fit two students and an adult, so are ideal for instructing.

Hannah said: “They all did really well and their confidence improved hugely over the sessions! I think they all particularly enjoyed getting wet during the capsize drill. Some of the highlights have been Roshan doing a dry capsize, receiving training in a GP from ex-KAS-parent Ed Dolling and racing each other across the reservoir.”