Mr Moon stands next to the J22 boats that will be used for the Commodores cup 18th January

By Mwangi Ngamate
mwangi@caymannetnews.com

The Cayman Islands sailing club will be targeting to reach 1000 children this year as it expands number of people who are in the sport.

Mr Andrew Moon a director at the club said that sailing is the sport, which is as a heritage of Cayman’s seafaring heritage noting that the court of arms confirms this.

“Taken from the Cayman Islands’ Coat of Arms, this declaration reflects the sea faring heritage of the Islands, and as such, illuminates the very reason why the Cayman Islands should encourage sailing to be part of all schools curriculum for all children in the Cayman Islands from all walks of life” said Mr Moon. The sailor said that his club will target up to 1000 children. On Sunday 18th January, the club will host J/22 Commodore’s Cup.

The sailing club will then be holding Burns Night Out fundraising supper on 23rd of January among other activities in the New Year.

The event, which reflects Scottish culture, will cost 125 dollars per person and will be held at the sailing club. Announcing this Mr Moon noted that the club has a big task of fundraising for the upcoming events in the New Year.

On February the club will be he host of KPMG International Regatta. The event will attract competitors from Jamaica, United States of America, Bermuda, United Kingdom, Canada, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, among others. Mr Moon said that the event will bring in more than 60 competitors and about 8-9 visiting boats.

Preceding this will be a racing rules seminar between 20th to 24 January in which Trevor Lewis from United Kingdom will give a lecture on the same. Trevor Lewis has been part of the team that has been responsible for the latest racing rules.

Currently the Cayman Islands Sailing Club is working with Alternative Education, Red Bay Primary, Prospect Primary, George Town Primary, Bodden Town Primary, John Grey High School, Savannah Primary, St. Ignatius Catholic School, George Hicks High School, Cayman Prep and High School as well as with the Scouts and Cadets. “Eventually the Sailing Club would like to see sailing as part of the school curriculum in every Cayman Islands school,” said Mr Moon. At some point in the future the Club would like to include the Sister Islands within the programme on a regular basis rather than the current irregular basis.

Speaking in an interview Mr Moon told Cayman Net News over the last 12 months the Cayman Islands Sailing Club has sent junior sailors to a number of international regattas including the Canadian Olympic Training Regatta, the Byte North American Championships, the UK Hobie Junior Nationals, Texas Youth Race Week, the Feva World Championships (Sweden), the Florida Orange Bowl and the Chief Minister’s Cup in the BVI , and aims in the future to send junior sailors to the ISAF Youth World Sailing Championships, the Youth Olympics, the Caribbean Sailing Championships and the Central American and Caribbean Games. Mr Moon told Cayman Net News that there was a youth whom he chose not to identify who might participate the 2012 Olympic games.

“One Caymanian youth has been identified by one of our top visiting coaches as having the potential to represent the Cayman Islands at the 2012 London Olympics,” he said in the interview.

The official noted that they had made progress from the 2007-2008 programme and information received from teachers and guardians about the training of pupils will be implemented.

“Feedback from last year’s programme was very positive and the success of the programme has translated into a very high demand for sailing lessons from schools, students, teachers, and administrators for the 2008/09 school year” said Moon.

“In order to accommodate the demand for our programmes we have hired a third full time coach and more than doubled the size of our fleet of introductory sailboats,” said Mr Moon.

“To ensure maximum participation and learning, the schedule includes four six-week sessions whereby each class comes once a week for one-hour or two-hour lessons. There are some anomalies to this schedule in order to meet certain schools’ timetables,” he said.

When required the club has sourced a private bus company to transport the children to and from the Cayman Islands Sailing Club. The cost of one return trip is $80.

The official noted that the club has worked to ensure maximum safety of children. “We have a brand new Rescue boat which is an essential piece of equipment for ensuring the safety of the sailing programme. This is a 5.5m Rib built in South Africa and would be branded with the logo of the sponsor. This is an expensive piece of equipment and cost CI$24,000 to bring to the Cayman Islands”, said Mr Moon.

The club has recently acquired an old 24 ft pontoon boat for CI$4,000 which will be used to run all its racing. It offers a large stable platform for race organizers and officials and offers space for spectators. “This boat will get a lot of attention as the place for the starts and finishes of all races,” said Mr Moon. It represents an opportunity for a lot of exposure for a sponsoring company. We need CI$10,000 in order to re-engine and refurbish the boat which will end up looking very smart and offers a substantial surface area for the logo of the sponsor.

Mr Moon also announced that in the current year the club hopes to replace approximately one third of our existing fleet of sailing boats used for youth training during 2009. He invited willing sponsors for the purchase of the new boats including the cost of corporate logos and signage and vary from CI$3300 – CI$6500 per boat depending on the type of boat, from the single handed beginner boat, the Optimist, to the double handed performance youth boat, the RS Feva. Our most critical requirement for boats and where we need to replace 6 is the Laser Pica, a double/treble handed introductory boat that gets the most wear and tear with frequent use school pupils.