Junior & Youth
All junior and youth members of Emsworth Slipper Sailing Club may participate in a fantastic programme of fun, confidence building sailing sessions and may register for one of three sailing training programmes that run from April to September each year. The minimum age for registering for the training is 4/5 years and children must be in Reception school year on 1st April in the year of registration for training.
For those who have not attended junior/youth sailing at Emsworth Slipper Sailing Club before - Optimist (Oppie) dinghy sailing is offered to juniors on the Mill Pond on a Friday evening (5.30pm-7.30pm) or Sunday morning (10am-12 noon). These sessions are offered by the club for children to learn to sail on the Mill Pond and achieve their RYA stages 1 and 2. Once children have achieved their RYA stages 1 and 2, which can take 2-4 seasons depending on how regularly your child attends, they then move across to sail-on-the-tide. Sessions usually start in April and run to July, with a break over August and training resumes again early September and usually ends at the end of September for the Mill Pond sailors as it can start to get colder in the water at that time of year. Sailing-on-the-tide usually continues through until the end of October.
For registration please check the junior/youth registration page for online training.
New to sailing ? For the first season of junior/youth sailing, club boats are available to borrow which are allocated between all children each week and for their second sailing season members are asked to buy their own dinghy's. The dinghy instructors are all volunteers and give up their time to instruct the children each week so please ensure when signing up you are able to commit to the weekly lessons and also the more sessions your child(ren) attend the more their confidence and ability will grow, which often means it takes less time to achieve the two RYA stages. Please complete the registration form and choose your preferred Friday/Sunday slot - we are unable to switch back and forth between Friday/Sunday lessons I'm afraid as there will be a teaching schedule set for each child, however if you choose a Friday/Sunday and then find that particular day doesn't work for you we will do all we can to move you to the other day for the rest of the season if the numbers allow.
All children must be appropriately dressed with wetsuit and a suitable top to keep them dry and warm, such as a wind/spray top. Cold children can mean grumpy children! Water or sailing shoes are to be worn - no bare feet, flip flops, Croc style shoes, sandals or trainers. All children must have an appropriately fitted life jacket or buoyancy aid and will not be permitted on the water without one. Parents are required to also wear a buoyancy aid as club rules state these must be worn on the wooden pontoon area at all times and it does set a good example for the children!
Volunteering is a huge part of junior and youth sailing - without you volunteering to help, we are unable to run these sessions. This may be for instructing, first aid, tuck, registering everyone on arrival/departure at the sailing sessions, admin, helping with getting boats in and out, knot tying, safety boat (kayak and rowing on the pond and power boats (must be PB2 qualified) on the tide but also to help organise social events as these are just as important as it helps the juniors/youths bond, form friendships etc so please do volunteer on the registration form. Sailing experience is not necessary (unless instructing!) as you will all have skills to be able to help in some way - whether it is instructing, baking cakes for social events, planning events, playing games, teaching knots or as a first aider - any help is very much appreciated and is the heart and soul of Slipper! Please do contact me if you have any queries - I am more than happy for you to make contact if you want to chat through any of the different volunteering roles.
Emma Robertson
Honorary Junior Co-ordinator
07748 644481
junior@emsworthslippersc.org.uk
Last updated 15:44 on 6 April 2025