Middle Harbour Yacht Club Juniors are joining the Winter Series

'Members of the MHYC Junior Sailing Team'

Look out mums and dads – Middle Harbour Yacht Club Juniors are joining the Sydney City Marine Winter Series.

Middle Harbour Yacht Club (MHYC) Junior Sailing is pleased to announce the entry of J24 ‘Whisper’ in the MHYC Sydney City Marine Winter Series which commences this Saturday 5 May. Teenagers from the MHYC Junior Sailing dinghy program will be crewing Whisper in a foray into keelboat racing.

Reintroduced in 2008, the current MHYC Junior Sailing program was the brainchild of Rear Commodore Carl Crafoord. Since then it has gone from strength to strength with over 150 kids currently active in the program. The hard work of building numbers and getting kids into sailing is paying off with healthy fleet sizes, strong representation at interclub events and many happy children. The strong Junior Sailing base at MHYC provides the Club with a great opportunity to try new and interesting programs, namely an introduction to keelboats for young sailors.

The boat Whisper is currently owned by the J24 Association who has very generously lent it to MHYC Junior Sailing for some rising talent to get into competitive keelboat racing. This great gesture provides the Juniors with some great racing on a well established class of boat.

Leon Wilson, Chief Instructor of the MHYC Junior Sailing program commented ‘I’m delighted to have the opportunity to not only introduce our Juniors to the Clubs keelboat fleet racing but to train them in a class that has strong One Design numbers and some really competitive racing. The commitment and enjoyment shown by our older kids is the right stuff for classes like the J24 and our vision is that this will help pave the way for them getting involved with a strong and fun class.’

The MHYC Junior Sailing team works hard at providing positive and memorable experiences for kids on the water. This introduction to competitive keelboat racing in the Sydney City Marine Winter Series is a great opportunity for Juniors from MHYC to experience a type of racing that many adult Members enjoy. And the Juniors are more than happy to get out on the racecourse and test their mettle against friends and family!

by Alana Whitting via Arthur Crothers