The Tay Estuary Watersports Hub the Royal Tay Yacht Club has organised a week long programme for senior pupils from Craigie High School. The pupils who have never experienced water sports before have enjoyed rowing, dinghy sailing, catamaran sailing and RIB trips. The weather obliged and the dolphins even came out to add to the experience for the S4/5 pupils.
Alison Mackenzie is the Community Sport Hub Officer at Leisure & Culture Dundee. Her role includes supporting the Tay Estuary Watersports Hub and she was involved in setting up this programme with Craigie High School. Alison explains
“We have worked in partnership with Craigie High School to offer young people who may not be able to access watersports, the opportunity to build confidence and skills through experiencing a variety of watersports throughout the week during their summer holidays. The increase in confidence of the young people throughout the week has been great to see”.
Colin Macgregor, Youth Worker at Craigie High School commented
“We put together a group of young people who, for one reason or another, we felt would benefit from an opportunity to really push themselves and prove to themselves what they can do when given the opportunity. I'm really grateful to the Tay Estuary Watersports Hub volunteers, they've been unbelievably good with the young people. It's made this one of them most rewarding programmes I've been involved in. We've got a small bit of funding put aside for any of the group who fancy progressing, fingers crossed.”
Stewart Murdoch, Chair of the Tay Estuary Watersports Hub said
“Organising a week of water based activities takes a huge amount of volunteer support. We are hugely grateful to members of the Royal Tay Yacht Club and those from the Phibbies Open Water Swimming Club who have made it all possible.”
Comments from some of the participants include “The programme has made me less scared of the water”, “What a wonderful experience, way out of my comfort zone” and “The instructors knew how to make it fun and were very considerate of what we wanted to do”.
For further information on the Tay Estuary Watersports Hub please visit www.leisureandculturedundee.com/csh