Sailing is another sport that Cayman’s glorious weather and beaches lends itself to. Kids of all ages as well as adults enjoy the facilities.
Matthew enjoys the variety of sailing |
The National Youth Sailing Championships were held over the weekend with 17 youngsters aged between seven and 18 competing on both days.
Races were held in lasers, bytes, fevas, picos and optimists which for non-sailing people means small boats of varying sizes mostly manned by one person and sometimes two.
The stormy weather interrupted events on Sunday afternoon after a perfect Saturday but it didn’t affect the enjoyment by the youngsters. They raced around a course that takes about half an hour to complete and the three main categories were optimist (for the smallest), byte (teenagers) and feva (two person teens).
Top youngster over the weekend was Matthew Courtis, 12. ‘I’ve been sailing for three years and really enjoy winning,’ he said. ‘It’s fun. I like going fast and love the wind taking the sails. Every time I go out it feels different because of the changing winds and currents. I also enjoy swimming but will always sail and look forward to sailing the big boats when I’m older.’
Cayman resident Roger Priaulx used to sail along the south coast of England from his Somerset home. He enjoys sailing here with his son James, seven. Little James favours pico boats ‘because they’re faster than optimists’, he says.
‘I started sailing with my parents in England when I was about the same age as James,’ said Roger, an attorney with a major bank. He’s been living here for five years but didn’t sail when he first arrived. ‘Some friends have a day cruiser, we went out on it and that’s how I got back into sailing.’
James goes out on boats with other children. Roger likes the independence his son gains from sailing. ‘It’s very safe because it’s all supervised and they have safety boats. He also learns about the water and the wind, physics in fact. Of all the camps he attended this summer – and that included hockey, art and tennis – he enjoyed sailing the most. It’s also a good bonding experience for us to enjoy. It’s great to come here on a Sunday afternoon and the facilities are superb.’
Mike Weber, a Canadian from Ontario, is the Cayman Islands Sailing Club sailing director. He said: ‘We are tremendously grateful that Scotiabank is helping us this regatta. It’s fun and challenging for our young sailors and exciting to watch.’
Related Videos
