Last Saturday the Annual Awards evening was held at the RCYC.

It was a very festive atmosphere and good food and drinks have been served. Beside the awards for the best in every category and the winners from the summer series, 21 of our students did receive a certificate for their efforts within the RCYC sailing academy. Without exception all of these students have shown a huge improvement in their sailing skills. Young Nic Faraday took the price as the most improved sailor of the Academy. Well done Nic.

There is not much time for reflection as we are storming forward towards some very exciting sailing events. This Saturday we will enter the Portugal Bay Race with at least 3 of our boats. The following weekend we will host the Youth Regatta at the RCYC. This event is going from strength to strength and we hope to see many young teams from other sailing clubs to take part as well.

A small team from the RCYC Sailing Academy has been invited to sail on ‘Southern Storm’ in the Vasco da Gama Race from Maputo to Durban on the 19^th of June. 3 of our students will use their passports for the first time and have a chance to do a proper ocean race from distant shores.

The MSC week will be the next destination for 6 of our academy students. They will spend a whole week in Durban and have the opportunity to race against other young teams in the L26 class. This will be a perfect preparation for the upcoming Lipton Cup Challenge in August. The RCYC will trust these young sailors to the extent, which they are allowed to make use of the newly purchased L26 ‘Co-ordination’, arguably the fastest L26 in the country. I hope these young sailors do realize the treat they are in.

Beside all the racing opportunities, it will be business as usual for all the other students. If the weather allows we will be out for sail training every Saturday. To keep our youngsters warm, we have purchased 20 sailing pants. This will bring our sailing to a new level in the rather chilly winter season.