Those pesky kids....

This year my son Ben was asked to run "Junior Week" at our sailing club at the lake in Frampton. It ran over the course of last week, and is an extremely popular event that the Club runs every year for our junior members; essentially a week of camping on the lakeside with organised, supervised sailing activities for the kids, said kids being between 8 and 18 and needing to be able to at least sail a basic, triangular course to join.

Although I say Ben was "running it" I have to also mention he had a fantastic team of coaches and supporters to help him, both on and off the water.

They asked me to run the safety boat cover for them last Tuesday, and I had a blast doing so. It was a blustery, squally day, with lots of boats tipping in and plenty to keep the safety boat crew occupied. The day re-emphasised to me that kids, when they're having fun, are pretty much as bomb proof as the Toppers they were mostly sailing.

There were of the order of 44 kids participating, plus coaches, most of whom were, like Ben, not much older than the juniors they were looking after and all, without exception, home-grown at the Club. It was quite a sight to behold.

On which note, one of the coaches, Sam Callen, has posted a fine video compilation of the week's events up onto YouTube: