Soft launch of 2026 Junior Race Training

Published 20:39 on 14 May 2026

Hi everyone,

Following on from the election of our Junior Commodore, we have had our first meeting with Tom this week to develop a pathway for additional coaching for our young members who are able to sail but want to develop more race experience to either take part in club racing or venture out into the wider racing scene past Bala.

So we are all talking about the same thing we have decided to brand it as the  Junior Race Development Program 2026 so if you hear people talking about it , that is what it is.

So why the communication? Well let me explain the set up first, then what we need from our members..

• The proposed program will run on Saturdays on the first 2 of each month in June, July, August and September (subject to interest, numbers and coverage)
• A rough plan (to be confirmed soon) is as follows
• It will start about 10:00 with a morning session looking at developing skills. This could be 60 minutes of just practicing start sequences, some theory in front of the white board, looking at each others boat set up or practicing close tactical racing at the mark. The list for this is endless but will be driven by our experienced racers knowledge mixed with what our attendees want to learn
• After a break for lunch, we will try and get back out on the water for around 13:00 to 13:30 ish for an afternoon of racing. No fixed number of races. I would suggest a couple of hours and see how many races we get in but heres the kicker (pardon the punn…). There will be a Program Trophy which will include all of the afternoon races from the 8 afternoons. The aim of the afternoon racing is to get as much exposure to real racing as possible

So what do we need from you?

• 1)Well firstly, please spread the word! This is something that our Junior Commodore is telling us our juniors are crying out for so we want to support him and make it happen BUT if we do not have juniors turn up or show an interested then it is all in vain.
• 2)If you feel you are in a position to run one of the coaching sessions then volunteer by speaking to myself and/or Andy Todd (our senior coach). You may feel that you can put together a morning session based on a specific topic or would just be good at doing some tactical theory on the white board before letting them loose out on the water to practice. In the afternoon we would ask you to run the racing but we can give you what you need to know to facilitate that
• 3)If the coaching or RCO is not your thing, help out in the safety boat. We must have a PB2 Cox and an assistant out for these sessions but some people have said they cant do Sundays so this is your chance to get some of your duties in.

This is a great opportunity to support the development of our junior members as well as helping them understand and develop their race craft. The hope is that they either venture further outside the club and join some Open / National events or at least join us for Sunday Racing.

Just as a final note, someone did feedback and ask if inexperienced racing adults could join these sessions? Whilst it is a junior initiative if you would like to join us in the sessions to learn more and get some race practice in and give the juniors additional boats to race with we would welcome you to the groups.

If you have any questions please let me know. Once we have the first 2 resourced, I will confirm out.

Rough people plan (suggested subjects for each date can be found below)

Subjects: suggested but subject to change.....

Last updated 11:03 on 15 May 2026