A LINCOLNSHIRE sailing club is riding on the crest of a wave after scooping a top regional award.
The North Lincs and Humberside Sailing Club – based at Barton on Humber – has been awarded the 2012 Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Humber OnBoard Club of the Year Award.
The honour recognises the club's growth over the past year, which has been North Lincs' first as a recognised OnBoard club.
RYA Humber OnBoard Development Officer, Liz Wrigglesworth, said: "This is the first year the award has been presented in the Humber area.
"I chose North Lincs & Humberside Sailing Club (NLHSC) to receive this award in recognition of all their great work in their first year as an OnBoard club."
"Over the past year, the club has run over 400 first experience dinghy sailing and windsurfing sessions and recruited 17 new, regular young sailors.
"Their regular youth training evenings have proven to be a big hit with local youngsters, as they learn to develop their sailing skills in a boat or on a board."
She added: "North Lincs & Humberside Sailing Club are very worthy winners of this award and they should be proud of all they have achieved during 2012."
In accepting the award, Vice Commodore Angelique Lansley, paid tribute to the club's volunteer instructors and helpers.
"We are absolutely thrilled with the award and never expected to receive it in our first year as an RYA OnBoard club." she said.
"We couldn't have done it without all the hard work from our very dedicated volunteer instructors and helpers.
"We ran weekly windsurfing and dinghy sailing sessions for youngsters in the area, which were well attended as well as our 'Sportivate' project, which encouraged even more youngsters to give sailing a try.
"Our sail week in the summer was also a tremendous success and having good coverage of the sailing events during the Olympics definitely inspired some to have a go!
She added: "Next year is all about looking at what we learned this year, making some improvements, where we feel we can, and making sailing and windsurfing accessible to even more youngsters."
Run by the RYA, OnBoard is a grass-roots programme which introduces sailing and windsurfing to young people aged eight to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres.
Over a ten year period, OnBoard aims to introduce a minimum of 500,000 children to sailing and windsurfing nationwide, converting around ten per cent of them into regular participants.
For more information and advice on how to get involved in sailing, visit the Royal Yachting Assoction website at www.rya.org.uk or log on to the NLHSC's site at www.nlsail.co.uk.
