Youth Sailing @ Felixstowe Ferry is a registered charity (no. 1088678) whose aim is to teach young people between the ages of 10 and 18 to sail dinghies in an enjoyable, challenging and yet safe environment, and at a cost which is accessible to everyone. We operate at Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club.
The main aim of our sessions is to enjoy ourselves on the water, and for students to learn to sail in a variety of dinghies from Wayfarers and Picos for the beginners, to Fevas, Lasers, 2000s, Buzzes and Dart 16 catamarans for our more experienced groups. All our students are encouraged to take formal RYA qualifications, and we cover the full syllabus from Level 1 through to Racing, Seamanship and even Instructor qualifications. For our helpers we offer sailing, powerboat, instructor and first-aid training. We try to incorporate fun events and variety in our sailing programme, so as well as the coaching sessions we race, play games on the water, and sail up the river for our annual BBQ/picnic. The season ends in early November with our special lunch and awards ceremony, where we celebrate the season’s achievements.
Arrangements for 2024
There are no significant changes to the organisation of our sessions this year. The start time for all students will be 09.00 on Saturday mornings – please arrive changed and ready to start rigging your boats by this time. We aim to finish the sessions between 12.30 and 13.00, though this can change a little depending on tides, weather – and how much fun everyone’s having! The session fee for 2024 remains at £10.
The first YS session for students will be on Saturday April 20th for all students.
How to Join
A link is provided below to our membership and consent form, but we sometimes have a waiting list so before filling it in please contact our membership secretary Vicki on 07855 955521.
YS@FF Student Membership & Consent Form
Volunteering
The success of Youth Sailing depends totally on our volunteer instructors and helpers and it takes a lot of effort to run our sailing sessions. Many (though by no means all) have come to us as a consequence of having children who sail with YS@FF, and most stay with us long after their own children have moved on, which is a measure of the satisfaction and pleasure they experience in working with our youngsters. In many cases these parents have either honed or learnt the skills and obtained their qualifications with us, many starting with no experience in boats at all. To this end we are always keen to introduce new helpers to our activities and to provide training and courses for them to gain RYA powerboat and sailing qualifications. Some of this training is done during our normal sessions and some on weekend sessions. If you are interested in helping then please have a word with us – it’s much more fun than cutting the grass on a Saturday morning!
If you’re interested then please come and meet us on a Saturday morning, and see what we do. If you’re still keen then The YS@FF Helper registration form can be found here
Safety & Policies
The safety of everyone on the water is always our first and foremost priority, and our operatice procedures ensure that we always exceed the RYA minimum requirements (for example in manning the sessions and provision of safety-boats). We share a Safeguarding Young People Policy with Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club.
We also follow RYA guidance with respest to Use of Changing Rooms, Inclusive Language, and Trans and Non-Binary Inclusion.
