Dingys in the rain

August 3, 2007 on 9:13 pm | In Sailing |

As another week draws to a close, I have to ask ‘where has it gone’. I have been teaching young people to dingy sail in Stornoway this week using the purpose built trailer with six dingys, a rescue boat and all the equipment. The sessions are part of the local council’s (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) Motiv8 sessions where there are loads of different sporting opprotunities for young people. Koren my eldest daughter had opportunity to have two sessions and at 8 loved it.

The trailer was bought by the Lewis and Harris Outdoor Forum using some lottery finding and it has created a huge amount of interest in sailing here. Not to mention the fun it has given us instructors; it has meant I have been off to Cumbrae to do my RYA Senior Instructors Course, Toby is off to do the same and there has been hours of us having to ‘practice’ our sailing. RYA Scotland run several of these trailers and they have taken hundred of young people out to try sailing.

This evening it is blowing a gale here with driving rain and it is very sad to hear on the news there has been a boating tragedy in North Uist and a young person has drowned, everyone I have spoken to has been suprised they were out on the water today but we need to wait for the official enquiry to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I hope it won’t deter anyone from taking boat trips because if you are paying to go on a boat, it has to meet strict critieria set out by the MCA (Martime and Coastguard Agency). These include the equipment the boat must carry and the qualifications of the crew. I know just how tough it is to get as we have category II coding on our yacht and I never thought the list the inspecting surveyor’s list was going to end.

The other piece of news which concerned me was the article on in the Press and Journal, Wed 1st August, there is talk of the decline in numbers of visitors to Shetland, I am not sure if others are feeling it this year but parts of my business are not as busy as they have been in previous years. I suspect at the end of the season we are going to need to have some serious discussion.

But it is not all doom and gloom as we have had two bookings for the yacht today, both to go to St Kilda. One of them is for a BBC programme about the Islands and it sound fantastic (I was paddling with the Executive Producer) - trust me, when you have seen the programmes in the autumn you are all going to want to go there - The Islands at the Edge of the World.

Dun from Village Bay

The Factors House

The North Coast of Hirta

Tim Pickering
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