Discover Sailing Open Day

RYA Discover Sailing Open Day 10th May 2025

The RYA Discover Sailing Open Day, with the tremendous support of the members, is really gaining traction as a key part of the LLSC Annual Calendar.

What a lovely day for our open day, a day for visitors to try out sailing for free.  Over 100 visitors were taken out for a sail in both the club and borrowed boats.  Lots of smiles and fun were had on the water in the champagne sailing conditions, sun and wind.  First the visitors were treated to a ride in the safety boat then a sail in a dinghy.  The younger visitors were sailed around to find the zoo animals on the water, just to add more excitement to the experience.

As well as bringing new members to the club (nineteen adults signed up to learn to sail plus juniors joining the Friday nights), it really does do a wonderful job of showcasing our club to the local community, with the very generous added support of local councillors Garry Lloyd, Jenny Gregory and Mike Smith who came along and visited on the day.  Garry was instrumental in sourcing our new Defibrillator this year and they each take a keen and supportive interest in our activities.  Also, many thanks to Local MP Jo Platt who once again came along and visited us. She is always keen to hear of our activities and actively promotes us via social media, even extracting a promise from Garry to go for a sail next time he visits.

The club welcomes members of all ages from the age of 7 and it was great to see many young sailors at the open day enjoying sailing, playing with friends by the lake, having their face painted and enjoying lots of cake from the galley.

There is always lots of lovely food and freshly baked cakes all prepared in the galley by our amazing Val and her team – many thanks to you all as always.  Val always has a warm cooked meal and cakes available for our sailors when they return from their adventures on the water.

So, after what was a very successful open day, well done and thank you to the many volunteers that made this open day the huge success it was.  With car park supervisors, meet and greeters, information givers, signer uppers, buoyancy aid fitters, helms supervising sails in dinghies and coxes taxiing visitors to and from the dinghies and providing safety cover and organisers with walkie talkies.  Gosh a lot goes into an open day!

Thank you to everyone who came to visit the club, we had great feedback and trust that you all had a fantastic day.  And welcome to all our new members – we hope you have fun and enjoy your sailing adventure here at Leigh and Lowton sailing club.