Overview
LVSC has always prided itself on being a family club, and aimed to offer the opportunity to learn to sail to as many as it can. The RYA courses for adults and young sailors offered by the training centre are the best way to learn to sail for most but the structured nature of the courses doesn't always suit the youngest sailors, whose attention span and physical abilities can be limited. As an alternative we offer a different approach, as used by the IOCA- the class association for the Optimist, the children's sailing dinghy.
For those over about ten or so (it depends more on attitude and enthusiasm than age, of course) the Training Centre's weekend courses provide the opportunity to learn the fundamentals in a couple of weekends. For those that need a less intensive approach, the ELVs (Early Loch Venachar sailors) sessions on some Saturday afternoons during the late spring and early autumn provide a more informal and practical introduction to sailing. It's difficult to provide an age-based guideline for these groups: with attitude and water-confidence the main attributes needed to enjoy dinghy sailing, some are ready to start as young as five, others never are!
We also aim to run race training for juniors in parallel to the ELVs learn-to-sail sessions. These sessions ("Ospreys") cater for those who want to develop their skills and they lead naturally into the RYA Scotland Class Academy programme, where top coaches will help sailors to realise any ambitions they can imagine.
Last updated 14:47 on 13 November 2023