Students all aboard to Have a Go!

LITTLE TACKERS: Reuben Corbett takes charge of the latest crop of up and coming sailors during the Volvo Sailing Have a Go! programme on Lake Manuwai earlier this month.

Sixty students from Riverview Primary School were recently seen gliding across Lake Manuwai in glorious Indian Summer conditions over a week earlier this month when they took part in the Volvo Sailing Have a Go programme .

Each day, 12 students - two children each placed in one of six optimist sailing dinghies made available by the Kerikeri Cruising Club - were taken through the ropes by qualified sailing instructor Reuben Corbett when the Yachting New Zealand programme was held at Lake Manuwai from February 29 to March 4.

Corbett said his job was to make sure the learn to sail experience was a "good one" for his fleet of young rookies.

"This is to give kids who have never sailed before to try something new ... kids who don't normally have an opportunity to go sailing," he said.

He had promoted the course to schools throughout the upper North Island in Coromandel, Hamilton and Northland.

"Most of them have never worn a life jacket before. A lot of them well out of their comfort zones," Corbett said.

The Have a Go day was also designed to raise the profile of local yachting clubs which came on board, as well as promoting the various activities available for budding sailors through Yachting New Zealand.

Corbett said he spent half the year back home running the programme, while the other half he is on the other side of the world, representing the New Zealand team in international match racing.

Corbett also said he was up in Taipa working with Peria School children recently where one class was joined by a pod of about 20-30 dolphins which cruised nearby for an hour or so while the group were out in the bay.

Watching Reuben Corbett guide the Riverview students over the placid waters of Lake Manuwai from the shore was Derry Godbert, an influential figure in the development of Kerikeri sailing over the past three decades.

The 82-year-old said the Have a Go programme, which had been running for the past 10 years, was a perfect way to ease children into the water, and it also allowed them to step up if they developed an interest in sailing.

While the majority of first-time sailors were generally more than happy to have a go, Godbert admitted sailing wasn't for everybody.

He cited an example where one day, a mood of discontent had seemed to run through the entire class and the children were really unhappy.

"They did not want to be there. By the end of the day, they were smiling and confident," he said.

Godbert noted the week at Lake Manuwai had been well supported by the Riverview school staff as several were keen sailors.

He also reserved praise for Kerikeri CC commodore Doug French for visiting local schools to promote the programme,and the Lion Foundation for their support.

He also acknowledged the support of the Lion Foundation in helping to deliver the programme.

"This is where Blair Tuke started," Godbert said as he watched the sailors made their way across to the other side of the Bay. - For further information on the Volvo Sailing Have a Go! programme and how to take part, contact Danika Mowlem at Yachting New Zealand, phone (09) 361-4028, (021) 202-6154, and email: danika@yachtingnz.org.nz.