At the end of his year 4, his school was offered a day's taster session at Weymouth Outdoor Education Centre (WOEC). There were four activities on offer - but I 'encouraged' him to have a try at sailing.
I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there's a giant sports day event happening next year - and Weymouth is the only place outside of London to be holding any of the events - the sailing. I figured it'd be a great chance to get him into something that was going large in 2012.
And - surprise! - I was right.
He bloody loves it.
Since October 2010, he's fitted in six full days of sailing during school holidays and completed Stage 1 and 2 of the RYA Sailing levels. Big proud Daddy!
And he's now practising at Saturday Sailing Club when we're able.
In fact, he likes it so much that he wants his mates to try it out - so I've booked a morning's sailing tuition for him and seven friends for his birthday party. This'll wear them out, give most of them a brand new experience and is (I think) incredibly cheap at £125 for 3 hours! That's less than £16 each.
All fabulous.
Until ....
I had an email from the centre manager. WOEC is run by the County Council, who need to make a massive saving on their annual budget. Which means that there will be redundancies and that the sailing programme will be cut from WOEC as from September 2011.
This is a real shame - the place is brilliant, the staff have been incredibly helpful and professional - and Weymouth is getting the sailing events in 2012. Shortsighted? Yes, in my opinion.
I'll keep an eye on the situation - and start to make plans for how he can continue with his sailing without the involvement of WOEC.
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