The
Centre
Jack Petchey Award
Born into a poor family in the East End of London, Jack Petchey became a multi millionaire and created the Achievement Award Scheme for schools across London & Essex to recognise and encourage "extreme endeavour and to help young people help themselves". AHOY'S acceptance onto the Silver Award Scheme, is a major achievement. Volunteer members (adults & youth) are invited to nominate young individuals they feel have made an exceptional contribution to the success of AHOY. Along with a certificate and badge comes £200 to spend on equipment. Winners of the award to date are Zack Ginnelly and Jade Van Graan. Zack chose to spend the money on new waterproof radios and Jade on marker bouys for racing and teaching. Let us look forward to seeing many more youth being nominated for this brilliant award scheme.
Wednesday night After School Club, with a twist...when your home work is done you get to go sailing! Contact us for more information
Edmund Waller Primary School, in New Cross, South East London was given the opportunity to escape the classroom environment and gain knowledge and understanding by participating in a sailing curriculum course.
About the course
The course is bespoke to meet the needs of the young people, depending on their requirements; ensuring sailing can be delivered to those that have special educational or physical needs. This is an ideal 'alternative education programme' which covers all aspects of outdoor and adventure activities. Many National Curriculum subjects are covered; at the same time emphasising life skills. Courses can be targeted for the most hard to reach young people. Initial training is undertaken at a dock on safe water and can be either 12 afternoon sessions or 6 full days - with a River Induction course delivered at AHOY on the last day. Content of course: health and safety, introduction to boats, rigging, educational activities, understanding of weather, local ecology and history, off-site educational visit, principles of sailing, capsize recovery,
The Learning Outcomes of this course:
- Basic understanding of boat handling techniques
- Experience in steering and boat handling
- Boat rigging
- Ropework
- Sailing techniques and manoeuvres
- Importance of clothing and equipment
- Capsize recovery
- Background knowledge of sailing
- Meteorology
- Range of sailing skills
- Rules of the 'road' (river)
- Basic racing
- Learn to work in a team
Edmund Waller Primary School were given the opportunity to escape
Students from Edmund Waller Primary School celebrate at The AHOY Centre after receiving their certificates of Completion.
Sailing & Boating For Young People
Working with young people at AHOY brings with it some of the greatest rewards, as they embrace the joys and excitement associated with water based activities. The most rewarding aspect of all is to see these youngsters, some of whom have been under achievers in other areas, gain new skills and nationally recognised RYA qualifications - their pleasure in receiving RYA certificates for these is all too evident. The personal development that comes with the team building and from helping others is seen time and time again as they become involved with the centre through volunteer membership.
Through the Youth Committee, youth members are able to have their say about what
happens at the Centre and proposing improvements. They are also given the support
and opportunity to raise money to use specifically on projects that directly benefit them.
What Is A Shipmate?: Youth Volunteers sign up to become ‘Shipmates’ and pledge to be RYA trained to sail and operate power boats so that they can, in turn, help others to learn how to sail. They also have to help out on maintenance and fundraising at the Centre.
Shipmate Scheme
Unpredictable
Fun
Sailing
Helping out
Power Boating
Exciting
Welcoming
Meeting New People
A few words to describe The AHOY Centre from our Shipmates and the People they help
Shipmates:
Shipmate sessions are a great way for our youth's to not only learn to sail but to gain new friends and give a positive impact on the centre.
Shipmates are split into teams with team leaders and sessions take place on a Wednesday evening 18:00-20:30 pm (April to September) and Saturdays 10:00-16:00.
Wednesdays:
On Wednesday we start from 18:00 giving the Shipmates time to go home from school and get changed. So, having pre-booked, they turn up and pay £2 to contribute to the Shipmate Supper. On the water, Shipmates work through certain parts of the RYA sailing Syllabus hoping to achieve a nationally recognised qualification.
Saturdays:
Saturdays work slightly differently from Wednesdays. The shipmates spend half the day off the water focusing on volunteering and helping around the centre whether there're cleaning boats or sweeping up. Also during the half day you are off land we work on things like rope work and theory e.g. rules of the road (river).
Here are some of our Shipmates and their own individual stories and feedback on why they're Shipmates and what they've achieved at AHOY:
- Brodie McBride
- Brendan O'Shea
- Storm Suckoo Smith
- Hassan Kamara
Hi - my name is Brodie McBride and I'm 12.
I've been a Shipmate for 2 years and I'm working hard to get to Silver as I want to be a Team Leader next year. I love the water and sailing is so different - everyone at school thinks it's unique - so I'm busy recruiting my school mates!.
I like the truthfulness about The AHOY - they say it's "sailing for everyone" and it is!
- Communication skills
- Leadership skills
- Personal safety
- Understanding local ecology
- Preparation and planning
- Following instructions
- Social skills
- Tides and tidal streams
- Awareness of other water users
- Launching and recovery
- Sailing theory and background
- Man overboard recovery
- Emergency equipment and precautions
My name's Brendan O'Shea and I'm cleaning a powerboat in this photo!
I'm 13 and live on a big Council Estate in New Cross where there is nothing to do...so I joined The AHOY a couple of months ago and really like the water, sailing and meeting the other Shipmates.
I'm working towards my Bronze level and I want to be able to use my knowledge so I can go fishing on the sea.
I would recommend joining to my friends and am going to get my sister to come down too..
If I had to choose 3 words to describe The AHOY they'd be:
o Caring
o Fun
o Adventurous!
Hi I'm Storm Suckoo Smith - I'm 14 and I've been a Shipmate for over 2 years and I've worked my way to Shipmate Team Leader! I'm responsible for getting my team mates here every Saturday and I help teach them to gain their Bronze and Silver levels.
I'm training to be a RYA Assistant Instructor and I have passed my Powerboat Level 1 . Being a Shipmate has made me more active and I really enjoy coming down and meeting new people.
My ambition is to become a Senior Instructor and to continue to help others
Hi - I'm Hassan Kamara and I'm 13 and a Shipmate Team Leader.
Since joining in 2007 I've already gained RYA Sailing Levels 1, 2 & 3 and Powerboating 1&2 and I want to become an Instructor so I can help out with all the activities at AHOY.
Since joining I've become much more aware of others and their abilities and I would really recommend the AHOY as it's:
o Fun
o Gives you opportunities
o Friendly!
What do they get from it?
After completing the RYA basic sailing syllabus there are many places to go from racing to teaching to more advanced techniques.
Do you want to get involved? DO you want to help the youth on the sessions?
Contact the Centre on: 0208 691 7606
‘ A Charity Changing People's Lives Through Sailing And Rowing ’