In Weymouth, SailLaser's RYA Onboard Club are invited to teach a friend to sail in a Laser Pico before heading off to the race course in pairs. The race around a short course will have the added challenge of collecting as many letters from each turning mark as possible. The winners will be those who can spell the longest word from the letters they collect at the end of the race!

SailLaser's "Race Club" members will also be able to introduce a friend to sailing and after a short introduction they will battle it out on the race course in the fleet of Laser Bahias.

In Scotland, RYA OnBoard Club fund raisers will take part in a multi-disciplined "Tri-Mile" event. The Tri-Mile will include a run, pedal and sail; running from the start line to a pedalo on the shore, pedalling to a Pico moored in the middle of Strathclyde Loch and racing the Pico around a course before arriving back at the shore and running to the finish line!

To add to the fun, competitors, organizers and helpers are encouraged to wear fancy dress. The theme is RED!

"This is a great opportunity for all of our regular sailors to get on the water with a friend as well as raising money for Comic Relief" explains Hannah Burywood, event organiser at SailLaser Weymouth.

The charity Comic Relief was launched on Christmas Day in 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is the bi-annual Red Nose Day. The first Red Nose Day was held in 1988 and £15 million was raised. In 2009, over 5 times that amount was raised to support projects in 25 African countries and the UK. SailLaser is proud to do their bit to support Comic Relief in 2011. 

Carlingford Lough Yacht Club in Northern Ireland has been presented with the prestigious Volvo RYA Champion Club award.  Carlingford Lough has been recognised for its very active racing programme focusing on the Laser 4.7, Radial and Topper classes. The club encourages and supports talented young sailors to develop and progress throughout the RYA Youth and Olympic programmes.

The presentation was held at the Yacht club's annual dinner dance and presentation at local Whistledown Hotel, Warrenpoint. Commodore, Michael McCann understands the importance of developing the club's youth sailors "We are all very delighted and proud to have been awarded the coveted Volvo Champion Club status. This achievement is a reflection of the great work, dedication and energy which has been put into youth and junior sailing in recent years.

While a number of senior club members have been involved along the way I must single out our past sailing secretary Dr Henry McLaughlin who worked to fulfil the arduous requirements necessary to gain this recognition. The Club would also like to thank Volvo and the RYANI for this award and we will continue to work with them to promote Championship level sailing in the region."

The club's junior training programme is run by 8 regular volunteers who are committed and dedicated to helping with the racing, training and the club's busy social programme. For the past three years the club has had five juniors in the RYA Volvo national squad and at the 2010 RYA Volvo Zone Home County Championships in Northern Ireland two of the members excelled both finishing in second place.

Carlingford Lough Yacht club is one of only 12 clubs in Northern Ireland and 171 nationwide to be awarded the esteemed Volvo RYA Champion Club status. Richard Honeyford, RYA High Performance Manager for Northern Ireland presented the club with the award "I am delighted to be presenting this award in recognition of the great work that Carlingford Lough Yacht Club has done to help young sailors to develop their racing skills.  Following the success of British sailors at the Beijing Olympics, and with the 2012 Olympics fast approaching, we may well be training future Olympians here in Carlingford Lough"

The Volvo RYA Champion Club Programme aims to encourage young sailors and windsurfers at grassroots level to stay in the sport and learn to compete, while encouraging clubs to introduce youngsters to the sport and help develop their skills. The key challenge for the programme is to encourage more young people to start participating in sailing and then progress with their racing careers.

Now Carlingford Lough Yacht club has been awarded the Volvo RYA Champion Club status, the sailors will see increased levels of development advice and professional coaching including support from the RYA. Carlingford Lough will also have access to the recent commitment from Sport England of £1.1m to the RYA's flagship youth sailing initiatives, to further enhance club coach and volunteer development across England over the next three years.

Applications are open for the RYA's British Keelboat Academy, which aims to give keelboats sailors aged between 18 and 24 a leg-up into competitive international sailing.

The programme utilises a fleet of J80s, identical to the ISA's sailfleet J80s, and also involves sailors in campaigning the TP52 John Merricks II, which is slated to compete in the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland later this year.

There is no similar scheme here in Ireland, but judging by recent entries to the likes of the Round Ireland, and the makeup of squads in keelboat events around Ireland, youth interest in keelboat sailing is high.

The Pride of Wicklow entry in the Round Ireland race, crewed by under-21s, surpassed all expectations by finishing fifth on the water and third in class, and the likes of the young crew on board Tiger have consistently shown a clean pair of heels to older and more experienced boats. 

Interested parties must fill out the forms HERE and must be a member of the RYA. This scheme might suit young sailor studying in the UK, or those willing to travel for training on a regular basis.

The RYA is the national body in the United Kingdom for all forms of boating, including dinghy and yacht racing, motor and sail cruising, RIBs and sports boats, powerboat racing, windsurfing, inland cruising and narrowboats, and personal watercraft. The RYANI is their Northern Irish branch.

For the latest RYA Northern Ireland news from Afloat click here

There is a space for Irish boating clubs and racing classes to use as their own bulletin board and forum for announcements and discussion. If you want to see a dedicated forum slot for your club or class, click here