Juniors (7-13ish years)
Our Junior sailors are given as many opportunities as possible to develop their sailing skills in a number of different ways. Its always more fun sailing with your friends, and our monthly ROTTERS sessions, plus extra ROTTERS Lite sessions in the summer provide plenty of opportunities for junior sailors to hang out together on and off the water, as well as building their sailing skills.
Our Juniors normally learn to sail in a mix of single handed sailing dinghies, which is where the ROTTERS name originated it refers to Ripon Optimist, Topper and Tera Sailors! All these three boat types are RYA recognised junior pathway boats and we often work with the relevant class associations to provide suitable winter training for interested sailors.
During ROTTERS sessions our junior sailors work towards their Bronze, Silver and Gold awards as they develop their core sailing skills through a mix of games and targeted practice. In addition to sailing single handed boats the juniors are also offered opportunities to try sailing double handed RS Feva dinghies, initially crewing for older sailors. As their skills develop we encourage the juniors to try racing, usually first in the club Saturday series, and to start working towards their Junior, Intermediate and Senior race squad awards.
We do sometimes get asked why we put so much emphasis on racing and it really isn't because we want everyone to be super competitive all the time. We'd actually prefer our sailors to think of racing more like parkrun and focus on their own improvements over time, rather than worrying about coming first. However we do encourage them to race because sailing around a race course is a bit like solving a puzzle. Asking our young sailors to try racing pushes them to improve their understanding of what their boat can and can't do but also allows them to learn from the other boats trying to solve the same puzzle around them. It also makes them practice the skills they find tricky (which will be different for each sailor) as well as just the things they find enjoyable, which really does help them improve faster!
Junior sailors working towards their Race Squad awards may be encouraged to take part in some regional (and sometimes national) events, including representing the club at RYA Pathway Club events or at regional Team Racing events. For some young sailors it is helpful to show them that the skills learnt at Ripon will also work just as well on another piece of water, while others may want to try something new, like sea sailing. We often arrange for a group of sailors of similar standard to attend their first travel event together, with a couple of more experienced sailors also attending to provide a bit of support.
There are also plenty of social opportunities for our juniors, including Family Weekend which is famous for raft building, cardboard boat challenges, a bit of sailing and a lot of water pistols. The End of Season awards take place in October and include some extremely serious paddling races and relay races before the sailors get their hands on their all important ROTTERS awards.
Last updated 11:16 on 9 April 2026