Aleria's Adventures

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) has just announced grants for sailing clubs to institute programs that help young sailors transition from youth dinghy programs to adult racing. The scheme aimed at under-25s is intended to bridge the gap between junior programmes, which have good participation, and adult participation which is suffering from a serious fall off in numbers. An initial capital grant is intended to help clubs commit to purchase of a boat, followed by coaching, mentoring and other supports. It's based on a program underway at Howth Yacht Club which is reported to be getting good retention. I'd like to know more about that.

You may have heard about wonderful success with early experimental STEM Sailing programs. I have been following the STEM sailing concept since I first heard about it through the VOR. It enables learning Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) through a sailing curriculum. 

Yesterday, February 20th 2016, I was a speaker at the inaugural Irish Sailing Association Cruising Conference held at the Howth Yacht Club near Dublin. My topic was 'Women at the Helm', a topic I've been writing about for some time. I wrote about it first for our website Coastal Boating , from where it was picked up by various media around the world.