Sailing Project Fiji 2023
By Henry Myers
This Easter school holidays my sister, Anna and I spent eight days coaching both Sailing and windsurfing all around Fiji, as well as assisting our parents on their Orthopaedic Outreach project.
This is an annual trip which my parents started in 2005 and have done completed 23 visits with us.
Anna and my Outreach Fiji sailing project started in 2017. Each year we have coached local village children at Vuda Marina, as well as set up Local libraries with donated books from Woollahra library. This year we also drove around the whole of Fiji and we able to visit more local hospitals and coach at the National sailing centre in Suva as well as our usual group in Vuda Marina.
We coached over 200 children this year in association with Fiji yachting and the Uto ni Yalo trust.
WSC has donated boats over the years, including 4 Pacers,3 Optis, 1 Laser. We have taken generous donations from Alby Pratt at North Sails, Michael Blackburn and local Opti parents- the Tucker & Allen families.
Last year WSC donated windsurfers and we were able to use these to train coaches and children this year. We also started a goggle donation project as Swimming is so integral to Sailing.
In Suva, our teaching was focused on the WOWS group:”walk and walk, strong child, survivors of cancer”, as well as a local settlement book club group, and the children of local wooden boat makers who joined us with other local Fijian children. It was very rewarding to see the children go from novices to competent sailing on small Windsurfer rigs .
In Vuda Marina we had a large Festival of Sailing with over 150 children from three local villages. We were lucky enough to have the Uto ni Yalo navigator join us and give us a fascinating talk on celestial navigation.
We also again coached windsurfing and Opti sailing, and demonstrated wing foiling.
Anna and I serviced the Pacers and demonstrated a step by step rig and maintenance procedure.
We taught both the local permanent Vuda Marina coaches how to windsurf so they will continue this program throughout the year.
They currently have three complete full windsurfers they can use. And require more small learn to sail rigs for the windsurfers. Anna and I will support the Vuda Sailing Club with regular zoom meetings between now and our next visit to both Vuda and the National Sailing Centre, Suva, Fiji on April 13, 2024.
We hope to gather more donations in the form of full small windsurfer rigs, Opti sails, and secondhand swimming goggles. We are able to transport donations as we now have an association with several local container companies.
Fiji yachting is going from strength to strength with the getting children’s learn to sail programs and starting learn to windsurf. Each year that we visit we see the program running very well and the local children improving.
This year Fiji Yachting is hosting a large international windsurfing event at Natoba beach in and over the June long weekend.