The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club’s Summer Sailing Camp has had an outstanding summer so far in terms of student progress on the water, according to instructors.Said RBYC senior instructor Sean Evans: “This summer has been one of our busiest. This was made possible due to the large number of instructors and their capabilities.“Our busiest point is usually July, but this summer the amount of students has been sustained through July and August. Our third week was the busiest week, we were chock-a-block full of children. We usually have an average of 70 students at any given point in the summer. Their ages range from four to 18 years old.”RBYC offers two types of boats that they use to teach students how to sail Optimists (Optis) and the larger 420s.“We’ve had more children in the Opti groups because there are more Optis than 420s,” Mr Evans said. “We also like to promote junior sailing to younger children who we put in the Optis because of their size.”The students sail at various spots around the Island, he added.“Beginners sail in the [Hamilton] Harbour, but the other groups sail in Granaway Deep and the Great Sound. On good days, we sometimes take the advanced sailors out to sail on North Shore to give them some open water experience.”RBYC has three senior instructors, seven newly-qualified instructors and seven assistant instructors. The senior instructors and newly qualified instructors have Royal Yachting Association (RYA) training under their belts.“The RYA is a good, structured programme for instructors to learn how to be safe on the water. Our instructors already had experience but it [RYA training] opens their eyes to the safety side of things. This is a very good course and it will help us build onwards and upwards at the club,” Mr Evans stated.Newly-qualified instructor Kathleen Watts said of the certification: “It’s more safe now; that’s my big thing. It also made teaching the children a lot easier.”Mr Evans, who was born and raised in Cardiff, Wales, said of the difference in sailing here and there: “Bermuda is better for the youth and junior sailing because of the warm water and longer daylight hours. It’s also nice that children can arrive and be out on the water within 20 minutes. Wales has a lot of good sailing venues and clubs where children can go; there’s more variety.”The weather has allowed for a great deal of sailing this summer, he added.“The weather’s been behaving. We’ve lost two days of sailing because of the wind, although our advanced children still went out to sail on those days. Rain or shine we’ll try to get these children learning about life skills, Bermuda, and the waters around it.“Ideal weather for teaching beginners is about eight knots of wind and in the more experienced groups all wind is good because the children will get experience in different wind conditions.“Every group has progressed phenomenally well in the summer programme.”Sailing director Tom Herbert Evans said coaches in the UK were impressed with Bermuda’s young sailors.“Whilst in the UK recently, many of the British coaches commented positively on the ability of some of the young sailors. I showed them coaching footage of our group of six-year-old Sea Squirts [RBYC’s youngest sailors] and they were gobsmacked at their ability to manoeuvre the sailboats. The grassroots are looking phenomenal.”Many of the RBYC students were able to compete internationally this summer at the UK Nationals, the New England Championships and the Canadian Championships.”RBYC student Sebastian Kempe came first in a regatta in Cape Breton, Canada.The seven-year-old, who sails Optis, was the youngest in the competition.He said of the camp: “This summer’s been good. I like the whole experience and I like my coaches. I usually have Tom or Sean instruct me. My favourite thing about sailing here is that it’s laid back and it’s not strict; but I still learn a lot. If I could change something about the camp it would be to put less boats out at once because when there’s a lot of boats out it takes a long time to de-rig them.“I’m proud of myself about the race in Canada. My parents rented a boat and watched me race. I didn’t think the race was that hard. I learned that you should never put a mark in the lee of an island because it takes forever to sail to it.”Tayte Stefaniuk said: “I’ve been sailing for one year and I’m in the advanced Opti group. There’s not a lot of pressure in the advanced group as long as you learn from your mistakes. My instructor is usually Sean. We usually sail in the harbour but if the weather is really good we sometimes race to Granaway [Deep]. I was invited to sail in the Cork Regatta this summer but I refused because I think it would have been too soon. I might go to Miami in the fall for the Orange Bowl Regatta.”Beginner sailor Anisa Walker said: “This is my second year sailing. I’m going to sail on Saturdays this school year too. I like going sailing and going swimming but I don’t like tacking. I sail Optis but I went in a 420 this summer with Tom as well and that was fun. My favourite thing about sailing is hiking, to keep the boat flat.”