Bermuda Sailing Association (BSA) programme director Deb Gravelle has dubbed this year's Spring High School Sailing Programme a smashing success so far.

The programme, held every Monday and Wednesday between March 19 and June 11, is designed to keep high school kids between the ages of 14 and 18 active in the sport once they graduate from the Optimist Class.

"We find that kids tend to drop off as soon as they have completed Opti sailing and start to go into other things and part of that is because we haven't had a focused thing for them to do," Gravelle said

"We've got around 24 420s on the island which I think is the perfect boat for the kids at that age.

"Sailing has a lot of positive attributes and one of those is that it keeps the kids busy in a structured environment where they learn an appreciation for the marine environment as well as build confidence and self esteem."

During the 12 week, Bank of Bermuda Foundation sponsored programme kids are taught some of the fundamentals of sailing in the 420s with Gravelle delighted this year by the influx of kids from the Government school sector.

"We had more private schools last year but it's actually flip flopped whereas we now have more Government school kids," she said.

Gravelle said it is programmes such as the High School Spring Sailing, which promote camaraderie and positive lifestyles and moving forward hopes to see numbers continue to increase as well as participants possibly travelling abroad to compete in the 420s.

"We want to get more high school kids involved," she said.

"We want to target these kids and be able to afford them the coaching and some of the equipment and material without them having to take too much out of pocket."