Le Phuket Youth Sailing Club ou les enfants de la voile

THE PHUKET YOUTH SAILING CLUB OR THE CHILDREN OF SAILING

Ao Yon is probably the best sheltered and safest bay in Phuket. This is where the Phuket Youth Sailing Club is nestled, managed by Katy Gooch and Paul Firmin. As its name suggests, the organization is geared toward children. Its history, however, is somewhat unique, as Katy was able to tell me.

“When we arrived in Phuket, we met Rob, an old Dutchman who had been living here for more than twenty years and spoke fluent Thai.

He was teaching Thai children the joys of sailing, volunteering his time, and amongst his students were children from the most disadvantaged strata of the island’s population. However, he was getting old and needed help. Since Paul and I are certified sailing instructors, we gave him a hand before taking over. That was in 2008.” “To encourage parents to enroll their children in our club, membership at the Phuket Youth Sailing Club was initially free.

Without the help of the Royal Thai Navy and local businesses, none of this would have been possible. That’s when we were contacted by the Phuket Sunshine Village Foundation, an orphanage established in the aftermath of the Tsunami of December 2004, asking us if we could take some of their young residents as students. We obviously agreed and initially trained five of them together with other Thai and foreign kids.” “The following year, the Phuket Youth Sailing Club continued training children in sailing and organized small regattas with 10 Optimist dinghies rented from the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand (YRAT). As we approached the King’s Cup Regatta, which does not have an Optimist category, we entered the children in a Topaz. This allowed them to work as a team on a larger boat, with the most qualified among them acting as skippers. It also gave them the chance to meet members of the national Laser team from the Sattahip naval base.”

“2010 was a very important year for the Phuket Youth Sailing Club, for several reasons. First, our best elements had the opportunity to attend 10 days of intensive Optimist training provided by the YRAT at the Sattahip base. This allowed us to participate in several regattas while the number of our young sailors continued to grow steadily. All this work allowed Tik, one of our first members from Phuket Sunshine Village, to win second place among 64 competitors in the B category of the Optimist class at the Hua Hin regatta. Following this success, the Phuket Youth Sailing Club was officially established under the umbrella of the Phuket Sports Association and registered with the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand (YRAT).” “Thereafter, courses became paid, except for the most disadvantaged.

To help these individuals train, a support program was put in place, which you can check out by clicking here. “Since 2010, we have continued to progress. Our hope is that today’s students will be tomorrow’s instructors and coaches. This would be a very good opportunity for the future of some of the orphans from the Phuket Sunshine Village and other disadvantaged children of Phuket.” “Sailing is an extraordinary education since it allows one to acquire independence and self-confidence, interaction and team spirit; to overcome doubts and fears; to win but also to accept loss; all while having fun and making new friends.”

“This is how the children from the club come from all walks of life: disadvantaged Thais or not, lôouk khrung (mixed-race children) born here or expatriate farangs. Classes are mainly given in English but sometimes in Thai depending on the availability of Thai instructors. Anyway, it does not matter much since nautical terms are all called in English. And after a few months of learning together, it’s pleasing to see the progress that Thai children make in English and vice versa, along with the development of their sailing skills.” Interview by P.v.K. Natthapong (Max) Yuang-Ngam of the Phuket Youth Sailing Club is crowned World Champion in the Topper 4.2 category in 2016.

Topper 4.2 World Champion 2016 – Natthapong (Max) Yuang-Ngam from Thailand from Katy on Vimeo.