Hakuna Matata Sail Training at Middle Island: Linking in Sustainability and

Sail Training at Middle Island: Linking in Sustainability and Plastics Education with Youth Courses

WORDS AND IMAGES: LUKE VAN DER KAMP

With the return of the popular Youth Watersports Experience Week for teens and the WaterKidz Adventure Week for Opti sailors, the opportunity to incorporate sustainability education presented itself. During these courses, the sailors were given the opportunity to explore the issue of sea plastics and develop ideas to reduce their footprint and influence others to do the same. The day-long activities started with a discussion (led often by the sailors) on how much plastic waste is generated in our everyday lives and what can be done to reduce their own plastic footprint at home.

Clockwise from top left: 60+ Kilos of plastic removed from Wong Chuk Kok Beach; Beach games after the cleanup; A job well done; Exploring Waglan island

eady to see the extent of the problem with their own eyes and armed with rubbish bags, gloves and tongs, the sailors were ready for the beach cleanup. Going via RIB, our youth sailors have run beach cleanups on Round Island, Wong Chuk Kok Beach (Lamma), Turtle Beach (Lamma) and Po Toi over the course of the shortened summer. The common factor amongst the beaches was that they were off the beaten track and the majority of the rubbish was not left there by people on the beach. Asked to just focus on picking up plastic items on the beach, many bags were filled in a short time. The key message coming from all the kids at the end of the cleanup was that they wanted to tell their friends and family about the experience and how they had seen the link between waste in our everyday lives and the spread of plastic in the ocean with their own eyes. In one morning alone, our youth sailors were able to pick up over 60 kilos of plastic waste alone on Wong Chuk Kok beach. After each successful cleanup, the sailors got their reward in the form of a fun afternoon at a quiet beach and a longer RIB ride back to Middle Island giving them the chance to explore parts of Hong Kong they have not seen before! Going forward, the topic of sustainability will be included as a core topic in the Sail Training syllabus at all levels for both youth and adult courses. Conserving our marine environment is a topic that the entire Middle Island team is

Exploring the back of Lamma

Cleaning up Turtle beach Lamma Rubbish collection on Round Island Rubbish on Wong Chuk Kok beach Lamma

passionate about and thanks to the generous donation of RIB Garbage Collection bags from Vice Commodore Lucy Sutro and Peter Britten, all coaches and instructors are able to collect rubbish whilst on the water. The Sail Training programme at RHKYC is a fantastic opportunity to link the issue of plastic waste with the marine environment it affects the most. For more information on the sustainability efforts of RHKYC, please visit https://www.rhkyc.org.hk/ SustainabilityVisionandPrinciples.aspx .

Above L to R: Sea plastics discussion at MI; Preseeting what they have learned

Youth Watersports Experience Week (5 full days, 11-18yrs) and WaterKidz Adventure Week (5 half days, 6-10yrs) are courses run during our school holiday programmes during summer and Easter school holidays. These courses are for sailors of any experience level and are aimed at being an opportunity for them to experience a fun week on the water doing a variety of activities such as keel boat trips, dinghy sailing, on-water treasure hunts and of course, beach cleanups. The next school holiday programme at Middle Island will be over the December School holidays. The dates are: • 14 to 18 December • 20 to 24 December (Sunday to Thursday) • 27 to 31 December (Sunday to Thursday) • 4 to 9 January Courses opened for enrollment by members on Monday 26 October and will open for non-members on Monday 9 November. For more information please email sailtrain@rhkyc.org.hk or go to: https://rhkyc.cinolla.com/sailtraining/