17th of May 2014 saw our first invitation to the Otley Show, we were invited by the organisers to sail some of our boats on the first lake of the estate. Our group of volunteers brought the boats 2 comet trios, 2 Laser Picos, 2 Access boats and the Pioneer rescue boat, all had to me made ready and trailered to the lake then re-rigged, all we launched in to the lake and moored overnight ready for the next day.

we made a 16ft x 8ft jetty out to the water so the boats could sail up and let people on and off the boats without getting their feet wet, a spectacular construction that stood up to the challenge of up to 6 people at one time.

The marquee was erected and kitted out with tables and chairs, a changing room and then fencing to usher our guests to the right area. New banners were made by Becky Davison. Becky also had bunting and flyers made, telling the public all about our sailing club and what we do. Christine Hodgson created the official disclaimer documents for signing people in.

All ready to go - the show opened and what a fantastic day was had by all sun heat and wind made for excellent sailing, people from all ages had a go, I had a number of small children with mums and dads sailing with me - the children were sometimes a little apprehensive but by the time it was ready to return they were loving the experience and wanting to go back for more. Everyone enjoyed the rides and were very polite saying "thank you we really enjoyed the sail", another comment was " I have learned more about sailing in the last 5 minutes than I ever knew, it was great"

There are some excellent photos from Becky on our face book site, please take a look.

I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who contributed no matter how big or small to making this event such a success, initial figures are at over 130 people took up the offer of a sailing experience on the day we will update the total later.

Looking forward to next year if we are invited, I have booked the weather already.

Paul Karran

Commodore

Otley Sailing Club