Students from 5 island high schools and St Catherine’s school came together at UKSA in Cowes on Tuesday 26th January to compete in mixed teams in the third heat of the Young Chamber Challenge hosted by Into the Blue.
For this Challenge, Dan Wilkinson from Into the Blue asked the students to devise an idea for a competition or series of competitions which would involve, the local community and students from the primary, middle and high schools, the aim, to raise the profile of the Round the Island Race which takes place on 19th June 2010 and is sponsored by JP Morgan Asset Management.
This Challenge was judged by Dan Wilkinson of Into the Blue, Martin Poynter from the IW Fire and Rescue Service, Zoe Stroud from the IW Chamber of Commerce and Claire Willis from IW Radio.
The students had to come up with their ideas for the competition, keeping in mind the sailing theme. They had to write a press release and research local and regional media to approach to promote the competition.
The ideas included a mini boat building competition, a junior round the island sailing race and a design a sail competition. The winning team had the idea of a competition which would be divided into 2 age groups, the age 12 -18 category would be asked to design the outline of a pattern/image for a vinyl for a boat with the winning design being selected and then used for a colouring competition for the 6-11 age group. The winning entry from the 6-11 age group and the 12-18 age group would then be combined to make one design which would then feature on triple Olympic gold medallist, Ben Ainslie’s boat for the Round the Island Race. The team included in the brief that all entries must be original and hand drawn and relate to sailing. They decided that they would target local and regional radio and websites to advertise the competitions.
The students in the winning team were Jamie Hall from Cowes High, George Taylor from Medina High, Dean May from Ryde High, Jacob Cleary from Sandown High and William Harris from St Catherine’s School. These students will now go forward to the Top Secret Grand Final of the Young Chamber Challenge which will take place on 21st April at Cowes Yacht Haven.
Dan Wilkinson from Into the Blue said that he was very impressed by the leadership skills of some of the students and their enthusiasm towards the Challenge.