Christmas is just around the corner and the Cobnor team, like you, plan ahead for the coming year so that we know what’s what. Now, you’ll find our new Course Programme online so whether you’re looking to brush up on your sailing skills or your New Year’s resolution will be to get outdoors more, take a look at our new brochure and see what tickles your fancy. Here are some of the highlights from the 2012 Course Programme to whet your appetite:

Holiday Activities

Throughout the Summer Holidays Cobnor Activities Centre offers a range of camps and activity weeks: Summer Camps, Expedition Camps, Residential Sailing Weeks and Multi-Activity Weeks. These fully supervised programmes are designed to help further the outdoor education and outdoor activity skills of children aged 8-16 years.

Children will not only get to enjoy their favourite activities, from canoeing and sailing to archery and mountain biking, but will also benefit from the expertise of our qualified instructors. They will have the opportunity to try new things and meet new people, away from home in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Our Expedition Camps, for 14-16 year olds, also include spending nights away from the Centre’s base and taking part in activities further afield. This encourages independence as well as focussed learning about the outdoors.

We are also offering Multi-Activity day programmes over the Easter Holidays and October Half Term.

Sailing

We offer a variety of sailing courses for you and your children, from the Youth Sailing Scheme to the Adult Sailing Scheme. Whether you are beginners or improvers, our qualified and experienced instructors will certainly maximise your confidence on the water and improve your sailing skills.

As a RYA recognised sailing centre, with a full fleet including Laser Picos, RS Fevas and Bosun Dinghies, we’ll make sure you gain experience in varying wind and sea conditions, as well as knowledge of the boats and your surroundings.

Paddlesports

Paddlesports offered at Cobnor Activities Centre include canoeing and kayaking. Our paddlesport fleet includes something for everyone, regardless of ability or level: open canoes, kayaks, sit-on kayaks and sea kayaks.

We now run informal sessions on a series of evenings and weekends with the option to complete your way through the Paddle Power or National Paddlesport Scheme.

Powerboating

Would you like to get behind the wheel of a powerboat and learn a new skill? Cobnor offers RYA Powerboat Level 2 for those aged 14 years onwards, a course which provides the skills and background knowledge essential for any competent powerboat driver.

We also offer the RYA Safety Boat Course, which introduces the techniques used in powerboats escorting racing fleets of dinghies and windsurfers, providing safety and rescue cover for training fleets and assisting in race management for those aged 16 and over.

VHF and First Aid

Cobnor Activities Centre offers RYA First Aid Certificates and RYA VHF Short Range Certificates, meaning you can gain working knowledge of first aid for people using small craft, support skippers and learn the procedures for operation of VHF short-range radio.

Saturday Sessions

New to Cobnor for 2012 are Saturday Sessions. These include our popular Informal Kayaking on a Saturday morning and an additional bi-weekly Informal Sailing session, designed to give you the opportunity to progress your skills, without the pressure and structure of a certificated course.

Why don’t you come along to try a new activity? Come once, or come along every week, to really brush up on your skills. As well as the Informal Sessions we are running a Saturday Afternoon Club for under 16s, which will run for 6 weeks and include multi-activities such as: sailing, kayaking, canoeing, mountain biking, climbing, archery and raft building.

Instructor Courses

Cobnor Activities Centre has all you need to become an RYA sailing instructor, a BCU paddlesport coach or a British Schools Cycling Association Mountain Bike Leader. A career in the outdoors is not only a lot of fun but it’s also extremely challenging and rewarding.

You should be competent in the discipline you are training for before you sign up for a course and once there you will be provided with practical experience as well as in-depth theory to allow you to succeed as an activity instructor at Cobnor and beyond.

Bespoke Bookings

Our bespoke bookings are designed to meet your exact outdoor activity requirements. We can offer bookings to school groups, community groups, corporate groups, birthday party groups, Hen and Stag groups and many others too. It really is up to you!

We can put together a package comprising any of the following activities:

• Sailing

• Kayaking

• Canoeing

• Climbing

• Mountain Biking

• Archery

• Low Ropes

• Problem Solving and Initiative Games

• Raft Building

Whether you want fun-packed team building or group chill-out time, contact us with your requirements or let us know the gist and we’ll put together the perfect activities schedule. You can stay in our newly refurbished accommodation over night or join us for the day, you can choose to self-cater or we’ll provide food for you; the beauty is in the flexibility!

Residential Facilities

Our residential facilities are ideal as a base as we are easily accessible from many areas along the South Coast, including Chichester and Portsmouth.

There are three residential options for you to choose from: Log Cabins, The Jubilee Building and Camping. Any of our residential facilities can be combined with a Bespoke Booking or rented as standalone accommodation.

We also have excellent educational and meeting room facilities, including two classrooms with full IT access and support.

Cobnor Chairboat

The Cobnor Chairboat is specially designed for wheelchair users and others with limited mobility so that getting out and about on the water is accessible to all, but it has much more than this to offer…

Our Chairboat offers a comfortable ride, no matter what your age or ability. It is ideal for those interested in nature and photography. It would even make the perfect vessel for a special occasion, such as showing off the bride and groom on their big day.

The boat is wide and stable as well as being closer to the water than traditional tour boats, allowing passengers to make the most of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

You can download the full 2012 Course Programme here. We look forward to seeing you soon!

This beautiful and constantly evolving sand and shingle spit, one of only two sand dune systems in West Sussex, is home to wide range of wildlife and has been a National Trust property since the 1960s. One of the National Trust’s current projects is to protect the rare Silver Spiny Digger Wasp.  At the moment, a piece of the beach is condoned off to keep visitors from disturbing the wasps’ habitats and signs are in place to describe the creatures’ behaviour. Each wasp has a burrow in the sand and for two summer months the adult wasp emerges to feed on sand flies. At the end of this period it paralyses 10 sand flies, dragging them into the burrow and laying eggs on the first. When the eggs hatch the larvae feeds on one sand fly a month emerging as Digger Wasps the following summer – isn’t nature an incredible thing?

While walking among the dunes in the glow of early spring the bird song is magical as sky larks and sand martins pay heed to the sunshine. It’s popular with walkers and last weekend there were a lot of families and dog-walkers making their way through the different landscapes on offer. The different landscapes really are fascinating – there are marshy mud flats, grassy sand dunes and flat, seaweed and shell strewn shingle beaches. The dunes are created when wind-blown sand is trapped by marram grass, driftwood and seaweed. But as fast as new dunes grow in one place, the sea claims old dunes back, meaning East Head is always changing.

East Head is located around a 30 minute powerboat ride away from Cobnor Activities Centre and the water shelf is so steep just off the shore that it’s rarely a problem to land boats close to the beach, giving easy access regardless of the tide. In fact, East Head’s somewhat easier to get to by boat during the summer months as it’s such a popular holiday destination that the roads on their way to the Witterings and the beaches’ car parks can get jam-packed.

We urge those that haven’t experienced the delights of East Head to make a visit soon. Even if you’re not taking part in any of our outdoor activities that include a trip to East Head groups can talk to us about hiring the Chairboat and driver, or a powerboat and driver, and the driver could take you on a pre-organised trip, just contact sail@cobnor.com for details and availability.

Spring has most definitely sprung down at Cobnor with the birth of beautiful black lambs on the local farm and splashes of yellow daffodils all over the boat park. Soon the weather will be getting warm enough for us to get all of our water-based activities in full swing yet again, because let’s face it sailing lessons, kayaking, canoeing and power boating are all that little bit more fun when the sun is shining and the water’s not nipping at your bits and bobs!

Are you ready to spring into action with Cobnor Activities Centre’s new season? Our evening courses kick off in just 3 weeks time with RYA Youth Sailing Scheme – Stages 1, 2 and 3. There are still a few places remaining if you fancy learning to sail or brushing up on your existing sailing skills. Check booking information online and then contact us to book your place today.

Our RYA Youth Sailing Scheme courses will continue throughout the spring and summer and then, as the weather gets even warmer, our Expedition Camps, Summer Camps, Residential Sailing Weeks and Multi-Activity Weeks begin. Find out more details about the courses here.

Want to join the fun, meet new people and learn new outdoor activity skills? Book your place on a Cobnor Activities Centre session, course or camp today.

Here’s some more Cobnor lambs: