The fun began on Friday night when guests arrived to listen to music from 7.00pm. but Saturday brought a whole day of activities including sailing, kayaking, canoeing, climbing, abseiling, archery and trips around Chichester Harbour in Cobnor Activities Centre’s specially designed Chairboat. The sun was shining and there was a little breeze, making it ideal weather to enjoy outdoor activities, both water and land-based.

We sent our roving reporter out on the Chairboat so that while those onboard enjoyed a relaxing cruise around the Harbour, almost as far as East Head, she could get some great shots of the passengers enjoying themselves and other guests partaking in Bosun sailing, sea kayaking and canoeing with Cobnor Activities Centre and Wayfarer sailing with CYE. Kate also went out for a spin on our largest patrolling powerboat, Jenny Boone, and while she cooled off with the sea-breeze through her hair she also got some fantastic action shots of families enjoying watersports.

On land, the climbing tower and archery field were popular attractions and those who were at Cobstock to enjoy the music didn’t have long to wait as it all kicked off at 2.00pm. Here are just some of the highlights from the billing:

The Kids Next Door, two local girls and a boy, got huge cheers of support for their great acoustic renditions of some KT Tunstall and Outcast chart-toppers. Redshift were another young  group, all lads this time, with an Indie-Rock edge that contributed to a particularly good cover of the Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody. The Dave Band with their folk vibe boasted two excellent female singers and bongos, which are always a winner in our opinion. They did some beautiful Gabriella Cilmi, hand-clapping Hard -Fi, and a Winehouse-esque Vallerie that rocked the field. 

Later on, there came hearty blues from Dolphin, which gave a chilled out start to the evening and was a favourite with young and old. Also worth a mention is strummer extraordinaire Duncan McKenzie; just one man and his acoustic guitar who impressed the crowd with his talents reminiscent of Rodrigo y Gabriella. The Naked Flames brought us some Feeder, Stereophonics and yet more Kings of Leon. Aimee Lee sang some chilled out classics including Florence and the Machine’s Raise it Up and later on came Tim Sturdy who Kate sadly missed but is guessing that he gave a great performance based on last year. See Cobstock 2009 blog entry.

All this fabulous music and those fun-packed outdoor activities washed down with a hearty organic burger, some delicious sate sticks from the Ca’noodle Thai Taste and a few refreshing ciders with a lot of sunshine (and only the tiniest hint of rain) made for a perfect local festival. Who’s looking forward to Cobstock 2011? We are!

From the end of April for 8 weeks we are running a range of RYA Youth Sailing Scheme courses in the evenings. Stage 1 for 9 to 12 year olds introduces novice sailors who are eager to find out how a boat sails, experience some steering and get a chance to handle the boat. The RYA Stage 2 course offers 10 to 16 year old sailors a chance to build their skills and background knowledge as well as build their confidence in a small boat. Those taking stage 3 master sailing in all directions as well as rigging and launching their boats. The weather held out (just about) for all sessions so far and we’ve seen much improvement throughout the ranks, giving us a great start to the season’s evening sails.  Read more about our sailing fleet.

Last weekend we started our powerboat courses for those aged 14 plus who want to become competent behind the wheel of a powerboat. We use a combination of our 5.5 metre Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) our diesel launch and Commando craft to give all-round experience of the different types of powerboat. Don’t worry if you missed out on the RYA Powerboat Level 2, there are courses running in June and September: http://www.cobnor.com/scheduled-courses/.

In other news, Cobnor Activities Centre’s trusty Jenny Boone is getting her inflatable tubes replaced after 12 years of hard use. This will see the Centre’s largest Rigid Inflatable Boat, and an important part of the powerboating fleet, set in good stead for the summer. Pete Davies, the Centre’s Chief Bosun takes great care to make sure that our 7 metre RIB is always in optimum working order as the Queen of our powerboats, providing safety and rescue cover for our sailing fleet during sailing lessons and races.

In two weeks Cobnor Activities Centre will launch their new and improved residential facilities to teachers and youth leaders from local schools and youth groups who have received their VIP invitations in the post. Read more about the Residential Relaunch here.