Ciarán Jordan from Newcastle is certainly one of the youngest sailors ever to feature in ‘Me and the Sea’, but he’s also one of the most enthusiastic.

At the tender age of ten, Ciarán’s sailing career has been short but fulfilling. A big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean and all things nautical, he first attended a course two years ago at the Galway Bay Sailing Club somewhat against his wishes.

“My dad wanted me to go and I didn’t really like the idea at first until I did it, but then I enjoyed it a lot,” he says.

“I was scared at first, but I could swim pretty well.”

Ciarán’s father, Vincent, is a huge sailing fan and an active member of GBSC, and Ciarán had been out sailing with a group from the club before.

At the beginning, Ciarán says, the course was mainly theory.

“We learned about all the different types of sailing, what they were called. It was pretty boring!” He and his friends also learned about safety on the course.

However, after a couple of days Ciarán and his friends were allowed onto the water, to sail Optimists – dinghies made for one child which sit high in the water.

Getting ready for a day sailing is no mean feat, with a lot of preparations to be made. “You have to wear a dry suit, that keeps you dry, with a lot of really warm clothes underneath. You have to wear a full body fleece, and then a life jacket as well – it’s a lot of clothes,” says Ciarán.

Two years later, Ciarán is still sailing an Optimist, and is obviously hungry to learn more. “Before I started, I didn’t know the rules of sailing or racing but now I go to training every week and I won a race last week,” he says.

“I’m doing another course sometime soon and I have another training course this Friday and Saturday for the Optimist,” he says, agreeing that it’s good to have a hobby during the school holidays.

As for sailing heroes, Ciarán says his friend Jack Collins, aged 11, is the best sailor he knows. “He’s really good – I’d like to be as good as him.”

In the long-term, Ciarán would love to learn to sail a cruiser.

“A dinghy is low in the water and there’s no underside. You can take it in and out of the water easily. A cruiser is bigger and there’s usually a cabin. You only get to put it in and out once a year. Cruisers are much bigger and you fit three or four people.”

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