Aspiring young windsurfer Dexter Harding (10) has been being awarded his very own Bic Techno windsurf board by the John Merricks Sailing Trust (JMST), the official charity of the RYA OnBoard programme.

Dexter, from Falmouth, who attends club sessions regularly at Stithians Lake and is a member of the Stithians Allstars Team15 windsurfing team, was selected from over 80 applications after competing in the RYA South and South West Zone Championships which took place in Weymouth in September.

The board that the JMST has donated will provide Dexter with the highest quality of equipment to continue to participate in windsurfing.

Dexter said: “I love the speed of sailing, and being there on the water. I also love meeting new people and sailing with them. I would like to be a junior instructor in the future.”

As official RYA OnBoard charity partner since 2012, the JMST are donating more than 50 single-handed junior pathway boats and boards to promising sailors over five years. Every year, at least one young sailor will be selected from each of the nine RYA Zones and Home Countries to receive two years of exclusive use of the boat or board.

RYA OnBoard Development Officer Cat Ferguson said: "The equipment will then be donated to the sailor’s original club or training centre to benefit club training programmes and enable other young sailors to benefit in the future and progress into club, regional and national racing activities.

“This is the fourth year that OB has been supported by the JMST to run this scheme and we are really grateful for their involvement. We’re already seeing these youngsters progressing in the sport in ways they would not have been able to, had it not been for this opportunity,"

Ian Walker, double Olympic silver medallist, winning VOR skipper and JMST Trustee, commented: “All at the JMST are delighted to be funding this scheme that supports youth sailors at a grassroots level. It is wonderful to see the progression and achievements that so many of the sailors supported in the first years of the scheme have made over the last few years.

Run by the RYA, OnBoard is a grass roots programme which introduces sailing and windsurfing to young people aged 8 to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres.

Over a ten year period OnBoard has introduced more than 500,000 children to sailing and windsurfing in the UK, converting over 10% of them into regular participants.

For more information about how to get involved in sailing visit www.rya.org.uk/go/onboard