Sailing gave me back my confidence

Senior Dinghy Instructor Margaret Norris recalls the booming voices and good humour at an outdoor centre that changed her life

Hengistbury Head Outdoor Education Centre has been sitting quietly on Christchurch Harbour since 1964, so quietly in fact that, until a sign was placed at the road entrance, even some locals didn’t know it was there. Who would know that thousands of people of all ages have passed through its doors learning to sail? Who would know that one of those people was me. I was working as a lab technician at Highcliffe School in the late 1980s and one of the teachers asked if I’d help him on a regular basis with his group of pupils that he was teaching to sail at Hengistbury. I thought he was mad, as I was from landlocked Manchester and had hardly ever been in a boat. I certainly couldn’t sail but I…

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Practical Boat Owner (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2020

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