Budding boat designers

Are invited to take part in the Royal Institute of Navigation's annual Young Navigators Competition

Fancy becoming the next Ellen MacArthur? Then the Royal Institute of Navigation is holding a competition that may set anyone aged between 9 and 23 out on the right track.

The aim of the competition is to encourage young people to take an interest in navigation. RIN say that virtually any subject can be chosen, but an understanding of what navigation means, must be shown.

The Prize Giving for the last competition took place on 8 March. GPS was the subject of the Key Note speech, given by Terry Moore, Professor of Satellite Navigation and Deputy Director of the Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy, The University of Nottingham.

Dick Smith FRIN, the Institute President, presented the winners with prizes donated by organisations and companies that encourage young people to learn the art and science of navigation. "I am thrilled to see so many young people taking such a lively interest in navigation," commented Smith. "Professor Moor ably demonstrated how satellite navigation is playing an increasingly important role in our lives. A thorough knowledge of navigation will be a real asset to any young person, having strong links as it does with so many activities and disciplines."

Prizes included aircraft flights ranging from a trip in the cockpit of a T33 jet trainer (won by Ian Burrell aged 14), through flights in a Tiger Moth, Gliders, a Miles Magister and several modern light aircraft, five different sea trips including a week aboard the square-rigger TSS Royalist (won by Andrew Merlin aged 15), a week in a buoy-laying tender, to a session in the ultimate computer game, the full-size, multi-million pound Lairdside Ship Simulator at Liverpool - a state-of-the-art installation and the only ship simulator in the UK with a 360-degree view from the bridge normally used to train ship's officers to handle anything from bulk carriers to fast harbour launches (YSGOL Pencoed School).

Other prize-winners received Get Mapping aerial photography atlases of the UK, examples of the latest GPS hand-held receivers by Thales and by Silva UK, and walkers' compasses also from Silva UK.

Alan Green, the competition organiser, said: "I can promise competitors in 2002 that the next prize list will be as good if not better than this one. A well-written school project, university thesis or Duke of Edinburgh’s Special Subject description is not only worth doing for its own sake - it may also get you a stunning prize, completely free. Schools are taking much more interest and we expect the level of inter-school competition to get more fierce as a result."

The closing date for entries is 31st December

For more info in .pdf format - click here