Following on from David’s announcement that he wishes to retire at the end of February 2022 the trustees shortlisted and then interviewed candidates for the position in September. They have now appointed Jonny Cormack as our new manager and principal instructor (pictured) who will start in the New Year and work alongside David for his first two months. We are very excited about this and feel that Jonny will fit in well and will confidently take us into the future. He has written a few words here to introduce himself:

‘I am delighted to be joining Blackwell Sailing in the New Year.  I have known about the charity and the great work it does since I have been working on the lake over the past 20 years.  The time and effort that David has put in over the years is immense and I know I have some big shoes to fill!  I plan to use my time with David over the coming months very wisely extracting as much information as possible during our hand over period.

I am really looking forward to working with the variety of groups and individuals that visit Blackwell each year. I have met some of the volunteers and instructors that give up their time helping out at the centre and I look forward to meeting everyone else that helps makes the Blackwell vision become a reality. This is a new chapter in my life as well as Blackwell’s and I am looking forward to taking the charity forward for years to come. See you on the water in 2022!

David says he is looking forward to working with Jonny and passing on the responsibility to him. “I am sure we will all want to wish him the best of luck and do everything we can to help him settle in when the sailing season starts off again. I think we are very fortunate to have someone with Jonny’s experience and qualifications to take over. He has been running another sailing centre on Windermere for a number of years and has also worked voluntarily with Blind Sailing UK, a charity that enables people to compete at national and international level”.