CHILDREN and adults have the chance for a real life Swallows and Amazons experience this weekend.

York RI Sailing Club and their dinghies will be at Bishopthorpe to give members of the public taster sessions of little boat sailing on the River Ouse from 11am to 3pm on Sunday.

The following week on May 12, Yorkshire Ouse Sailing Club will be welcoming would-be sailors at Naburn.

Both events are part of the month-long Push the Boat Out initiative by the Royal Yacht Association aimed at encouraging more people to take up sailing.

Swallows and Amazons, about the sailing adventures of two families of children in the Lake District, was the first of 12 books written by Arthur Ransome in the 1930s and 1940s.

Other sailing or windsurfing taster events are on May 5 at the Vincent Pier Lighthouse, Scarborough from 9am to 2pm (Scarborough Yacht Club), Farnham Lake, Knaresborough, May 12 (Ripon Sailing Club), Thornton Stewart Sailing Club at Bedale, May 13, White Rose Sailing Association, Givendale, Ripon, on May 20 and Whitby Yacht Club on May 28.

“Every event is different but there is something for everyone,” explains RYA Club Support Advisor Jackie Bennetts, who manages the event. “So many people still don’t realise that you can go sailing or windsurfing on your doorstep and that you don’t need to own a boat or a board as clubs and centres often have ones you can borrow or hire."