A whole host of activities from the RYA at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show 

Launches, competitons, information and much more...

Alongside the hundreds of exhibitors, boats, kit, talks and presentations taking place at this year’s RYA Volvo Dinghy Show, in association with Yachts & Yachting and Suzuki, the RYA has a whole host of events taking place throughout the weekend (3-4 March).  

Under the roof of the magnificent Alexandra Palace in London, the RYA will be showcasing new initiatives, offering fantastic competition prizes, as well as answering your questions and sharing a wealth of knowledge and information.  

What's new?

Officially launching at the show will be the RYA’s brand new set of Equality Training Videos.  Designed to help clubs and centres develop a greater understanding of discrimination and equality, the series of six case study short films are entitled ‘What if I…” and cover a range of subjects including age, marital status, gender and disability.   Check them out on the RYA stand in the Panorama Hall and tell us what you think.  

The RYA Publications team are also proud to launch the latest in their eBooks catalogue as the new RYA Advanced Sailing Handbook becomes officially available to download over the weekend of the show. 

If you fancy seeing just what RYA eBooks are all about then why not sample the new RYA Tactics and Advanced Sailing tasters on the stand where we’ll have an iPad available for you use.  For more details on RYA eBooks visit www.rya.org.uk/go/ebooks  

Fantastic prizes

You could also be in with a chance of winning some amazing prizes.   In the Sail for Gold Good Luck card competition; if you’re aged between 5 and 16, you could win the once in-a-lifetime prize of personally wishing the British Sailing Team good luck in the lead up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  

Simply design a good luck card which is creative, inspirational and will really give the sailors encouragement when competing out on the water and you could be visiting the 2012 Sail for Gold Regatta in June, to personally deliver your card to a member of Team GBR. At the show we’ll have loads of bits and pieces available for you get started on your card there and then.  

If you love sailing or windsurfing, then why not enter the I Love Sailing Facebook competition.  There are some great prizes up for grabs including Go-Pro cameras, a Neilson Sailing holiday, Skandia Team GBR goodies, a personal coaching session, one year’s family membership to the RYA and much more.  All you have to do is post your own photo or video that captures why you love sailing to the I Love Sailing Facebook page and you could be in with a chance of winning.  Find out more at the show.  

And if you fancy being the talk of your sailing club by winning your club a brand new laptop then why not take part in the Portsmouth Yardstick competition, in celebration of the schemes 60th anniversary.   

On Saturday, at 16.00 on the RS stand (B50, Great Hall), we’ll be joined by Saskia Clarke and Hannah Mills, who will be representing Team GB in the 470 class in the London 2012 Games, and will be helping us to unveil the winner of the RS Tera design a sail competition.  We’ve had some fantastic entries so why not come along and see the winning design for yourself? 

But don’t worry if you haven’t entered yet there’s still time. Youngsters have until the 26 February to send in their designs, download the entry form by visiting the dinghy show competitions page.   

Get hands on

If you fancy something a bit more hands on then why not try out the sailing simulator or weave your way around the Honda Youth RIB Championship course in our computer simulated circuit.  While, in the Sailability Marina we’ll be proudly displaying five disability classes including the Access Dinghy, Challenger, Trimaran, Artemis 20, the 2.4mR and the Paralympic Skud 18.  

Here you can see the boats up close and meet the RYA Sailability Team and representatives from all the classes that work with disabled sailors and volunteers on hand to share their expert knowledge of the boats and to answer any of your questions.  

Under the waves

If you want to know what goes on under the water as well as on it then why not take at peak at some ‘alien species’ on The Green Blue stand (D18, Great Hall) and learn all about these pesky critters.

Then in the Palm Court you’ll have a chance to take a wander through history as the ‘Our Sporting Life – Sail for Gold’ Olympic and Paralympic heritage exhibition comes to town as part of its UK wide tour.  With memorabilia from pre-world war one to the present day there is loads of interesting pieces of information, photos and kit to take a look at.   

And much more...

There’ll also be lots of information on a whole range of subjects from the RYA’s Sail for Gold programme and RYA training schemes to race coaching and club development.   

If you want to renew your membership or get details on becoming a member and the benefits of membership our friendly membership team will be on hand to help you out, we also have a special 50% off family membership plus free gift offer running throughout the show.  

If you’re already a member you’ll also  get 20% discount on all RYA publications throughout the show including new titles such as RYA Dinghy Techniques.  

For more information and to book your tickets visit www.dinghyshow.org.uk or call the ticket hotline on 0844 811 0409.