RDO Blog October 2021

Hi everyone,

I hope that you’ve had a successful summer on the water, and it’s great to see activity continuing into the Autumn for many clubs. There’s been plenty happening in the region both on the water and behind the scenes, so I wanted to update you on recent activities.

RYA Affiliated Clubs Conference

Hopefully your club will have received further information from me regarding the Affiliated Clubs Conference, which this year, will be delivered across a national online event (Monday 08 November 1930-2130) and an in-person regional event (Saturday 27 November 1000-1500) at the Royal Hospital School, Ipswich Suffolk. Both are free to attend, and we hope that they will provide an opportunity for clubs to reconnect and learn from each other.  There is no limit for the online event, however we are keen to encourage 2-3 people from each club in the East Region to attend the face-to-face event. Additional information and bookings can be found here.

The OnBoard Fleet at the Regional Junior Championships 

It was a fantastic weekend of sailing and fun on the water for the RYA East British Youth Sailing Regional Championships at Grafham Water on 25/26 September, which saw a total of over 220 young sailors on the water! Whilst the Championship and Regatta fleets raced (the full results are available here), the OnBoard fleet enjoyed a weekend of “Swallows and Amazon” style activities, with an emphasis on fun and games with aims, many taking part in their first event away from their club. Working on developing the OnBoard character attributes in the young sailors, who were all aged under 13 and relatively new to sailing, there was a focus on teamwork, determination, independence, confidence, communication and creativity – with activities structured around these. Sailors enjoyed everything from teambuilding exercises where they were required to rebuild lego models through communication, to adventure sails to destinations, treasure hunts and much more – and all came back with huge smiles on their faces. With some sailors having been nervous at the start of the day to take part, these nerves quickly dissipated in favour of excitement – and a great weekend’s sailing was enjoyed by all. Seeing the other fleets (Coached Regatta and Championship fleets) sailing on the same piece of water also proved inspirational for the young sailors, having something to aspire to in future years – with some already saying that they would like to participate in the Regatta fleet next year. We hope to encourage many more young sailors to participate in next year and beyond – and do save the date for 2022: 18-19 June at Grafham.

Club meetings

It’s great to have a number of club meetings lined up over the coming weeks, which will provide an opportunity to review the season and discuss ideas for retaining members and delivering activity over the winter and next season. I would be really pleased to hear from more clubs who would like to meet, and get dates in the diary for either a face to face or virtual catch-up – please contact me on Robbie.bell@rya.org.uk

Club workshops 

 
We will be planning workshop sessions for January-March 2022, which aim to be local forums to discuss ideas and information around the core topics from the Affiliated Club Conference. We’re keen to have feedback from clubs as to whether you would prefer online or face-to-face meetings, and also any particular topics that you would like to discuss with other clubs or learn more about. Please email your ideas to Robbie.bell@rya.org.uk

Save the date – 2022 Instructor Training Day

Save the date for the Instructor Training Day, which is Sunday 06 March 2022. We’re planning for this to be a busy day focusing on reconnecting with instructors from across the region, and refreshing personal and instructor skills, with lots of practical sessions both on and off the water.

Keep in touch

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – to keep in touch with members over the coming months, and to enable you to keep us updated with your activities and plans.

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Robbie