RYA Northern Ireland CEO and Chair Q3 Report

In our Q3 update, we bring you the latest news and progress from RYA NI, which include the summaries of the last two Board meetings in September and December.

We celebrated the RYA NI’s 50^th Anniversary with a celebratory dinner at the Belfast Harbour Commissioners Office. We were delighted to have guests from across most of the clubs in NI, former NI Olympians, guests from local businesses, past RYA NI Chairs and many others that have contributed to sailing and boating in NI over the past 50 years. Congratulations also to the latest round of inductees into the NI Sailing Hall of Fame who were announced at the Dinner.

Two staff members have recently moved on to new opportunities, with Kate Broderick staying in the sport, having now started as the Watersports Manager at Ballyholme Yacht Club. Thank you and congratulations to Gayle and Kate who have both been great assets for RYA NI and the development of the sport here in NI. We have a new Administrator starting in January 2025 and are now advertising for two part time roles of Development Officer and Racing Officer.

Below you can find some of the key discussion points and decisions from our September and December Board meetings:

• The Board received a run through and update on the new club affiliation process and portal from RYA Development Director, Rob Clark.
• Following additional changes requested by the Charity Commission, a redrafted Public Benefit Statement was approved by the Board.
• Q2 accounts were shared with the Board for discussion, where there is a deficit of £5k showing, which was a planned deficit linked to the 50^th Anniversary Dinner spend. Following some gaps in staffing since then, we now expect to deliver a break even budget.
• The 23-24 Annual Report was shared and approved by the Board with some requests for additions to be added before publishing, such as including more financial information and partner/Board information. You can see the Annual Report here.
• The AGM was discussed, and the recruitment of vacant director positions were approved. No-one came forward for the vacant C&E Environment Committee Chair position.
• Andrew Baker (Hammy) and Lisa McCaffrey gave updates to the Board on the launch of the NI Sailing Team and club development work respectively.
• A change to the terms of reference for the Development Committee was approved to move to a quorum of four (previously six).
• A Q2 strategy report was presented to the Board for discussion, there has been some good progress and we are currently on track against all but one SNI funding measures.
• The Safeguarding Implementation Plan for 24-25 was discussed and approved.
• The results of the Board appraisal process were discussed, where it was agreed that a Governance and Risk sub group would be established to put in place an action plan against areas of improvement. Gavin Nelson (Independent Director) has been approved as the Chair of this group.

Mid year progress against the strategic plan

• A successful Youth Championships were held with 126 boats and 140 people entered. A big thank you to Strangford Lough Yacht Club for hosting and all the volunteers for making the event happen. An event wrap up can be found here
• The RYA NI Article changes that went out to clubs by written resolution in July were passed, thank you to all those clubs that sent these back in. We now await a response from the Charity Commission for our sign off as a charity.
• It was fantastic to have our Women On Water Ambassadors on board on board for our WOW Development Programme  
• We are delighted to see that there has been a 15% increase in women and girls and disability club membership across Northern Ireland.
• We have joined other water sports NGB’s in NI to form part of an NI lobbying group around water quality, we were one of three sports that led a presentation to the All Party Group for Sport and Recreation at Stormont to highlight how a lack of clean water is affecting clubs and participants. The group has affiliated to the UK Clean Water Alliance, which is a group that has been formed for the UK and where RYA is one of the lead bodies.
• 15 Active Club programmes were supported across 11 clubs through the Active Clubs grants.
• We’re All In (Volunteer Recruitment Programme) for 2024 is complete with four clubs involved and four volunteer engagements ran with over 100 club members/future volunteers engaged. You can apply for the 2025 programme here
• Nine table sponsors were secured for the 50^th Anniversary Dinner, seven of these being in cash and two ‘in kind’ support.
• Grant Applications were made for the Good Relations funding, which we were not successful, an application has been submitted in partnership with Irish Sailing for the Shared Island Fund and an application to The National Lottery for support with the Sailability programme, which we are awaiting the outcome of.
• We have completed the ‘Brand Builder’ sessions with 11 sailors. We worked with an Australian company that delivered a series of sessions that supported our young sailors to develop their own personal brands and help them to attract their own sponsorship.
• The NI Sailing Team was launched and the first squads selected, you can find out more here
• The Individual Grant Scheme was launched to help make the sport more accessible, see more here.
• A three year sponsorship deal for the NI Youth Champs from 2025-26 onwards has been agreed and will be announced officially in January/February 2025.