OnBoard news round up - January 2020
How can you help people Discover Sailing in 2020?
'Discover Sailing' is the RYA's new 'have-a-go' campaign launched to replace Push The Boat Out and Try Sailing. You can sign your club or training centre up to now to host an event!
Instead of being focused on one month, Discover Sailing will run from 10 April until 30 September, and includes the period of the the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Regatta, which gets underway on Sunday 26 July, with the medals decided on each day from Saturday 1 August to Wednesday
5 August.
The new sign up process for running a 'Discover Sailing' event will give clubs and centres a choice of what resources you wish to order, as well as the ability to order additional resources you may wish to purchase.
Clubs and centres will be able to sign up for resources at two points - before 7 February for events up to 30 June and before 27 April for events up to 30 September.
A 'Discover Sailing' map on the RYA website will also be updated as each club or centre signs up to Discover Sailing and you will be able to amend your event details yourselves.
First Northern Ireland club gets OnBoard!
We are super excited to welcome Craigavon Watersports Centre OnBoard for 2020 - the first OB centre in Northern Ireland. What a great way to start the year!
Craigavon are one of seven new clubs and centres to have joined OnBoard since November. The others are...
- Royal Dart Yacht Club
- Salcombe Dinghy Sailing
- Medway Yacht Club
- Chatham Maritime Watersports Centre
- Seafarers Sailing Club
- Royal Lymington Yacht Club
Findings of RYA Parent Survey
The RYA recently conducted a survey of parents of young people involved in the sport. Just under 60% of the 160 respondents had a child in an RYA or class association squad. Parents cited the main benefits of participation as Confidence, Friendship, Independence, Resilience and Fun.
40% of parents stated their child hadn’t had any negative experiences. Where they had, the main ones were the conflicting demands of participation and school work, inappropriate conduct or language from an adult, a poor experience of race officials or the protest process, or of the RYA squad selection or training programme.
The RYA Safeguarding Steering Group will be reviewing the responses and referring matters for action to the appropriate departments or committees, but clubs also have a role to play in influencing the conduct of their members and race officials.
A high proportion of parents (93%) said their children’s clubs, class associations or training centres had safeguarding policies and procedures, 81% had a designated Welfare Officer and 64% had a culture of listening to young people. However, 30% of parents were not sure whether staff or volunteers had completed safeguarding training, and 40% were not sure whether appropriate checks or references had been sought.
In some cases this may be because the club is taking the right actions but hasn’t communicated this clearly to parents. Make sure your club has safeguarding measures in place and keeps members fully informed.
Happy Centenary St Mawes
Cornwall-based St Mawes SC is looking ahead to its 100th Anniversary in 2020 off the back of year for OnBoard. The club welcomed an amazing 327 young sailors during 2019, augmented by a partnership with local charity, the Roseland Youth Sailing Trust, which provides free sailing to Cornish schoolchildren. We featured this invaluable work in last March's In Your Element - Life chance - how charities can connect schools with sailing. No fewer than 36 regular local youngsters sailed every weekend during the season, while the British Sailing Team's St Mawes old boy, Chris Thomas (49er), returned to present the prizes at the club's Junior Race Week.
Listen again - Volunteering webinar
In November's In Your Element you were invited to sign up for a free webinar sharing the findings from the RYA's recent and extensive volunteering research project. The webinar delved deeper into the findings and recommendations of the research project, and included the experiences of clubs who have managed to successfully increase their numbers of volunteers. If you missed it you can listen again below.
Reminder: Free winter service from Topper Sailboats
As the evenings get gradually lighter (yay!) don't forget to take advantage of this fab offer from our official OnBoard partners, Topper Sailboats. Topper are offering to arrange a free visit to your club where we can help you with any of your plans for next season. Amongst other things, they can help you with:
- Fleet maintenance advice
- Repair advice
- Repair workshops (including How To.. re-weld plastic boats)
- Making School specific boat modifications
- Re-activation of boats that may have been forgotten at the back of your dinghy park
- Updating club spec Toppers to full racing specification
f you would like to book a winter visit to club please email Jon Manners (Topper Sales Manager) at jon.manners@toppersailboats.com or call on 01233 648013.
Where will dinghy sailing take your OnBoarders?
What's the next step on your OnBoarders' sailing journey? Bring them along to the RYA Dinghy Show on 29 February and 1 March and help them find out! With more than 170 specialist exhibitors, interactive activities, expert advice and the latest gear, it’s the perfect way to ramp up excitement ahead of the new OB season.
Beat the queues and take advantage of RYA member and club discounts, saving up to 35%, by getting your tickets in advance. Buy your tickets at www.rya.org.uk/go/dstickets or call the ticket hotline on 0844 858 9069.