Open Letter from a Retiring Sailing Club Commodore

The RYA’s Connected Conferences have concluded for another year, with clubs from across the UK getting together to share ideas and best practice as well as solutions to common challenges the community is experiencing.

In the letter below, Richard Dobbs, former Commodore of Sea View Yacht Club, shared his thoughts with his club members on the challenges facing sailing clubs and how they have tried to adapt their offering at SVYC to address these elements.

RYA Director of Sport Development, Rob Clark, commented: “Throughout our RYA Connected events it has been amazing to hear stories from our clubs across the UK, sharing how they are working to support their communities to be active on the water. Sea View Yacht Club is a great example of where an organisation has thought creatively in this space and continues to do so. 

“RYA Connected workshops and webinars continue throughout the year and you can learn what is coming up and how to get involved through our events page and the links that we will share in Connected News.”

Richard Dobbs writes:

Dear Member,

Today, my three-year term as Commodore of the Sea View Yacht Club (SVYC) ends. In this note, I wanted to share a few reflections on our Club. 

The squeeze facing sailing clubs

As Commodore, I have met quite a few Flag Officers of other yacht clubs in the UK and abroad. It's clear that many clubs are having a tough time, facing declining membership and a financial squeeze. We will all have our views on why this is happening, but I believe there are six main factors driving this squeeze:

1. Declining participation in sailing. Participation in sailing has declined over the last fifty years across the UK – this picture is similar in other countries such as the US. My sense is that this decline has been driven by a greater choice of leisure activities, less time available, the poor accessibility of sailing and its rising cost (we no longer have the build-at-home Mirror Dinghy, for instance), but we have seen a rise in motorboating and other boating activities such as paddleboarding. Many sailing clubs don't cater for these growing boating activities, and as a result participants – and potential future sailors - are less likely to join a traditional sailing club.


2. Fewer volunteers. The squeeze on members’ time means that many clubs can no longer rely on volunteers to run racing, safety boats, the bar, etc. We are seeing this at Seaview, with many roles, previously performed by volunteers, now paid, at a cost to the Club.


3. Higher than average inflation. The costs of the inputs for a sailing club have risen faster than general inflation. Labour is the biggest input cost for our club. This is either the direct labour costs or indirect costs through major suppliers. A couple of numbers are stark. Between 2010 and 2020, the national minimum wage for a 21-year-old rose by nearly 60%, compared to RPI inflation of 33% in the same period. Other costs such as energy have shown a similar picture. 


4. Greater compliance costs. Rightly, clubs face a higher standard of compliance, including on-the-water safety, safeguarding, HR processes, or food hygiene in their kitchens. These all come at a cost.


5. Inefficient processes. Many clubs have been slow to fully apply the type of technology tools used by other medium-sized businesses. Bookings are often by phone, email or paper forms, for instance. 


6. Inability, or unwillingness, to pass on to members the costs of the above factors. Many Clubs' Flag Officers know that some of their valued members are financially squeezed and so have been reluctant to pass on the rising costs to, in many cases, their shrinking membership. But they also find it difficult to cut the level of service offered to their members who, in many cases, have rising expectations of the level of service.

We all must be realistic about how these six factors have resulted in a squeeze on almost all sailing clubs and the adaptations we should consider as a result. 

Lessons from skiing

I want to make a brief detour to consider the lessons from skiing. In doing this, I need to credit Rod Carr, the former CEO of the RYA. I had the pleasure of working with Rod in the early noughties on the strategy for the RYA.

Rod believed that skiing had managed to avoid the declining participation seen in sailing for three reasons:

1. Pay-and-play. Skiing is possible without needing to invest in your own kit. Boots, skis and even clothing can be hired.


2. Ubiquity of training. Anyone can learn to ski at many ski schools. For many, sailing is only learnt from parents.


3. Après Ski. This is a core part of the skiing proposition.

The SVYC position

At Sea View, we are not immune from the squeeze facing other Clubs, but we have taken some steps to reduce the impact on our Club.

We have been operating pay-and-play sailing since the decision in 1947 to purchase a shared, club-owned, charter fleet. We now have around eighty club dinghies available for hire by members. We have embraced motorboats and paddleboards. We also decided, nearly forty years ago, to invest in training. Members can learn to sail without having a parent to teach them. Our Seaview Schools Sailing (funded by the Seaview Sailing Trust, the charity we set up) will have introduced over two thousand local primary school children to sailing through half a day’s sailing over five to ten weeks as part of their school curriculum. Sailing in Seaview is not exclusively a Dynasty sport – though I value the intergenerational nature of our Club. And we have repurposed much of our staging to be an “après sail” venue. I know that the “après sail” DJ and music are not every member’s cup of tea, but it has made our club relevant again for the 18-35 young adults.

So, we have bucked the national trend of declining Club members, adding around 300 members on a net basis since 2019, and, particularly satisfyingly, growing our young adult membership by 50%. Thanks to the hard work of our class captains, we have grown participation in sailing and other boating activities. Through our “RIB Guide” and “Paid Hand” programmes, we have allowed some older members to continue participating safely in our sport. We have repositioned our relationship with our neighbours through our Seaview Sailing primary schools programme, and our support for the Seaview Community Partnership and Seaview Business Association. We have modernised how we work with a number of systems, saving at least two full-time equivalents in the office.

I estimate that all of these initiatives have delivered around £200k a year "self-help". But over £170k of this self-help has been eroded, especially by the inflation squeeze. As a result of this erosion, we are still not delivering the level of financial performance needed to fund our long-term capital needs, without having to resort to levies or appeals.

The future

I am afraid that it seems unlikely that the squeeze facing sailing clubs is going to reduce any time soon. Indeed, the recent budget will contribute further to this squeeze. As a Club, we need to continue our programme of self-help to offset the impact of this inflation on our costs. I know our secretary and the new Flag Officer team are working on such a self-help plan.

But as members, we also need to be realistic about the service level we expect and be prepared to pay for this. As one candidate for Commodore put it, "The trouble with Sea View Yacht Club members is that they want a Rolls Royce but only to pay for a Skoda".

Over the last few years, I have set what I believe is the service level the average member wants including, for instance, operating hours, the Club remaining open throughout most of the winter to provide a hub for Seaview's winter residents and someone in the office who can make booking for members who are struggling to do this online.

The other day I was reflecting on my deepest friendships. Most of these were not from my professional life or the places I have lived. Instead, they were from Sea View, renewed almost every summer over decades. We have a magical location where our children and grandchildren can build friends for life through participating in our wonderful sport. This must be worth the investment.

Best wishes,

Richard Dobbs

If you have a story that you are willing to share about how you are adapting your club's offering to support ongoing health and participation, we would love to hear from you at sport.development@rya.org.uk.

The RYA continues to deliver RYA Connected events in person and online where we will share positive stories from across RYA clubs. View and sign up to RYA Connected workshops and webinars.