Modernising safety management 

Cody Sailing Club is a virtual club based in Hampshire offering training, day sailing and dinghy cruising in company, and longer camps on the south coast and further afield. With no clubhouse of its own, there are around 100 members from across the country who sail their own boats, or borrow one of three club dinghies located at Frensham Pond SC.  

Identifying the challenge

While most clubs have health and safety policies and procedures for their clubhouse, boat park and waters, Cody SC members regularly find themselves in new places as part of a cruising fleet which may go any number of miles in a day, without a safety boat.

Dinghy trails are devised by club members, who support each other on the water and ashore at the various launching and recovery points - at the start/finish and along the way at stops for a café, pub or conveniences.

The club also runs around 4-5 longer camps a year at locations where it is possible to stay on site and launch a boat, providing the opportunity to explore different places.

The club was founded in 1948 with a membership of personnel from the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, initially for yacht sailing and from the mid-70s for dinghies. 

The club’s Safety Management Policy had roots in its 1948 constitution, evolving since 1974 to make adventurous dinghy sailing as safe as reasonably possible, albeit sometimes through the ‘school of hard knocks’. 

After attending an RYA Connected Conference, the club realised its Safety Management Policy would benefit from being streamlined and updated to reflect best practice and meet modern legal requirements. 

Implementing a solution 

Drawing on RYA legal expertise for club policies and procedures, Cody SC started its Safety Management Policy journey by pulling together all the different bits of existing safety management into one place.  

Its existing information was comprehensive but located across many resources on the club website, including with operating instructions for club boats, as part of an induction pack, in rules and guidance documents, and in the club constitution. 

The Safety Management Policy can now be found in one location on the club website, making it easier for members to access, and covers all aspects of the club’s activities, including: risk assessments, launching/recovery, sailing, fleet discipline and self-rescue, boat and medical emergencies. 

Consolidating progress

The Safety Management Policy is a dynamic collection of documents that is revisited and reviewed in response to any new advice from the RYA or incidents experienced by members. 

As a matter of course, the club reviews its Safety Management Policy annually over the quieter winter months and when completing its RYA Affiliation, and also shares regular reminders and updates with its members via its e-newsletters.

The club adds that its Safety Management Policy is very much not just a living document, it is a living practice. The club uses it for planning, executing and reviewing all of its training, day sails and camps, saying: “We’ve written it down but then we actually do it.”  

RYA advice to add Complaints and Incident Reporting policies has also been adopted.

Cody SC Secretary and RYA Senior Instructor Steve White said: “Our safety management guidance was already mature but we’ve now brought it all together and put it into an ordered format that is recommended by the RYA, and backed up by the club committee with a hands-on commitment to health and safety. We have materially improved the safety of our members as a result.” 

Assessing the impact

An example of the Safety Management Policy review process in practice emerged when two members of the club fell over while pulling boats over a rocky foreshore. This resulted in the club adding lifting and manual handling procedures, including training and advice on working together mindfully as a team on a steep or uneven beach.

As Steve explains: “We don’t have our own clubhouse, boat park and slipways, so every time we go sailing we’re in a different environment. We hadn’t previously considered how that impacts the safety around the handling of boats when launching and recovering.

“We have some quite senior people who like to be involved in moving their boats, and we are now being more mindful about working together as a team to support them, and help them on the beach separately from their boat, because we want to help them keep sailing for longer, safely. 

“Including manual handling ashore in our Safety Management Policy has seen people discussing it in a way we haven’t heard before as a result of writing it down and making it a thing in practice. There were no injuries as a result of manual boat handling in 2025.” 

Insights and tips

Cody SC made the most of its RYA Affiliation to tap into knowledge and legal expertise for the review and ongoing development of its Safety Management Policy.

Steve says: “I’ve been on the committee for 14 years and have engaged with and appreciated the support available from the RYA to help us run a ‘well-run’ club. I feel that if you’re affiliated to your national governing body, it’s a good idea to take their advice and not push back on it. While some elements of advice don’t apply because we don’t have a clubhouse and boat park, anything that does apply to us, we do it.”

Steve’s top tips are: 

• Think carefully about your Safety Management Policy in relation to your own circumstances and environment
• Publish the SMP so it is easily accessible by all members, and highlight any key points and developments in regular updates to ensure everyone is aware
• Ensure members understand their part in applying the Safety Management Policy at a practical level
• Should something go wrong, undertake a review and take whatever actions come from the review.

“That’s where we’ve had success,” sums up Steve. “Our Safety Management Policy is not a theory and it’s not shelfware, we enact it.”  

Useful links

• Find out more about Cody Sailing Club activities
• RYA legal advice and guidance to support you in the running of your club
• Health & Safety information for RYA Affiliates
• Guidance on creating a safety management system