YouthSailing, the RYA and Catamarans

The following is the statement by the RYA on the Y&Y website posted on 4 October:

At its meeting at the Royal Thames Yacht Club yesterday (Wednesday 3 October) the RYA Council further discussed submissions from the RYA to the 2007 ISAF Conference relating to future events in both the ISAF World Youth Sailing Championships and the Olympic Games.

During the meeting, Chris Atkins, Chairman of the RYA Racing Committee, revisited the two submissions with the RYA Council in light of the recent strength of feeling expressed towards them by the UK catamaran community.

RYA Council maintains its belief that catamaran racing is an important part of the sport of sailing in the UK, and accepts that the intent of these submissions was not communicated as well as it could have been to relevant stakeholders within the UK sailing fraternity. It believes, nevertheless, that its submissions are important in order to initiate strategic discussions within ISAF, the body responsible for the global direction of the sport and the final arbiter on which events are included at the ISAF Youth World Championships and the Olympic Games.

Following its meeting, RYA Council resolved to amend its submission relating to future events at the ISAF Youth World Championships. RYA Council believes these Championships should be as inclusive as possible, commensurate with them providing a pathway for youth sailors into Olympic events. RYA Council therefore believes that both double-handed trapeze dinghy racing and skiff racing should both be included in the Championships as these are included in the Olympic regatta. Therefore the amended submission now advocates the following events:

Boy’s one person dinghy
Girl’s one person dinghy
Boy’s two person dinghy
Girl’s two person dinghy
Boy’s windsurfer
Girl’s windsurfer
Open Multihull
Open two person high performance dinghy

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At the meeting with UKCRA on 8 October the RYA have apparently refused to withdraw or modify either submission. So this statement (above) was pure propaganda and the RYA have NOT changed their position at all. How devious can you get?

Keep signing the petition folks.................

Sounds like they are taking the p*ss to be blunt.

sounds like their consultation with the cat fraternity was only to prove they can consult , shame they can't hear !!!!!!!!

as " our " national organising body their percieved lack of desire to represent cat sailors needs despite our overwhelming protests is extremely concerning , if this situation continues to carry on , uk cat sailors need to unite and lobby isaf as UKCRA seem to be planning to do . We also as dinghy sailors as a whole have to consider the RYA and its place within UK dinghy sailing , I know its not just the cat sailors that are appalled at this behaviour and from what i hear the RYA have been less than diplomatic with others.

Lets not forget and its been said many times before , if you race a cat in the UK at present you are helping fund the RYA wether you like it or not.

How do we join UKCRA as individual members ???

Folk have mentioned the RYA dinghy show and cat sailings attendance , I've suggested an idea to others , why not drop it and cat sailing run its own , perhaps around a large multiclass cat regatta , like the Grafham event for example .

It could be run as the UKCRA Cat Championships Perhaps on a bank holiday weekend in a central location , and the "holi day " could be used for demos and visitors day .

Finaly , perhaps we have all got it wrong and the RYA have our best interests at heart and they will come up with a statement to prove that (and stick to it !) 

Perhaps pigs will fly .