oppies

Originally posted by foaminatthedeck Im not sure that RYA want to hear the views of instructors they want to keep the big players (Sunsail etc) happy.

From first hand experience and knowledge the RYA are not sunsail biggest fan...

Paul In Economics its called 'Free Riding', difficult to eradicate in something like sailing where you want to encourage wider participation.  the RYA could restrict access to some information and services but this would probably be self defeating.  The schemes haven't changed that much over the years and is more tweaking than anything else.  I last wholesale change happened because week long courses were considered too long for busy people and the format went to one that allows a bite-size chunk to be delivered in a weekend.  Pobably better (and you do argue for change!) and I don't think your L3 is devalued by it.  Not sure what you mean by syllabus changing in the last 3 years, the only thing I've noticed is the alignment of the Junior scheme more closely with the adult, personally I think it better as the jump from S2 to S3 was too large for many. 

Think how much more we could get out of the sport and how much cheaper membership would be if you could motivate all those non members to join both the RYA and CAs.  I do see a problem with Olympics in the UK as this will result in a lot of press coverage of the games at the expense of what the RYA is contributing at club level. 

I really would recommend attending the racing conference, or if your gripe is with the training scheme writing to Dave Ritchie, after all if no one tells them its broke they can't fix it.  Pete Vincent in that other publication is making a lot of good points around the issues you raise.  However, at the same time making wholesale changes may alienate your membership while having only a marginal impact on non-members signing up.  Pete identifies the problems (and some solutions) but not the path to join these up...

Garry,

Whilst I am knocking the RYA I do appreciate in some areas that they do good work for sailing in general in the UK. The problem is that I do not see what benefit I get by joinging as a personal member. Until this kind of thing is addressed the RYA will struggle to recruit individual members and have to reply on block subscriptions from clubs.

It is the same issue as class associations have. The ones that thrive actively target what their membership wants and needs. The ones that stagnate (and hence the classes dwindle and eventually die) are the ones who don't listen and adapt. I appreciate the RYA has a big job to do as it is a big organisation.

One thing that has surprised me with the RYA is the regularity with which it changes the qualification schemes. I have been an AI at my club for 4 years and over the last 3 the syllabus has changed every year. I realise this kind of thing does need to evolve or it will become worthless but some people who qualify at one level one year then find that their qualification is effectively worthless as the scheme changes.

When I was awarded RYA level 3 many years back I picked up the certificate and was then told 'oh the scheme is changing'.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant but I think there needs to be some stability in this kind of scheme or people will start to ignore it. It is the same with IT qualifications. By the very nature of working in IT exams and course have to change and many qualifications have a periodic update exam that must be sat but a qualification at a certain level is recognised industry wide, it doesn;t change all the time.

I will go and hide now....

Paul

Originally posted by jeffers For the market the Feva is aimed at it ticks most if not all of the boxes. It is not to everyones taste however. I do feel that the RYA should place more emphasis on symmetrical spinnakers though. Sailing an assymetric by comparison is easier to learn than a symmetric. Just my opinion, I do not think much to most of the RYA ideas though (hence why I am not an individual member). I appreciate they do a lot of work for sailing in the UK but their direction can be somewhat misplaced more often than it is not. Paul

You should join and change things then, I'm sure your input would be welcome... or at least understand why they're like that.  I expect the Racing conference will be late November / December and it gives plenty of opportunity to influence the policymakers.

On the Feva question what assymetric boat would the detractors propose that was cheap, reasonably OD, accessable by young people with a variety of ages and abilities, and robust.  We already have three good symetric junior classes, if I remember correctly so I can see the logic of introducing an assymetric class.

Exactly