What have the RYA ever done for us?

give us the url please, cant see it on my machine

As these days there must be an over arching organisation for everything the rya gives the sport a central focus point for those thinking about starting up.

As I've just said on another thread, the RYA have sent along a coach for both our kids and adults (think the latter, at least had to pay something, but still). They've also provided coach and instructor training at the club.

Think we've got some legal advice off them too at some stage. Useful there, as I guess they have an overview of what's happening at other clubs.

And it's always comforting to know that they are there if you need them to appeal to after a dodgy protest decision.

Plus, at the risk of starting 'the usual discussion', they administer the PY system, which I'm sure is a lot better than we as a club would come up with. I suspect our bully-boys would have the 800 rated at 920 by now without a national framework to rely on.

Edited by Medway Maniac - 09 Oct 14 at 11:02am

Their size is a double edged sword, really. Because of it, they are able to do as GRF says, stand up to Whitehall, but also because of it, dinghy sailing becomes a small part of what they do, as Jim says. The danger is, we get lost in all their shinier activities. So from a broad perspective, the Olympics are a good thing, because they are in dinghies, and so keep dinghies in their mind's eye. Maybe we would get less funding at grass roots level, even for adults (direct or indirect) if not for the elite funding?

Oh, and they put on the dinghy show, which whilst flawed in many ways, I love going to.

To be fair to the RYA their regional reps have been extremely helpful with regard to obtaining Sport England grants for boats and improvements, and also CASC (which is a bit in limbo at the moment).  Our club has benefited by at least £70k from this, so around £70/member.