RYA Wokebomb

Originally posted by NickM99 I was sorry when Bewl Valley SC folded a couple of years ago but the "offer" from the current commercial owners of the reservoir is interesting.  You can sail, canoe, SUP, swim, row, and fish,  all for separate fees which aren't particularly cheap, and there are loads of other things to amuse families and small children including cycle hire and an aqua park.  There is camping on site.  To race you pay only £20+ more  on top of the other fees to join the BV Sailing Association.  In other words something for all the family and potentially a really good day out without ongoing commitments.  As it is "open to the public" it has that sort of feel to it and you see people from many backgrounds there.  If you were starting out as a sailing/water sports family, why would you join a cliquey sailing club which is focussed on racing if such an alternative was available?

Bewl had it coming frankly, their arrogance and pompous attitude did for them long ago.. hauling windsurfers up before a disciplinery committee for sailing near the moorings, no windsurfing on Sundays, good riddance imv, they'd already lost their Solo fleet for whatever reason, they were exactly why dinghy sailing began to falter in the 21st century.

Edited by iGRF - 06 Apr 21 at 7:03pm

Originally posted by davidyacht There appears to be a divide between those who readily volunteer and those that expect everything to be delivered on a plate.

Appears being operative word David - can you furnish any evidence that this is a specifically modern phenomenon and that the 'old days' were measurably better? Are there even enough young people who can afford to live and work in the South Hams now to even make a comparison?

I would think human nature is such that it is always a small handful of people who do/did most of the work in any organisation, at any point in history.

My experience of membership of a kayak club over several years (members drawn from the same area and comparable membership costs to the sailing club) was that there were plenty of volunteers of all ages, male and female on the comittee and and as coaches. Many of the coaches (often in their 20/30s) had spent significant amounts of money to get their certification to coach...for free. Far bigger involvement of time/money than cutting grass and running races.

At the sailing club it was business at usual - 'young people don't want to volunteer / they are all looking at screens / blah-blah-blah'. To be clear, the club members are individually lovely people, it's just group polarisation: a homogenous group parroting the same evidence-free opinions until they are accepted as 'fact'... 

I also do some fly-fishing, another sport that is traditionally done by well-off white men who were quite happy with its exclusivity, until they realised that soon their numbers will dwindle to the point where they wouldn't be able to pay for their fishing rights. Cue identical (word for word) 'young people today...' posts on fly-fishing forums. Apparently, the rest of society is at fault, but the common denominator is... 

Originally posted by DiscoBall Originally posted by davidyacht There appears to be a divide between those who readily volunteer and those that expect everything to be delivered on a plate.  Appears being operative word David - can you furnish any evidence that this is a specifically modern phenomenon and that the 'old days' were measurably better? Are there even enough young people who can afford to live and work in the South Hams now to even make a comparison?

There has been a 15% decrease in levels of volunteering over a decade in the UK according to the ONS

Combined with the increase in population over the same period this means the number of hours  volunteered by each person fell by 21.5%

These stats are not specific to sports clubs......just general "Volunteering" in the UK.

I don't think there's much doubt the volunteer demographic has changed. Much the same generation has been running sailing clubs since the 70s. For whatever reason that generation has been unable to hand over to the next in the way their predecessors were able to. There's a meme you'll find that "Oh the old farts won't let go" but when was the last time your sailing club had a contested election?
Its perhaps more to the point that most club officers are guilt tripped into "volunteering" and perhaps its easier to do that to the people you've known for years rather than the next generation?

Edited by JimC - 07 Apr 21 at 10:45am

Originally posted by davidyacht Snip My point made in previous posts is that in order to deliver a scaleable sailing experience to bring people from all walks of life into sailing, a modern sports centre with a slipway, of which WPNSA is a good example, is a good way to do it, and there is more to this than the bricks and mortar.  A dinghy racing club with volunteer overload may be less effective, particularly if there is a turnover and shortage of volunteers, who in any case may not be trained or be the best people to deliver.