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Another club closure
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JimC View Drop Down
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    Posted: 28 May 22 at 10:45am
Originally posted by Sussex Lad

But I can't believe that every single sailing club in the country is run well. Defies reason.

Its not that difficult to run a sailing club. Provided you can keep clear of factional fights and major cliques its not that big a deal. And sailing clubs tend to have a reasonable number of middle class people with business experience who can get drafted in. Its got more complicated in recent years thanks to safeguarding, H&S and so on, but its still a lot less than rocket science, and there's plenty of assistance and advice available from various bodies, not least the RYA. I don't find it hard to believe that the vast majority of clubs are at least adequately run.

Folks under 50 please note - there's no reason why you shouldn't get involved in club admin, its not that hard, and there must be precious few clubs these days in which you actually need to win an election. What doesn't seem to work is waiting to be asked. In the distant past it was regarded as useful experience for people in their 20s who saw administration as part of their future career.
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Paramedic View Drop Down
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Posts: 929 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Paramedic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 22 at 10:35am
Being well run and agreeing with how the club is run isn’t the same thing :)
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Posts: 360 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Sussex Lad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 22 at 10:27am
Originally posted by Paramedic

Originally posted by turnturtle

Wraysbury & Kingsmead are two more - what surprises me (positively) is to my knowledge there aren’t any who simply haven’t re-opened after Covid lockdowns

Which however much we may disagree with our committees does speak volumes for how well run our clubs are.


Maybe?

But I can't believe that every single sailing club in the country is run well. Defies reason.

Maybe it says more about the needs of the membership.......their marbles were rattled and continue to be rattled. The need to go somewhere to shut the crap out, somewhere that seemed normal.....all perfectly healthy and understandable stuff.
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Posts: 3419 		Post Options Post Options   Quote 423zero Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 22 at 9:31am
Commodore from Brookevale is our Commodore, we picked up a few of their members.
Robert
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Posts: 2538 		Post Options Post Options   Quote turnturtle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 22 at 9:00am
Indeed! And without blowing he trumpet of a former club of mine, I understood that a lot of their work was then transposed to the RYA for case study material.

So much as the RYA get derided, at least they are prepared to utilise good practice from their membership over edicts from ivory towers like some sporting bodies.

Perhaps actually that's as good a source as any on club level contraction (or expansion).  

How many afflicted clubs are there now, vs say, 10 years ago?  Or even 30 years ago?
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Paramedic View Drop Down
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Posts: 929 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Paramedic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 22 at 8:17am
Originally posted by turnturtle

Wraysbury & Kingsmead are two more - what surprises me (positively) is to my knowledge there aren’t any who simply haven’t re-opened after Covid lockdowns

Which however much we may disagree with our committees does speak volumes for how well run our clubs are.
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Posts: 2538 		Post Options Post Options   Quote turnturtle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 22 at 8:07am
Wraysbury & Kingsmead are two more - what surprises me (positively) is to my knowledge there aren’t any who simply haven’t re-opened after Covid lockdowns
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Paramedic View Drop Down
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Posts: 929 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Paramedic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 May 22 at 8:00am
Ragley SC sailed in the grounds of Ragley Hall and the Earl, Lord or whatever he is wanted to do something else with his lake. So Ragley SC closed and most of the members joined Barnt Green or Redditch.

It was a very small lake that punched well above its weight with a large Merlin fleet at one stage. Make no mistake, there were no financial issues.

Brookvale just ran out of members and the club became unviable. There are - or were - still boats in the very overgrown former boat park, the council have done nothing with it and the buildings are still empty.

Their main issue was the plethora of simply better places to sail with better facilities and - dare I suggest - the diverse local community having no interest in sailing. You probably aren't going to drive past Shustoke, Bartley or even Tamworth and Midland to sail at Brookvale so if the local community aren't into it you've no chance.

It may also be worth mentioning that Sparkhill SC merged with Brookvale SC in the early noughties and were a model that would probably find favour today with 6 or 7 club owned GP14s (2 decent, the rest useable) and no private boats. They were part of the also now defunct Edgbaston Sailing Association. They provided good training but not a lot else.


Edited by Paramedic - 28 May 22 at 8:05am
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sargesail View Drop Down
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Posts: 1459 		Post Options Post Options   Quote sargesail Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 May 22 at 9:43pm
Originally posted by rodney



 Can anyone name a club which has closed other than through landlord pressures in the last 10 years?[/QUOTE]
How about Queensmead SC? I do my best to stay away from this forum but was unable to resist this challenge  Cry
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; : rgb255, 255, 255;">HOAC and QSC were forced to close by HS2 on 1st October 2020. All activities on the site including Sailing have ceased.Planning is underway with London Borough of Hillingdon, HOAC and HS2 to develop the new site and move the operations and boats hopefully in Spring 2022. HOAC are busy packing and preparing for the move.QSC plan to follow HOAC in its move to the new site and will remain a Virtual Club during the Transition.
[/QUOTE]

Good find Rodney! Queensmead SC does have an active but private FB page and sailors racing as members in 2022 (ie IOS race). Hopefully they did restablish this spring.

But compulsory purchase or whatever with HS 2 comes under the same heading as landlord pressures.

So any advance on Brookvale (people look down on much nicer pieces of water in Birmingham. And maybe Ragley?
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Posts: 143 		Post Options Post Options   Quote ChrisI Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 May 22 at 8:58pm
Originally posted by DiscoBall

Originally posted by maxibuddah

means that clubs need to focus on training first and foremost and accept racing is a minority part of their existence, whereas to date for most clubs it is the other way round.

+1

However even then it is difficult to get right. One of my clubs has a bigger rec/informal training side than the racing. We see a lot of churn with each year's intake. Think it comes down to two issues:

the training is so informal and basic that the attendees don't get any sense of progression, just a nice potter around.

There seems little attempt (though in part covid has been an issue) to bind people in socially by inviting them to hang around at the club afterwards. I think unless you make it a specific invite new people will often drift off as they maybe don't want to feel like they are impinging on the regulars.

A point missed when being down on mainly recreational watersports like sup is that there is more time and opportunity for social connections, which is the real reason most people do leisure activities in the first place. The scoresheet is a minor consideration even for most who compete. Without the social glue, comparatively 'irrational' (ie sailing, lots of buck for relatively little bang) sports will struggle to retain people.

+2 Totally agree

+3 Also totally agree (the main reason most people do leisure activities...)



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