RYA Membership - What are the Benefits?

Genuine question - I'm not RYA bashing

Do we have a moral obligation to be personal members?  If so, why?   I am a member of a club which is affiliated, but not a personal member anymore. I can't quite see what the point is - how would I benefit?   Okay, I can't get a job as a sailing instructor anymore. Anything else?  If it is just a way for the RYA to make more money, why don't they just charge the clubs more and do away with personal membership?

Not everyone who sails belongs to a club. Not even everyone who races. I've spent significant chunks of my racing career belonging to the RYA but not to a club.

We (RYA staff members) don't normally enter into debate on forums (but we do monitor them) due to the amount of time they could soak up.  But seeing as you asked a straight question...

There are two fundamental reasons to join the RYA.

Firstly the promotion of leisure boating in all it's forms, through delivery of advice to newcomers, the creation and administration of world class training schemes, and other key projects that help in getting people out on the water.

Secondly theres the protection of the rights and freedoms that we all enjoy.  The UK has one of the least regulated leisure marine sectors in the "developed" world (I hate that phrase), along with one of the best safety records.  We live in a world where every day somebody is trying to legislate against this and regulate that, mostly without an in depth knowledge of the subject matter or culture that they're dealing with.  Sometimes these people need opposing point blank.  Often it's a case of finding a workable solution, one that achieve the objective without significant impact on sailing and boating.  One thing is for sure, regulation and bits of paper don't necessarily make for a safer world, but they do cost a lot of money.  Money that always ends up being passed to the user.

The RYA relies on the support of personal members to pursue these interests.  We're biased of course but we'd argue that the cost of the legislation that would be implemented in our absense would be many times the cost of a personal membership.  A much more detailled description of the RYA's role and activities is given on the website, CLICK HERE to go directly to the relevant section (use the left hand navigation).

Because we have a very large membership base, we're also able to negotiate some good deals for the benefit of our personal members, and these are listed here.

I'd also like to clear up this misconception about the fees that clubs pay, which has been expressed before on these forums.  In terms of our subscription income, Personal Memberships contribute 87% of this, as opposed to Clubs/Orgs subs which are just 13%.  Clubs are basically being charged for the services that they as an organisation receive, not for the work that the RYA does on behalf of their members.

We could move to a purely club member based system, but the clubs would resent being seen as RYA tax collectors.  It would also be unfair to the significant sector of boating people who don't belong to a club. A "club member" scheme was in fact trialled in the 60's and it was a disaster.  We still reckon to feel the negative effects from that now, in terms of this misconception. 

In summary, do you have a moral obligation to join?  I wouldn't go that far, but if you look at the big picture, I hope people will see that they get good value for money from their national organisation, and support it for the right reasons.

Please do go to the RYA website and take a bit of time to find out more about what is going on.  If anybody would like copies of leaflets produced to explain some of the current issues, please e-mail your name and address to marketing at rya.org.uk

Quite a lot of racers don't belong to a club. One group is those who only ever do opens. A second is those keelboat sailors who operate out of marinas etc. rather than clubs.