Onboard, Volvo Champion Club

Does your club participate in either of these schemes?  Are they good/bad/ugly?  What are the pros and cons of each?

If you only went for one, which would it be?

Onboard - Speak to your local RYA Regional Developement Officer
You need to have progressive clubs, ie cadet training which meet regularly and offer taster sessions to new parties/sailors
You gain one off starting grant from the RYA and access to other grants as and when available.

Volvo - speak to your High Performance manager about that.

It all depends on the type of club you are at and how the club wants to progress. Send me a PM with other questions if you wish (I have access to the answers!)

There is one problem...

Several clubs I've been a member at have done the RYA thing, with a big push on getting the kids at the club involved. Initially it has huge numbers of kids out on the water and creates a real buzz in the club. Plus as more kids are down the club you get the parents out on the water increasing club turnouts. So all good at this point.

The problem seems to occur two or three years down the line when the kids and parents get more interested and start attending more and more events. At one club I was a member of, the toppers seemed to have an open meeting, championship, or national, regional, zone squad training almost every weekend so we never saw any of the kids or their parents. The effect of this was the club was empty most weekends - this also causes problems when trying to find volunteers to help run the club.

You would expect as younger generations of the family come to sailing it would start the cycle again but we were finding as the parents were already on the road with the older kids they didn't have time to take the younger kids down the club. Instead they just start the kids on the circuit with the zone squads etc... I know a good number of parents where mum would be taking kid number 1 to an oppie event up north while dad would be taking kid number 2 to a laser event on the south coast.

The worst problem I've seen with the current RYA system is that as all the kids are coached so much and spend so much time on the circuit they end up seeing club sailing below them. You end up with a situation where the kids get to 18, realise they are not te next Ben and that sailing a laser weekend after weekend is not as exciting as kite surfing or going to the pub and give up on sailing. Looking at the topper and oppie open numbers, I recon there are more kids getting involved with competative racing, but are more sailing in their 20's??

The RYA system is what ever you make of it but be careull of its long term impact on your existing club structure!

Originally posted by Doug.H Originally posted by charlie1019 the kids are coached so much and spend so much time on the circuit they end up seeing club sailing below them. Surely then it's up to the club to hire top coaches to coach the adults in the club to bring their standard up. The kids may see club racing as below their level if they find winning club races easy and lacking in challenge. Race coaches can be hired for anyone and everyone so make sure everyone is at a level such that when the kids come back from doing some opens, they get whooped in the club races too. You'd be surprised who you could get to come to your club to coach the adults, think of a top name and it's more than likely they'll be happy to take a trip to your club for a weekend. You simply have to bear in mind the cost of the coach.

Interesting the kids rarely win the club racing with the 'good' adults generally able to hold their own - I wonder if this is because some of the kids are so over coached they forget how to think for themselves??

The problem is if you've spent a lot of time at Garda, Hayling, etc... a small pond outside Manchester doesn't exactly appeal in the same way!

Originally posted by charlie1019 There is one problem...Several clubs I've been a member at have done the RYA thing, with a big push on getting the kids at the club involved. Initially it has huge numbers of kids out on the water and creates a real buzz in the club. Plus as more kids are down the club you get the parents out on the water increasing club turnouts. So all good at this point.The problem seems to occur two or three years down the line when the kids and parents get more interested and start attending more and more events. At one club I was a member of, the toppers seemed to have an open meeting, championship, or national, regional, zone squad training almost every weekend so we never saw any of the kids or their parents. The effect of this was the club was empty most weekends - this also causes problems when trying to find volunteers to help run the club. You would expect as younger generations of the family come to sailing it would start the cycle again but we were finding as the parents were already on the road with the older kids they didn't have time to take the younger kids down the club. Instead they just start the kids on the circuit with the zone squads etc... I know a good number of parents where mum would be taking kid number 1 to an oppie event up north while dad would be taking kid number 2 to a laser event on the south coast.The worst problem I've seen with the current RYA system is that as all the kids are coached so much and spend so much time on the circuit they end up seeing club sailing below them. You end up with a situation where the kids get to 18, realise they are not te next Ben and that sailing a laser weekend after weekend is not as exciting as kite surfing or going to the pub and give up on sailing. Looking at the topper and oppie open numbers, I recon there are more kids getting involved with competative racing, but are more sailing in their 20's??The RYA system is what ever you make of it but be careull of its long term impact on your existing club structure!

Exactly what's happened to us, decimated our Tues Longboard series,
we're now down to half a dozen or so core and the few fair weather
turnouts. All the parents with kids have either taken to the circuit or now
feel club racing is beneath them(they dont like getting beaten at club
level)and after 10 years of this, Not 1 kid has stuck to the system, in fact
the only newcomers are Dan and Tom from the Dinghy section.

Great fodder for the RYA squad system but disastrous for club structure.