Sara Sutcliffe appointed CEO of the RYA

[Fr J Hackett]

To me this is part of the problem, and I had a similar issue with BSAC diving. The assumption that being an instructor is the end goal causes a lot of people to simply cease their membership. To me, the purpose of learning to sail was so that I could go sailing, and the RYA don't seem to support that outcome. The purpose of learning to dive was to go diving, yet my decision not to instruct meant I was effectively not a part of the club, which meant I couldn't dive within the club, which meant I left and never returned. I don't actually mind that the RYA are a training and racing organisation, the thing that bothers me is that they are effectively preventing others from doing the necessary things to support our sport.

Not to digress but you were a member of a very unusual club if not being an instructor precluded you from diving with the club.

 

[lustyd]

Not to digress but you were a member of a very unusual club if not being an instructor precluded you from diving with the club.

I've tried a few and BSAC clubs are generally all the same, most of the diving is training dives. If you don't go on the training dives then you're left to the bottom of the list for any other diving activity. PADI is much more set up for real diving trips in my experience, with training reserved for courses run by professional instructors.

 

[Wing Mark]

To me this is part of the problem, and I had a similar issue with BSAC diving. The assumption that being an instructor is the end goal causes a lot of people to simply cease their membership. To me, the purpose of learning to sail was so that I could go sailing, and the RYA don't seem to support that outcome. The purpose of learning to dive was to go diving, yet my decision not to instruct meant I was effectively not a part of the club, which meant I couldn't dive within the club, which meant I left and never returned. I don't actually mind that the RYA are a training and racing organisation, the thing that bothers me is that they are effectively preventing others from doing the necessary things to support our sport.

I suspect if the RYA started doing lots of things 'for the cruising yachtsman' it would annoy more cruising yachtsmen than it pleased?

What annoys me is the magazine full of eco-twaddle coming with offers of a discounted Volvo gas guzzler.

 

[Skylark]

I've tried a few and BSAC clubs are generally all the same, most of the diving is training dives. If you don't go on the training dives then you're left to the bottom of the list for any other diving activity. PADI is much more set up for real diving trips in my experience, with training reserved for courses run by professional instructors.

BSAC and PADI operate at different ends of the spectrum.

The lifeblood of BSAC is its members and the model works on the basis of “giving back”

PADI is a business where a diver is a commercial target.

I have been a member of BSAC for many years. I learned a great deal from other members giving freely of their time, knowledge and expertise. I ultimately qualified as an NI and served on the NDC in the 1990s so I’ve willingly given back a lot to others.

I’m now both an RYA Shorebased and Cruising Instructor so earn peanuts in retirement (compared to what I earned in Industry before retirement). There are things that I would like to change about RYA but overall, I think they have the balance of governing our water sport activities fairly well managed.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I've tried a few and BSAC clubs are generally all the same, most of the diving is training dives. If you don't go on the training dives then you're left to the bottom of the list for any other diving activity. PADI is much more set up for real diving trips in my experience, with training reserved for courses run by professional instructors.

Not my experience although I was an instructor I mainly confined that to instructing in the pool, lecturing and overseeing tests. I occasionally took novice divers into open water off the clubs boats or in Stoney Cove but the majority of the clubs organised dives were for third class divers later to become sports or dive leaders. There were specific open water sessions at nearby coastal venues to introduce novices to open water shore diving and diving from an inflatable. This is all a long time ago in a very active club and one should remember without training and new divers the club would cease to exist.
One thing I found in my last years diving when I ran my own RIB and dived deep offshore wrecks was that new divers were reluctant to progress out of the immediate post training zone preferring to go warm water diving on holiday and the occasional visit to an inshore or shallow coastal dive. Hence there was a small number of divers that still existed within the club and still dived with the club but tended to organise their own diving and were selective on who they accepted on things like hard boat dives off the south coast where diving was in the 40M plus zone with decompression.

 

[lustyd]

To be clear, I wasn't knocking either organisation, just saying they lose a great many members because those members are not catered for.

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

BSAC and PADI operate at different ends of the spectrum.

The lifeblood of BSAC is its members and the model works on the basis of “giving back”

PADI is a business where a diver is a commercial target.

I have been a member of BSAC for many years. I learned a great deal from other members giving freely of their time, knowledge and expertise. I ultimately qualified as an NI and served on the NDC in the 1990s so I’ve willingly given back a lot to others.

I’m now both an RYA Shorebased and Cruising Instructor so earn peanuts in retirement (compared to what I earned in Industry before retirement). There are things that I would like to change about RYA but overall, I think they have the balance of governing our water sport activities fairly well managed.

That’s the problem! The RYA has become a semi auto minus government quango. Why else has the structure of the Council and Directors been changed to satisfy “sports governing bodies” ‘Best practice” to be able to receive government funds? Only once in the over 50 years I have been a member do I remember the RYA taking legal action against the Govt. and that was over failure to consult.

 

[Skylark]

That’s the problem!

Please forgive me but what’s the problem?

It’s well worth browsing the RYA website as this gives a pretty good insight into their broad activities.

The Cruising section seems fairly comprehensive to me but there’s always the CA if this is your sole focus. Keep in mind that the CA is a specialist organisation and annual fee is approx 3x that of the RYA membership. There are a number of free to use dedicated cruising websites, too.

I’ll continue to believe that, by and large, the RYA does a good job of representing a broad range of water sport activities.

In what way would you like to see RYA membership address your “problem”?

I’m very impressed that you have over 50 years of membership, by the way.

 

[Kurrawong_Kid]

To answer Skylark (post 108) I was alluding to the point in the earlier post that there was a differentiation between the BSAC and the PADI, one a volunteer members association and one an instruction setup. The RYA tries to encompass as an association that represents its paying members, organises national racing, produces Olympic racing teams and organises a world wide and respected training scheme and so on. You only receive government money if you pass through their hoops! Inevitably there will be conflicts of interest between areas of the operation (eg commercial vs. voluntary or keeping access to cruising areas vs govt. initiatives to restrict anchorages etc.) I have been told that when the Mountain Leadership Training Board was set up many years ago, the Mountaineering Council (or whatever it was called) refused to become involved because they sensed government influence on their sport that would limit their independence.
I still think that is the problem for the RYA- conflicts of interest; but I will continue to be a supportive member.

 

[KINGFISHER 8]

I’ve never understood that ??‍ What is it that girls see in sailors??

I think it's the size of their equipment !!

 

[Birdseye]

Now, I can understand that the British Olympic sailing team is jolly important, but it has absolutely nothing to do with me.

If the RYA appoint a talented lawyer, administrator and lobbyist as their Chief Executive on the basis of what she will do for what she calls “the Olympic pathway”, that’s fine, but please could I have a national body for messing about in boats that represents the rest of us?

You are misunderstanding. As with almost any and every organisation the first interest of the staff if themselves and their jobs. You are the means by which she earns her living - you arent the purpose of the organisation. Nor are you the source of the funding necessary to pay her salary and those of the staff.

Thats not being in any way cynical. It applies just as much to charities and to businesses and local authorities. You see it every time you go near the NHS. He who pays the piper .................