Facilities Policy

Scope: / Boating related facilities development across Scotland
Version: / 1.1
Date of last update: / 07/12/17
Authorisation: / Management Committee
Authorisation Date: / 11 December 2017

Please check with the RYA Scotland office to ensure you have the most up to date version of this document when using it.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Purpose

Strategic Context

Our aspirations for facilities across Scotland

What we will prioritise

Our current position and need for development

Our facilities structure

Boating facilities for those with disabilities

Boating facilities beyond RYA Scotland

Slipways

Pontoons

Moorings

Marinas

Harbours and dredging

Actions

Appendix 1

Minimum Facility Requirements

RYA Affiliated Clubs

RYA Training Centres

RYA Champion Clubs

Competition Venues

Class Academy, Club Championship and Traveller Series Venues

UK Championship Venues

World Sailing Championship Venues

National Centre

Pathway Classes

Introduction

The Royal Yachting Association Scotland (RYA Scotland), is the governing body in Scotland for all forms of dinghy and yacht racing, motor and sail cruising, RIBs and sports boats, windsurfing, canal boats, and personal watercraft. We refer to these disciplines collectively as ‘boating’. Boating takes place wherever people take to the water in boats. This can be on purpose built facilities and reservoirs, inland waterways or canals, natural fresh water lochs, rivers, estuaries, coastal areas and on the open sea.

Our purpose is to promote and protect safe,successful and rewarding boating in Scotland. Between the staff and volunteers of RYA Scotland, we represent a community of about 70,000 people actively engaged in boating activity in Scotland, about 30,000 of whom are members of the 147 local clubs and associations affiliated to the RYA of which the vast majority are within Scotland’s coastal communities.

RYA Scotland is volunteer-led with up to 60 volunteers engaged in our committee structure at any one time.

All our activities are undertaken in the context of our Strategic Plan

We see these elements of our strategic plan as facets of our sport that are intrinsically interconnected and dependent on each other for the sport to thrive and for the organisation to serve the interests of our members and other stakeholders. Participation, Club and Volunteer development and Performance are dependent on high calibre facilities that grow and evolve to meet the changing needs of our sport for the future.

Purpose

The purpose of our facilities policy is to identify the priority areas of facility development that align with our Strategic Plan and which RYA Scotland believes will enable boating to flourish in Scotland.

RYA Scotland does not have the resources to invest in facility development directly. In this context this policy is intended to influence spending decisions towards those facilities which will achieve greatest impact over the long term and help to grow our sport.

This policy acknowledges that aspects of our sport have some very specialist requirements which can require investmentbeyond individual facilities and sometimes requires multiple partners or agenciesto work together to ensure the facility is and remains suitable for boating activity.

This policy:

  • provides a structure to guide and support facility investment by clubs, public agencies and the private sector
  • identifies the role different types of facilities play in the development of the sport
  • encouragesinvestors to engage with RYA Scotland when developing facilities
  • supports RYA Scotland’s plans to grow participation, increase club and RYA membership and facilitate our performance pathway.

Strategic Context

This policy is developed in the context of:

  • Let’s Make Scotland More Active and Reaching Higher (specifically the priority of ‘Quality Facilities’ upon which the Scottish Government’s National Outcomes of Increasing Participation and Improving Performance are based);
  • sportscotland’sClub Sport in Scotland and Corporate Plan(which identify ‘places to play’ as a key element of a world class sporting system);
  • ‘Awakening the Giant’(the Marine Tourism Development Strategy);
  • Giving children and young people a sporting chance(which identifies ‘Great Places’ as being central to young people’s participation in sport and physical activity) and
  • RYA and RYA Scotland Strategic Plans for 2017 – 2021

In this time frame we have assumed that our basic principles of broadening access to boating for all and encouraging growth through our affiliated club structure will remain essentially the same. We are also assuming that sailing in some form will continue to be a fundamental sport at Olympic level and that the RYA Scotland performance pathway will continue to be a key mechanism for the development of Olympic Sailors for the foreseeable future.

Our aspirations for facilities across Scotland

RYA Scotland’s primary aim is that boating in Scotland has the facilities to enable anyone who wants to, to access our sport.

We think the best way of achieving this is by maintaining:

  • a broad base of resilient clubs with good governance and aspirational plans which will develop locally based and sustainably managed facilities that are flexible in their use and include people with disabilities, LGBTI people and people from minority communities.
  • facilities that can host local, national and international competition, provide a platform for the development of our future athletes and provide opportunities to host competitionat the highest level for domestic and international competitors.
  • a network off facilities, across the country which are equipped to deliver high quality training and racing.
  • accessiblefacilities that are equipped to offer all forms of boating activity to those with disabilities, in line with RYA Scotland’s equalities strategy. In this context we aspire to initiate and support the development of the UK’s leading high performance centre for Paralympic Sailing.

What we will prioritise

Boating is a broad activity and while we have aspirations for the development of facilities that will benefit all aspects of our sport, we recognise the need to set priorities for these.

RYA Scotland will endorse and actively support the development of facilities that can be shown to:

  • improve the long term sustainability of RYA affiliated clubs
  • effect an increase in participation in boating
  • improve access to the water for boating activities
  • increase uptake of boating by LGBTI people, people from minority communities and people with disabilities
  • increase participation in recreational racing
  • support the evolution of our performance pathway
  • embed clubs as a key contributor to their local community

We believe investment in facilities has the greatest impact when a club has already demonstrated a proactive approach to their own development. We would direct investment to those clubs who can demonstrate the following attributes:

Evidence
Good governance / An up to date constitution
Proactive volunteer recruitment, support and development
Relevant instructional qualifications
Race Official training
Operating Procedures complying with H&S legislation ad RYA Guidance
Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
Equality Policy
Active planning / A current Club Development Plan (inclusive of facilities development requirements)
Active seasonal programmes
Varied membership options
Partnership working / Collaboration with other local clubs, Yacht Club Associations, Community Sports Hubs, Universities, local schools
Engagement with RYA and RYA Scotland / Delivery of appropriate RYA Programmes
Attendance at RYA Scotland networking opportunities
Completion of RYA annual census
Environmental considerations / Green Blue Environmental Standards

Our current position and need for development

Over the course of 2012/13 RYA Scotland undertook a survey of Club and Training Centre facility provision. Some 143 clubs and commercial providers responded to the survey giving input on a range of facility specific questions.

The summary report on this workidentifies that Scotland is presently well served by the geographical distribution of clubs and training centres. There is scope for existing clubs to extend their membership by incorporating different facets of boating such as powerboats or windsurfing or potentially diversifying their membership interests into other sports such as coastal rowing or open water swimming for example.

Our conclusions from our survey work for this policy were that we should seek to support the evolution of facilities within existing clubs and training centres where their facility development plans align with our aspirations for the future and in particular our priorities as above.

Our facilities structure

RYA Scotland has identified a series of facilities through which we will be able to pursue our aspirations for the future and support the priority areas noted above. Each level carries differing requirements which become more specialised, usually necessitating higher levels of staff qualification, more specialised equipment and greater provision within the facility for training delivery. Given that each level can build from the previous, any given facility can fulfil more than one of these functions.

RYA Scotland is clear that all of our aspirations for the future, all of our existing activity and all our potential for growing our sport are completely dependent on sustainable local clubs. Without this grassroots provision and the ongoing development of these local facilities, we do not have a viable future. Consequently the development of local clubs is our top priority. The types of facility we define are thus:

  • RYA Affiliated Clubs
  • RYA Recognised Training Centres
  • RYA Champion Clubs
  • Competition Venues
  • National Centre

Details of the specific requirements for each type of facility are given in Appendix 1 (a-e).

Affiliated Clubs

Local sailing clubs are the foundations on which the vast majority of boating in Scotland depends.

Many offer a home to a range of boating interests including dinghy sailing, keelboat sailing, powerboats and windsurfers. Increasingly these days, due to their proximity to water, ‘Sailing Clubs’ are opening their facilities to coastal rowing groups, sea kayakers, stand up paddleboards and in some cases wild water swimmers who share a desire to access the water.

Affiliated clubs are critical to the ongoing involvement of participants in our sport. They provide a locus for those new to boating to be encouraged in their personal development by other club members on an informal basis. Through clubs, new boaters have the opportunity to meet others with the same interests, become connected to the local and wider boating community across Scotland, become involved in volunteering in their community of interest and to pursue a lifelong involvement in our sport. Clubs are almost exclusively where individuals are introduced to recreational racing and the competitive side of sailing.

Becoming RYA affiliated brings benefits to a club which are not available to non-affiliated clubs. We can give support for developing constitutions and improving governance, increasing club activity and racing, support around legal issues and we offer pre-packaged programmes that increase participation and club membership. This is all over and above the existing programmes of training available across the country, our series of regional development days and our ongoing programme of conferences.

Becoming RYA affiliated is a pre-requisite to securing support from RYA Scotland. There are currently 147[1] clubs affiliated to the RYA in Scotland.

Development needs

Having more local clubs affiliate to the RYA is an ongoing objective. We see the number of clubs that choose to affiliate and remain affiliated, as an indication of the strength of our offer and the quality of support provided.

The facility development needs of existing affiliated clubs are likely to be very varied for example some clubs require to invest in fleet development while others will focus on extending storage or training facilities. We are conscious that clubhouses are both a significant asset as a focal point for boating activity and a significant burden on clubs for their upkeep. RYA Scotland will endorse and support facility development plans that encompass clubhouse facilities where these developments clearly meet with our priorities and, in particular, where developments can be shown to help secure the long term sustainability of the club. We are particularly supportive of facility developments that further enhance inclusion in our sport, for example, non-gender specific changing facilities.

RYA Scotland has Regional Development Officers working with 20 identified clubs that receive intensive support. These clubs have opted to work in a close partnership with RYA Scotland to develop their governance structures, increase their club activity and overall membership. They have been selected on the basis of their potential to improve and commitment to doing so. We are therefore minded to direct investment toward these specific clubs due to their involvement in and commitment to this programme.

RYA Recognised Training Centres

RYA Recognised Training Centres (RTCs) are facilities that have developed the capacity to deliver RYA approved courses and have been inspected and ‘recognised’ by the RYA. RTCs take many forms including specialist commercial providers, educational establishments, providers operating as a multi activity centres, voluntary organisations or the training arm of a local RYA affiliated club. They need not offer every type of boating activity and many focus on one or two activities while some only offer theory or ‘shore based’ training.

RTCs are important to RYA Scotland as they are the conduits through which many will receive their first boating experience on an RYA introductory course. We see this as a critical point of engagement through which we can establish our relationship with new boaters and encourage their further involvement in our sport through progressive courses and training, joining a local club or direct membership. RTCs are also a fundamental element in the career opportunities available through boating within which they train and employ instructors many of whom goon to further professional engagement in boating.

Development needs

There are presently 183[2] RYA RTCs in Scotland. These are geographically well spread and our research tells us we do not specifically need more RTCs. We are however keen to see more affiliated clubs deliver RYA training and become RTCs. We believe this is a key developmental aspiration for our clubs which will support their longer term sustainable income and, as an additional benefit, increase the uptake of RYA Training.

Establishments seeking recognition as a training centre club are likely to need support to increase teaching materials, improve safety equipment for boats and extent their training fleets. They are equally likely to need support to develop wet and dry training rooms with presentation equipment for course delivery as well as support to increase training qualifications of club members in line with RTC requirements.

RYA Champion Clubs

Champion Clubs are local sailing clubs who have committed to developing racing as part of their ongoing training programme for members. Clubs must meet specific requirements for their facilities and make an application for this status. If successful these Clubs are given additional support by RYA Scotland to develop their capacity to deliver high quality coaching and racing.

Champion Clubs are an essential part of our performance pathway as these clubs introduce many young sailors to racing.

Development needs

There are presently 13 designated Champion Clubs in Scotland. These are:

1

Approved 11 December 2017

Helensburgh Sailing Club

East Lothian Yacht Club

Dalgety Bay Sailing Club

Loch Lomond Sailing Club

Loch Tummel Sailing Club

Loch Venachar Sailing Club

Clyde Cruising Club (Dinghy Section)

Clyde Windsurfing Club

Largs Sailing Club

Annandale Sailing Club

Solway Yacht Club

Chanonry Sailing Club

Lochcarron Sailing Club

1

Approved 11 December 2017

Ongoing development within existing Champion Clubs relates mainly to maintaining their racing specific fleet of training boats and the qualifications and development of volunteers to deliver the enhanced race training programme required of a Champion Club.

For aspiring Champion Clubs development is likely to focus around the provision of sailing dinghies of the required types, housing for these as well as indoor ‘wet’ training rooms.

Competition Venues

RYA Scotland is committed to supporting local clubs to provide facilities that can offer quality class traveller and club competition experiences, host developmental RYA Scotland Class Academy coaching activity and seasonal competition programmes and through which our athletes of the future are identified, selected and supported.

Staging major sailing events in Scotland is an important part of RYA Scotland’s strategic vision. Major events provide accessible exposure to championship sailing and are an essential catalyst to the development pathways for Scottish sailors and officials. The staging of major events also brings sound economic returns to the local economy and is important for the overall profile and development of the sport.

There are three types of competition venue that are necessary to cover the breadth of competition required in our overall strategy. These are:

Class Academy, Club Championship and Traveller Series Venues

Recreational competition is an important aspect of our sport which facilitates both first step engagement in our performance pathway and lifelong participation. Champion Clubs are the foundation of developing interest in racing and encouraging further skills training

RYA Scotland Class Academies provide a next step for those who have learned the basics of racing usually through a Champion Club and wish to improve their skills. These are open to all recreational sailors but from these, young people can be encouraged to enter our development teams. Higher level competition is provided by RYA Scotland through the seasonal series of regattas which do rotate around venues across Scotland culminating in the Zone Championships which are a key point in our athlete selection process.