January 2021
Happy New Year! 2021 seems to be delivering a similar pattern to 2020, in terms of personal exercise, staying home & local and helping to support the NHS but fingers crossed for a better year as there’s hope on the horizon!
New Guidance, following the extended lockdown measures was introduced by the Scottish Government on the 5th January with the advice to ‘Stay at Home’ and for many of us it is a return to near the beginning of this pandemic. We need to stay local, should only meet and/or exercise with one other person out with our own households (whilst maintaining 2m physical distancing) and we must not travel unless it is essential. Thankfully, at this time of year a lot of our clubs and centres are closed, and those who are not are having to also contend with the wintery weather which means that some lochs are actually frozen!
Our current additional information to support all boaters, clubs and centres is available on our website here. If you have any questions around it then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
We’ve also updated our Coronavirus (Covid-19) page around support for clubs, centres and organisations at this time to continue to reflect the advice and financial support being offered by the Scottish & UK Governments and other organisations during the pandemic.
Planning for 2021
On a more positive note, it is a New Year (and hopefully a happy & healthy one for us all), and therefore, we are encouraging clubs and organisations to look at planning for getting out on the water this summer. We know that things will probably continue to be different for some time to come and we’d all like to have a crystal ball to tell us what will be happening, however there will hopefully be a gradual opening up of opportunities. Therefore, it would be great if committees at clubs and staff at centres can think about potential options to engage their current members/customers, potential returners to our sport, the ‘stay-cationers’ who may visit locally and obviously new potential members.
Over the next couple of months both RYA Scotland and RYA will be looking at how we can engage, what programmes (Covid allowing) we can plan for and hopefully deliver, and how the boating community can come together to support one another to encourage people to get on the water safely.
In the meantime, I’d like to draw your attention to the following:
Club of the Year 2021
The RYA and Yachts & Yachting Club of the Year competition once again attracted a high number of applicants, and we are delighted that Prestwick Sailing Club have been selected as one of the 10 finalists by the panel. The final decision on which finalist is ‘Club of the Year’ is made via a public vote and so it would be great if you could support Prestwick SC by voting – it closes on 25th January 2021. You can find out more information and how to cast your vote here . Good luck Prestwick!
Welfare Officers Online Webinar – Thursday 28th January 2021
We are holding a Welfare Officers Meeting/Webinar for all those who do this role at clubs and centres in Scotland on the evening of Thursday 28th January 2021. It is an opportunity for you to meet the safeguarding team from across the UK as well as other volunteers who do this role. We hope to create a community that can support one another, and an official email invite was sent, to those registered on our system as doing this role, by the RYA Safeguarding team on 5th January 2021. If you fulfil this role and would like to attend the meeting or if you would like to register that you undertake this role for a club/centre in Scotland then please contact either Liza Linton or the RYA Safeguarding team.
Staff Team Changes
Following a successful recruitment campaign, we are delighted to have Georgia Moran starting with us in the role of the Regional Development Officer (East). She will be taking over from Jack Mitchell who finishes on the 27th January. We welcome Georgia to the team and wish Jack all the best for his future (but we will miss him!).
New Coronavirus (Covid-19) Awareness Module
As you will know, sportscotland, in partnership with the Scottish Rugby Union developed a Covid Officer E-Learning Module. A number of staff and volunteers across boating and sport in Scotland have completed it and it can be accessed here.
Further to this, in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, sportscotland has now developed a module to provide key information for players, participants and parents/carers of children and young people to support, raise awareness and highlight the responsibility we all have in keeping each other safe within sport during the ongoing pandemic. The module can be access here and should take approximately 15 minutes to work through.
The final option in the sportscotland suite of modules to support individuals during the pandemic is aimed at coaches and volunteers. The Covid-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing Awareness Module aimed at coaches and volunteers is also available here.
It’s RYA Conference Season………………
Following on from a successful Affiliated Club Conference and Race Official Conference, the RYA are offering more opportunities for people from across the UK to connect virtually around different topics.
RYA Raymarine Training Conference, Supported by Gallagher - 30/31st January
The FREE online conference will be hosted over the weekend of 30-31 January 2021 and will be open to instructors across the powerboat, personal watercraft, inland waterways and sail and motor cruising schemes, as well as senior instructors, coaches, trainers and training centre principals across all the RYA training schemes.
For more information and to sign up visit here
Sailability Conference, Supported by Gallagher – 13th February
2020 has been a tough year and so the online 2021 Sailability conference will be a chance to regroup, restart and rebuild. We might not be able to meet in person but we can still come together as a community, motivate each other for the year ahead and learn together. The event will be streamed via YouTube, Facebook and our website. The conference is free of charge and open to everyone involved with or interested in the Sailability community. More information and to sign up visit here
New Guidance, following the extended lockdown measures was introduced by the Scottish Government on the 5th January with the advice to ‘Stay at Home’ and for many of us it is a return to near the beginning of this pandemic. We need to stay local, should only meet and/or exercise with one other person out with our own households (whilst maintaining 2m physical distancing) and we must not travel unless it is essential. Thankfully, at this time of year a lot of our clubs and centres are closed, and those who are not are having to also contend with the wintery weather which means that some lochs are actually frozen!
Our current additional information to support all boaters, clubs and centres is available on our website here. If you have any questions around it then please do not hesitate to get in touch.
We’ve also updated our Coronavirus (Covid-19) page around support for clubs, centres and organisations at this time to continue to reflect the advice and financial support being offered by the Scottish & UK Governments and other organisations during the pandemic.
Planning for 2021
On a more positive note, it is a New Year (and hopefully a happy & healthy one for us all), and therefore, we are encouraging clubs and organisations to look at planning for getting out on the water this summer. We know that things will probably continue to be different for some time to come and we’d all like to have a crystal ball to tell us what will be happening, however there will hopefully be a gradual opening up of opportunities. Therefore, it would be great if committees at clubs and staff at centres can think about potential options to engage their current members/customers, potential returners to our sport, the ‘stay-cationers’ who may visit locally and obviously new potential members.
Over the next couple of months both RYA Scotland and RYA will be looking at how we can engage, what programmes (Covid allowing) we can plan for and hopefully deliver, and how the boating community can come together to support one another to encourage people to get on the water safely.
In the meantime, I’d like to draw your attention to the following:
Club of the Year 2021
The RYA and Yachts & Yachting Club of the Year competition once again attracted a high number of applicants, and we are delighted that Prestwick Sailing Club have been selected as one of the 10 finalists by the panel. The final decision on which finalist is ‘Club of the Year’ is made via a public vote and so it would be great if you could support Prestwick SC by voting – it closes on 25th January 2021. You can find out more information and how to cast your vote here . Good luck Prestwick!
Welfare Officers Online Webinar – Thursday 28th January 2021
We are holding a Welfare Officers Meeting/Webinar for all those who do this role at clubs and centres in Scotland on the evening of Thursday 28th January 2021. It is an opportunity for you to meet the safeguarding team from across the UK as well as other volunteers who do this role. We hope to create a community that can support one another, and an official email invite was sent, to those registered on our system as doing this role, by the RYA Safeguarding team on 5th January 2021. If you fulfil this role and would like to attend the meeting or if you would like to register that you undertake this role for a club/centre in Scotland then please contact either Liza Linton or the RYA Safeguarding team.
Staff Team Changes
Following a successful recruitment campaign, we are delighted to have Georgia Moran starting with us in the role of the Regional Development Officer (East). She will be taking over from Jack Mitchell who finishes on the 27th January. We welcome Georgia to the team and wish Jack all the best for his future (but we will miss him!).
New Coronavirus (Covid-19) Awareness Module
As you will know, sportscotland, in partnership with the Scottish Rugby Union developed a Covid Officer E-Learning Module. A number of staff and volunteers across boating and sport in Scotland have completed it and it can be accessed here.
Further to this, in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, sportscotland has now developed a module to provide key information for players, participants and parents/carers of children and young people to support, raise awareness and highlight the responsibility we all have in keeping each other safe within sport during the ongoing pandemic. The module can be access here and should take approximately 15 minutes to work through.
The final option in the sportscotland suite of modules to support individuals during the pandemic is aimed at coaches and volunteers. The Covid-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing Awareness Module aimed at coaches and volunteers is also available here.
It’s RYA Conference Season………………
Following on from a successful Affiliated Club Conference and Race Official Conference, the RYA are offering more opportunities for people from across the UK to connect virtually around different topics.
RYA Raymarine Training Conference, Supported by Gallagher - 30/31st January
The FREE online conference will be hosted over the weekend of 30-31 January 2021 and will be open to instructors across the powerboat, personal watercraft, inland waterways and sail and motor cruising schemes, as well as senior instructors, coaches, trainers and training centre principals across all the RYA training schemes.
For more information and to sign up visit here
Sailability Conference, Supported by Gallagher – 13th February
2020 has been a tough year and so the online 2021 Sailability conference will be a chance to regroup, restart and rebuild. We might not be able to meet in person but we can still come together as a community, motivate each other for the year ahead and learn together. The event will be streamed via YouTube, Facebook and our website. The conference is free of charge and open to everyone involved with or interested in the Sailability community. More information and to sign up visit here