"Yesterday I attended this Eastern Region RYA conference.
Some people assumed that I was representing the DCA; so I kept very quiet.
Representatives from the local sailing clubs clearly didn't understand the concept of 'cruising, not racing'.
The thought of cruising a dinghy for more than an afternoon was obviously alien to them.
They knew of no cruising dinghies other than the Wayfarer.
They tended to smile gently, and move away.
By contrast, the RYA is beginning to understand dinghy cruising. Or, at least, pottering about with family and friends with a picnic for the day.
The RYA doesn't yet know what to do about dinghy cruising, but it's clear in its collective mind that it must harness members. It's the only water-borne recreation over which it doesn't yet have some degree of control.
Robbie Bell, the Eastern Region Development Officer, was explicit about his objectives at the conference:
it's all about recruitment.
Recruitment for the local affiliated clubs? Yes, but as a means of recruiting members for the RYA.
Did you read Terry Pratchet's "Small Gods"?
He described the power of a god as the number of people who believed in that god.
The more believers (members?) the more power.
The RYA is a not-so-small god; by accumulating members it accumulates power.
It genuinely believes that it uses that power for the benefit of sailors of all kinds. It consults with government over wind farms, red diesel and the results of Brexit. It negotiates over the application of SOLAS to small boats and with Trinity House on the positioning of buoys.
It has training schemes for most kinds of watercraft (except cruising dinghies!).
When, I wonder, will they devise training schemes for dinghy cruising folk?
Will the schemes be as badly thought-out and constructed as those for yachts?
What will the RYA do about us? the DCA?
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