About Volvo RYA Champion Clubs
Volvo RYA Champion Club was launched in 1997, alongside Volvo Car UK's sponsorship of the RYA Youth Programme at that time. It aims to encourage young sailors and windsurfers at grass roots level, to stay in the sport and learn to compete.
Ultimately the goal is to increase Britains medal wins in international regattas, building on the success of Skandia Team GBR at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Athens & Beijing. However, in addition to the overall objectives of the RYA, for many clubs it has been an effective vehicle for motivating and empowering volunteers, increasing membership, raising revenue and has also been the catalyst for having a structured and planned approach for the development and hence success of the club.
The programme despite being 15 years old, still enjoys significant support from Volvo Car UK and has also received a significant funding boost from Sport England.
What is a Volvo RYA Champion Club (VCC)?
A VCC is essentially a club which makes a commitment to deliver safe, effective racing and race training in the RYA recognised classes these are the Topper, Mirror, Cadet, Laser 4.7, Optimist, RS Feva and BIC Techno 293 Windsurf board. Additionally, clubs which are VCC's agree to support (via well organised coaching as well as advice, expertise and encouragement) the on going development of young sailors within their club and help to facilitate their progression into regional competition and subsequently into RYA squad programmes. In short if you are keen for your young sailor to progress down the competitive dinghy/windsurf racing route there is no better foundation of training. It truly represents the bedrock of the RYA's Youth programmes.
Also, increasing the numbers of talented young sailors is good for the RYA (and good for our future Olympic efforts) in addition these club programmes are good for clubs and our sport. Having a thriving junior/youth section which consistently introduces young people is a sure-fire way for a club to increase membership and therefore raise revenue. Engaging with young people and their families can assist a club to be healthy and vibrant, as well as offer a supply of keen volunteers to help fulfil the various roles connected with the effective running of a club.
For parents and sailors VCC's should be sociable, involving, fun and safe places to spend time with like minded families enjoying an active sport.
The RYA works with the clubs to provide a range of benefits but also to ensure that the clubs are committed to engaging parents (sailors or otherwise) with the activity. Sailing Clubs are a great place to support a youngsters activity by helping out. Irrespective of what your individual skills are there are worthwhile and valuable tasks which you can help out with in order to underpin the activity and whilst also seeing your youngster develop as a sailor and an individual.
How many VCC s are there?
There are currently almost 186 Volvo RYA Champion Clubs in the UK however the RYA has secured the support of Sport England to both enhance the support to existing and potential VCC's (in England), in order to enable us to increase the numbers of VCC's and the capacity of the VCC's there already are. In practice, these clubs vary enormously in terms of their size and status but they all share in the ethos of putting Youth Sailing at the forefront of club activity and providing a structured progression for young sailors to meet their goals.
A current list of Volvo RYA Champion Clubs, with links to their websites, is available on the Current Volvo RYA Champion Clubs page.
Why should I be interested in joining a Volvo RYA Champion Club?
If your specific interest is competitive dinghy sailing or windsurfing, the branding of a Volvo RYA Champion Club gives sailors and parents a degree of quality assurance whereby they know that a Volvo RYA Champion Club will give youngsters all the training, competition and encouragement they need to achieve in the sport. They will have the appropriate resources in terms of boats, qualified volunteers, and safety policies to ensure they can help young sailors meet their goals within the sport. This is not to say other clubs don't offer this but becoming a VCC does represent a commitment to share in our objectives in this regard.
Once engaged in a training programme within a Volvo RYA Champion Club there are a number of options most will receive: advice and support from club youth coordinators, coaches, or other parents on when/how to progress in to the RYA Zone/Home Country squad programmes which directly feed the GBR National Junior Squad's. In many ways the VCC brings together numbers of families and volunteers who share the same aspirations and objectives for their sailing, and are keen to facilitate the progression of their youngsters.
From here, talent and commitment permitting sailors can progress into the RYA Youth and Olympic Programmes and VCC's offer the spring board to progress in this direction. In this regard it is a well trodden path, almost all of Skandia Team GBR's sailors have emanated from a club which provided well organised and structured race training. In essence having a good fleet of like minded sailors in your class to race and train with every week really does make a huge difference to a sailor's progression, as well as the obvious benefits from a social point of view. We recognise that progressing into Olympic sailing is obviously not for everyone and many graduates from Volvo RYA Champion Clubs will choose to progress into other disciplines of the sport like the Keelboat Racing, University team/match racing or choose to join the circuits of some of the traditional domestic classes.
Importantly, often within VCC's sailors and their parents can gain relevant sports related qualifications (instructor, coach, powerboat qualifications etc.) in order to enable them to volunteer to support their VCC, or even enjoy a career within the industry.
Where can we go from here?
Additional information and details about the programme can be found here on the RYA website or directly from your local RYA High Performance Manager.