Horning SC receives RYA Club of the Year Finalist Award
Horning Sailing Club has been presented as one of five finalists for the RYA Club of the Year 2015 award.
Situated
on the River Bure at Horning in the Norfolk Broads, the club, which was also a
finalist in 2014, received its award from British Sailing Team’s Nick Thompson
and RYA CEO Sarah Treseder at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show on Saturday 28
February.
At the eagerly awaited
awards ceremony Horning was one of five strong finalists from across the UK including
Brightlingsea Sailing Club, Bury Lake Young Mariners, Himley Hall Sailing Club
and Llangorse Sailing Club.
Selected by the RYA
Honours and Awards Panel, the finalists were judged on how well they promote
the sport, encourage people onto the water and make their activities varied and
available to their community.
Ten years ago Horning was
an aging keelboat club with dwindling activity.
Last year this club made it into the RYA Club of the Year finalists as a
vibrant, active, thriving family club revitalised by a focus on youth dinghy
sailing, while still supporting activity growth in its traditional cruiser and
keelboat fleets.
RYA OnBoard and RYA
Champion Club status have been key to the club’s development by contributing to
a 100% increase in junior membership. The club has also experienced a
remarkable 76% increase in active racers over the past season. This, together
with affordable fees, helped the club achieve a 25% increase in membership in
2014.
The increase in membership
and activity means the club is now being used five days a week as opposed to
just one ten years ago and all of this relies entirely on the efforts of volunteers.
The club continues to host high profile events including the ‘Navigators and General Three Rivers Race’
which has run annually since 1961.
At the ceremony club
treasurer Peter Goshawk said: “We’re very excited and very pleased to get
through to the last five. It means a lot to our members, we’re very proud of the
fact we got through to this level.”
2014 commodore and RYA
training centre principal Robert Hancock added: "We’re really pleased to
have reached the final five for the second year running. Our enthusiastic
members have been incredibly supportive of the club and we hope that gaining
this second accolade will prove to be a fantastic start to the 2015
season."
Nick Thompson said:
“Really for me the biggest thing was hearing the achievements and hard work the
finalists are doing to get new people into the sport and keep people who are
already in the sport interested. I certainly felt pretty inspired!”
Special thanks go to
Arthur J. Gallagher who supports the RYA Club of the Year Award, and to Sailing
Awards who donated the perpetual RYA Club of the Year trophy when the award was
first introduced in 2008.