Communities

Communities are about a sense of belonging and identity. They connect people through a common interest, or can be rooted in a particular location or region.

We want Scotland’s diverse boating communities to be successful, inclusive, valued, sustainable and collaborative. Whether it’s an emerging student yachting scene, young sailors congregating around an exciting class, or a coastal community benefiting from boating, we aim to support the growth of enriched communities.

How we said we’d make it happen.

And what we did this year.

Building an emerging foiling community

We are committed to engaging with and supporting the aspirations of emerging communities of interest within Scottish watersport. An excellent example during this reporting year was the launch of the youth foiling windsurf programme at Loch Insh Watersports in April 2022.

Foiling technology has taken the world of performance windsurfing by storm in recent years, and the iQFOiL class is now the youth one-design board of choice for aspiring young riders around the globe. However, Scotland had been somewhat lagging behind this trend, with no foiling fleet to speak of.

In partnership with Scotland’s windsurf clubs and enabled through legacy funding, RYA Scotland has provided five iQFOiL boards and masts. These will be owned by the clubs, used by the members and made available for all transitioning sailors to progress onto foiling boards. To further build this emerging foiling community, we will run a series of iQFOiL summer academies in August 2023.

We now talk to clubs about their ‘Why?’ – their wider social impact, as opposed to sport for sport’s sake.

Growing our understanding of the Changing Lives approach

This reporting year, we have continued to build our understanding of Changing Lives, sportscotland’s partnership programme to drive wider positive change for people and communities through sport and physical activity.

We are looking afresh at our approach as a sports governing body, and how we continue to use Changing Lives in the support we provide to clubs and affiliates. This year, we have worked to upskill our team: our three Regional Development Officers (RDOs) attended a series of Changing Lives training workshops, which brought together partners from across Scotland’s sporting landscape in different locations to learn how their sports could change lives, and how they could become Changing Lives Champions.

Brian Pahlmann, RDO for the North of Scotland, explains how he is using this learning: “In our conversations with clubs, we now encourage them to undertake community mapping – a needs analysis of the community around them – to focus their activities and help them articulate their wider positive impact. We now talk to clubs about their ‘Why?’ – their social impact, as opposed to sport for sport’s sake.

“I have been using the Theory of Change tool with clubs to support the writing of their grant applications. I use it to bring a different lens and encourage clubs to consider and articulate the benefits for the wider community, beyond the members of the club.”

Laura Cowan, RDO for West, adds: “I have used connections from Changing Lives sessions to have conversations about some of the EDI provision within our sports. We have run a community mapping workshop with clubs and centres, and discussed what Social Index of Multiple Deprivation mapping might look like for them.

“I have spoken to clubs about their ‘Why?’ and how that links with their decisions around the activity they can offer. We are now looking at the Club Development Framework and will be thinking about how that can reflect our Changing Lives approach more closely.”

StrathSail’s success inspires the student keelboat community

In early September 2022, RYA Scotland, with sponsor A-Plan Insurance, ran a Youth Keelboating Weekend at Port Edgar to nurture Scottish youth participation in the British Keelboat League (BKL).

The weekend set off an exciting chain of events for an ambitious team from Strathclyde University Sailing Club (known as StrathSail). Their subsequent success has provided inspiration for Scotland’s student keelboat community.

The weekend drew 54 young people in 11 teams from around the country to experience 707 keelboat racing. The prize – direct entry into the BKL Championship Finals –went to StrathSail’s team, led by the club’s Commodore, Jake Miller.

“Student sailing is generally focused on dinghies, because it’s more affordable than keelboat access,” says Jake, a Masters student in Biomedical Engineering. “That’s why the Youth Keelboating Weekend was so important – it was free! Keelboat racing events usually cost several hundred pounds per team… a big ask for sailors on student budgets. So this was a wonderful initiative.”

Strathsail’s win that weekend saw the team travel to the British Keelboat League (BKL Finals) Finals on the Hamble in early October 2022. A second place earned them an invitation to the Sailing Champions League in Vilamoura, Portugal, in March 2023. “Vilamoura was on a whole new level – it was rather daunting but amazing racing with an international fleet.”

Two weeks later, the team went on to win the British Student Nationals in Southampton – the first Scottish boat to do so in many years. It had also won the Scottish Student Sailing Yachting Championships hosted with the BKL at Port Edgar at the end of February.

Jake reflects: “RYA Scotland’s Youth Keelboating Weekend really was the catalyst for our success. It was a game changer. The event saw us form a successful team and started us on a pathway that would not have happened otherwise. The RYA putting effort into making student keelboating events available and very importantly, affordable is key. Finances are often a barrier to participation for students.”