Ulley Sailing Club Where small really is beautiful! Aiming to make - - PDF document

Ulley Sailing Club

Where small really is beautiful!

Aiming to make sailing affordable and accessible for all

What makes us special?

• Volunteer run – everything from training to cleaning to

cooking our trademark communal lunches

• Friendly – everyone welcome of all ages and abilities
• Low cost - with everything provided to get newcomers

sailing immediately

• Working together - with resilience and ingenuity
• Sociable – all memberships include social membership

for a spouse/partner

• Beautiful surroundings – and easily accessible

More info given on the Slides’ Notes Pages

• Located in beautiful Country Park – so non-sailing partners are happy to come as

well.

• Only a small water but not an active reservoir so its size is constant throughout the
• year. It is easily accessible (next to a main road) and it has an asphalted car park –

not a muddy field!

• We pride ourselves on our friendliness. Enjoyable sailing is our priority.
• We keep membership fees as low as possible and our extremely enthusiastic

instructors provide training for members that is either free or very low cost.

• The great majority of members arrive as novices but we produce sailors of National

standard (e.g. current RS500 National Champion).

• We encourage social interaction between all our members – both sailing and non-

sailing - including our trademark Sunday lunches (no need to bring sandwiches!).

• Great Team Spirit!
• Because the water is small, the winds are challenging!

1

• Celebrated 40th anniversary

together with 2012 Olympics!

• Located in Ulley Country Park,

Rotherham, in deprived area with very low sports participation

• Share premises with school and

community groups

• Survived 4 seasons’ disruption after

2007 floods

• Membership at record levels by

2011 and near present capacity

• Resourceful 12 strong Committee

meets at least monthly

• Became RYA Training Centre - April

2013

Numbers of Memberships*

20 40 60 80 100

'07 '09 '11 '13 Non-Sailing Honorary Student Crew Single Family*

Context

find out more at www.ulleysailingclub.org.uk

*One Family membership = multiple Members.

• Premises belong to Rotherham MBC. We have sole use of the club house and water
• nly on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesday evenings. During the week, it is used by

the outdoor activities centre run by Wickersley Sports College – a local comprehensive school. Some rooms are for general hire by groups or individuals.

• Only the ‘galley’ (a small kitchen and bar) and the Race Control Cabin are

exclusively ours.

• Dam wall was in danger of collapsing during the floods of June 2007 – made national

headlines! RESERVOIR CLOSED! Not certain that we would ever return to sailing at Ulley.

• Committee decided to move the whole Club to South Yorkshire Sailing Club
• Set very low fees to retain membership during period of great uncertainty.

Retained use of clubhouse for social activities.

• Pressurised RMBC to let us resume restricted sailing activities at Ulley in 2008,

following their decision that the dam would be repaired not demolished. Low water levels and Country Park not open to the general public.

• No sailing again during repair works in 2009/10.
• Grand re-opening and re-launch at August Bank Holiday 2010.

RESULT: Held on to our previous membership and reached record membership levels by the end of 2011.

2

Surviving the storms

• We lost our water

BUT we kept sailing as a club and as Team Ulley

• All our safety equipment was stolen

BUT we made successful bids for funds to get better 4-stroke engines and tractor

• The king post broke on our club

Enterprise in the WLYC 24 hour race BUT with team spirit, ingenuity and a bit

• f scavenged pallet, we kept our 20

year unbroken record and finished the race

• Vandals threw our home-made

pontoon bridge into deep water BUT we arranged for the local Sub-Aqua Club to rescue it for us

• We lost our water but we kept our great TEAM SPIRIT!
• Succession of break-ins, resulting in loss of safety boat, three 2-stroke engines and a

tractor – plus miscellaneous gear.

• All replaced with better versions, largely thanks to successful bids for grant

funding.

• King post broke on Club Enterprise during Southport 24-Hour Race, 2010.
• Steward’s reaction: “That’s the end of your race!”
• Members’ reaction: “You don’t know Team Ulley!”
• Site scoured and part of pallet found. Shaped and fitted in approx. one hour.

RESULT: Race completed!

• We had designed and made a removable bridge from the shore to our floating

pontoon as a safety measure, to discourage access when we are not operating.

• Unfortunately, this bridge was not returned to the boat park at the end of one

day and vandals threw it into deep water.

• We have good relations with the local sub-aqua group, who were glad to come

and recover it.

Rebuilding the ship

In 2010, while we had no water, members volunteered to:

• refurbish the galley and

redecorate the club-house

• renovate our race control cabin
• rebuild our safety jetty
• re-fence the boat park

using reclaimed materials

• Installed new units and new tiling in the galley. Redecoration of the rest of the club

house should be done by the landlord (RMBC) but it’s easier and much quicker to do it ourselves!

• The race control cabin was re-roofed, rotten wood replaced and the whole thing

painted inside and out.

• The safety jetty is next to the Race Control Cabin and used to be made of rusting

scaffolding poles and planks. It was replaced by a substantial gabion and concrete construction.

• When our safety boat was stolen, it was taken through the flimsy wood fence around

the boat park. RMBC had no funds to replace the fence, but a committee member sourced some second-hand steel palisade fencing and we installed them ourselves

• ver three weekends.

Relaunching the club and attracting new members

• Maximum publicity by press, radio and television,

posters and leaflets, website and social media

• Celebrating excellent role models, from Olympic,

national and regional champions, to young charity fund-raisers and our own volunteers

• We joined in the park’s reopening Gala in August

2010 with a BBQ and trips on the water and have held Open Days every May since, offering free sailing tasters to over 100 people each year

• We offer low-cost half-day Sailing Experiences –

with discounts on subsequent membership. These start with crewing with one of our RYA-qualified volunteer instructors and aim to get people helming themselves round a simple course. (More

info in the Notes Page for this slide.)

The Experiences have been run on virtually every spare Saturday in the main season since 2011. Fewer days available since became a RTC, but still attracted 63 people in 2013 including special group sessions for local Explorer Scouts and for Home-Educated Children. Waiting list for 2014. Popular as birthday presents!

• Use of the club’s modern RS Visions, Qubas and

team kit means “all you need to bring is your enthusiasm”

• Since the floods of 2007, we have maintained a high profile in the local press.
• This was greatly helped by Paul Goodison, an Ulley member since childhood, winning Gold at

the Beijing Olympics of 2008. His home-coming party was at Ulley was televised by Look North.

• In 2010 our bosun received a Lifetime Achievement Award at both the Rotherham Sports

Awards and the South Yorkshire Sports Awards.

• In 2010 and 2011, a youth member had great success in YHYSA Travellers Series and NSSA

Regatta.

• In 2011, two of our younger sailors raised over £9000 for Brain Tumour Research by sailing the

WLYC 24 Hour Race non-stop and also took the prize for top Yorkshire boat.

• Half-day Sailing Experiences in 2013 cost just £15 per adult, £10 per junior or £30 for

a family of four. Half of this refunded if they then join the Club.

• Participants are kitted out with spray tops, waterproof trousers and buoyancy

aids.

• Sessions start with a classroom briefing followed by an on-shore introduction

to the boats.

• An instructor then takes them out on the water to teach them the basics of

dinghy sailing, before they start sailing solo.

• The aim is that they have at least an hour of sailing a simple course (e.g. figure-
• f-eight) by themselves.

Getting people on the water 1 - Safety and Training

• Safety boat – all safety officers are

trained and must take refresher in month before their duty

• Many members qualified First Aiders -

2 courses this year both full

• Our first RYA levels 1 and 2 courses

were all full

• Our RYA Ladies that Launch initiative

was oversubscribed

• Sailing training offered free to

members – especially new recruits – every month

• Weekly blackboard training in winter
• All our instructors are enthusiastic

sailors and give their services for free!

• Safety is always a priority.
• No on-the-water activities without a manned safety boat.
• Safety boat crews must have Level 2 Powerboat or pass our in-house training

every year before their safety duties.

• Still feeling our way as a RTC, so initial Level 1 & 2 courses limited to 6 participants.
• Safety-boat and sailing training is offered to all members, free of charge, on the third

Saturday in each month during the main sailing season – safety boat in the morning, sailing in the afternoon.

• Blackboard training is offered in the clubhouse every Wednesday evening from

autumn to spring. The bar is open afterwards!

Getting people on the water 2 - Racing at home and away

• Year round club racing programme at

weekends + Wednesday evenings in summer – typically 30+ boats on the water each week

• Open meetings –YHYSA, Streaker &

Enterprise

• Competitive sailing throughout the

fleet

• Experienced helms willingly pair up

with novice crews

• Youth supported to enter YHYSA

regional and national events

• Very well and successfully represented

at regional and national Enterprise championships

• Ulley by the Sea – biggest contingent

and most of the prizes at Filey 2012 to celebrate our 40thanniversary!

• Club all-comers team entered for WLYC

24 hour race every year – splendid 26th place in 2013

• Since the re-launch, Saturdays have been very busy (hectic even) with casual sailors.

These are mostly newer members, but by no means entirely – many of our established members just cannot stay away or are busy on Sundays.

• Competitive sailing is particularly evident in the Enterprise fleet which has seen a

great resurgence since the re-launch, with several of our younger members becoming prominent in the national Enterprise scene.

• Some of our experienced members have always enjoyed introducing new people to

the joys of sailing and racing by taking them out as crews. This has become more formalised in recent years.

• The Club is a very strong supporter of the YHYSA Travellers Series and the NSSA
• Regatta. All our young members are strongly encouraged to take part.
• The NSSA requested a Race Team from Yorkshire to help with the NSSA Regatta

in 2012 on the Olympic courses at Portland/Weymouth. In the resultant Back Race Team, running the Laser races, everybody was a present or past member

• f Ulley Sailing Club!
• We have entered at least one boat in the WLYC 24-Hour Race (“Southport”) for the

last 20 years. This is primarily a team building exercise – new novice members are encouraged to come and sail as part of the team.

Getting people on the water 3 - Having fun

• Pushing the Boat Out
• Catching and cooking a

duck

• Young people’s fun day
• f

Young people’s fun day r Family raft day Pushing the Boat Out 2012 “Catch and cook a duck” May ‘13 Family raft race 2011

• All our “Fun” events are well attended and enjoyed by all.
• Many members bring their children’s friends and so introduce yet more people to the

joys of sailing.

• Visitors are always welcome any weekend if brought by a member.
• An Saturday enquiry about membership is likely to see you out in a dinghy within half

an hour!

• Some people specially arrange for their children’s birthday parties to be held at Ulley
• n our Open Day, so the kids can enjoy a 20-30 minute “Sailing Taster”, possibbby

followed by messing about in Toppers – and all for free (although a donation is welcomed)!

Year round social events for the young and not so young

Children’s Party Home made curry night Boxing Day Wassail Midsummer BBQ 40th Anniversary Dinner Dance

• The social side of the Club is very strong, encouraged by:
• Everybody (sailors and non-sailors) sitting down to a simple communal lunch

each Sunday between races.

• Ever class of membership including Associate (i.e. social) membership for a

spouse/partner and these spouse/partners are encouraged to integrate into the Club by assisting in the galley.

• The “Boxing Day Wassail” is a single race – preferably in fancy dress – followed by a

glass of hot punch and a slice of Christmas pudding.

Getting ready for the next 40 years…

• Regular updates to Club

Development Plan

• Maintaining new equipment

– 1 laser, 2 Visions , 4 Qubas, 3 engines, 1 mini-tractor , and new club kit – from £25000+ match funded grant aid in last 3 years

• Accommodating >20% more

boats on our restricted site using systems designed and constructed by members

• Inspired Facilities bid to

improve the club house

• Working with others -

especially Wickersley School and the Friends of Ulley Country Park - to improve the club-house and surrounds

• The original Club Development Plan in 2009 was based on the expectation that we

could buy adjacent land to extend our boat park. To this end, outline Planning Permission for Change of Use was obtained.

• In 2012, the landowner decided to ask for a truly ridiculous amount of money

for a small part of a field – even though it is in a corner that is difficult to cultivate.

• The whole of the Committee attended an all-day Growth Strategy Meeting one

Saturday in November 2012 to revise the Plan.

• As a consequence, members designed a system of 2-tier galvanised boat racks,

which we had manufactured and we installed in March 2013. RESULT: Together with other innovative modifications to the boat park, this has increased the available boat spaces by more than 20%!

• We have submitted an Inspired Facilities bid for £50,000 to refurbish, modify and

modernise the interior of our club house.

• This will provide a new disabled/instructor/family shower room; enlarged ladies

and gents changing rooms, enlarged galley and a separate dry area.

• It will also provide an enlarged kitchen for the use of the Friends of Ulley

Country Park when they run Café days as well as for other users of the building.