Earlswood Lakes SC proving ‘This Girl Can’ Sail

by RYA on 26 Aug 2015 Earlswood Lakes Sailing Club is proving ‘This Girl Can’ thanks to special new ‘females-only’ sessions to get more women sailing.

So far more than 20 females have been taking advantage of the club’s monthly exclusive ladies sessions since they started at Windmill Lake in May in line with Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign to get more females into sport.

According to Sport England, there are currently two million fewer women than men regularly playing sport in England, but 75% of 14-40 year old women say they want to exercise more.

Earlswood Lakes recognised the potential to get more women on the water last summer, and appointed a Ladies Rep, Marie Bond, whose role was to look at how the club could encourage and nurture more female sailors.

With the project already paying dividends, Earlswood Lakes are looking at how they can build on this early success to keep getting more females afloat.

Marie explains: “Although the club is renowned for being a small but friendly and welcoming club, as a female who is either new to sailing or a new member, it can be quite nerve-racking and intimidating sailing on a lake with a group of experienced sailors that are predominantly male.

“Some lady sailors needed a different mechanism for mutual support and development. We had 13 ladies out on the water for the first session, which was a great turn out. Some were new members who had just completed their RYA Level one learn to sail course with us, together with ladies that had completed courses 10-20 years ago!“

'With coaching from RYA Senior Instructor, Matt French, and volunteers from our club instructors plus a safety boat driver, everyone got an opportunity to helm, before with everyone safely back on dry land we celebrated with tea and cakes in the bar! The enthusiasm was fantastic and everyone was keen for the sessions to continue.”

RYA Midlands Regional Development Officer, Gareth Brookes, helped Earlswood Lakes secure funding from Coventry Solihull and Warwickshire Sport to pay for an RYA dinghy instructor for two ladies-only training sessions, which helped kick-start the project.

Such have been the sessions’ popularity, another club volunteer and qualified RYA instructor, Diane Thornton, is now also helping run the sessions.

A survey conducted by sailing’s national governing body, the RYA, showed in 2014 average sailing club membership in England was 58% male and 42% female, highlighting that not only does the sport already have a lot of women involved but that figure had actually increased by 11% from 2013.

Marie believes with their female newcomers fully embracing club life, including regularly taking part in club racing and undertaking volunteer roles, this is a trend that will continue at Earlswood Lakes.

She added: “The reality is sailing is a great hobby, which is accessible to all. The success of our ladies project is down to the fact the sessions are very relaxed, run by females and has a big after-sailing social element. The feedback has been fantastic and we have more ladies than ever sailing at the club.

“To build on this we are running further sessions in September and October before maybe looking at using the time in the winter to see if we can do some other things like basic introduction to safety boat handing. We are also slowly making improvements to the ladies changing room. It’s been received so positively.”

Earlswood Lakes SC is a recognised RYA Training Centre meaning it conforms to the highest standards of safety and quality.