Snettisham Beach Sailing Club granted Volvo RYA Champion Club Status

by Andrew Jasper on 9 Mar 2010 Snettisham Beach Sailing Club has been granted the esteemed Volvo RYA Champion Club status for their commitment to junior sailing and the delivery of high level training at their club.

The new RYA Chief executive Sarah Treseder presented the award to Snettisham Beach Sailing Club’s RYA Principal Katie Daniels, and Dinghy Instructors Fergus Barnham and Alex Daniels of SBSC, at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show, London, on Saturday 6 March 2010.

The Volvo RYA Champion Club Programme recognises sailing clubs with a commitment to junior sailing and race coaching in the UK. It aims to encourage young sailors and windsurfers at grassroots level to stay in the sport and learn to compete, while encouraging clubs to introduce youngsters to the sport and help develop their skills. The key challenge for the programme is to encourage more young people to start participating in sailing and then progress with their racing careers.

On presenting the award Sarah Treseder said: 'I’m delighted we’re signing up yet another fantastic club to the Volvo RYA Champion Club programme. Snettisham and the other 163 Champion Clubs do such a great job for the sport inspiring more people to take up sailing regularly and setting great foundations for taking their sailing to a higher level.

'I pass on my congratulations to Snettisham and look forward to seeing some great talent coming up through the club.' she concluded.

Katie Daniels RYA Principal at Snettisham Beach SC said: 'SBSC are very proud to have been awarded Volvo RYA Championship Status, it makes all the hard work over the past 3 years worthwhile, especially when we see juniors who were complete beginners gain confidence and progressing through to enjoying racing. Some recently took part in their first National Regatta at Grafham Water in February.'

Now Snettisham Beach Sailing Club has been awarded Volvo RYA Champion Club status, sailors will see increased levels of development advice and professional coaching including support from their local RYA High Performance Manager Paul Wren.

Paul added: 'it really is an exciting time to be involved in the Volvo RYA Champion Club Programme and the incentives are there for every club to take full advantage of. The easier we can make it for more clubs to do that then the quicker the sport of sailing will benefit.'

Snettisham Beach Sailing Club will also benefit from enhanced club coach and volunteer development on top of the Champion Club programme support. This taps into Sport England’s recent commitment of £1.1m ring fenced for supporting the RYA’s flagship Junior Sailing initiatives over the next three years.