Raising Performance Standards
The postponement of Tokyo 2020 was of course a huge blow for the British Sailing Team. However, the 15 athletes selected to represent Team GB in Tokyo have shown determination and resilience to keep their Olympic dream alive while their plans were put on hold during the last year.
During the fi rst lockdown the sailors took on several charity challenges, raising money for good causes. To keep fans engaged the team delivered a monthly blog, and fi lming for a special British Sailing Team documentary continued throughout the year.
Along with recreational boating, all other racing was affected, and while UK boaters were unable to get out on the water, we invited people to sail online instead. Our RYA-wide #SailFromHome project kept young sailors engaged during lockdowns, and won praise from UK Sport’s Senior Coach Developer. The project offered a wide range of sailing-specifi c content for all ages and levels of sailors, as well as clubs. Young sailors were able to access a host of videos on the British Sailing Team YouTube channel, offering advice, workouts and tips.
With the elite sport exemption allowing international travel for competitions in May, British Sailing Team athletes were soon back to their winning ways. Highlights included an historic ‘podium lockout’ at the ILCA 7 (formerly Laser) European Championships in Poland, and bronze in the new mixed 470 fl eet at the 2021 World Championships.
Some youth competition and grassroots sailing resumed in the summer as clubs and centres were able to open as some restrictions lifted. Plans to reinvigorate junior racing by placing more emphasis on regional and club racing saw British Youth Sailing launch its new Regional Training Groups. These aim to promote inclusive and accessible training across the English
regions, with the ultimate goal of encouraging more young sailors to take up and stay in the sport.
Off the water, our Kiteboard Mixed Relay athletes won the ‘Biggest Turnaround or Breakthrough in High Performance Sport’ category at UK Sport’s prestigious PLx Awards.
Our Youth Stakeholders Conference in January enabled British Youth Sailing to engage with recognised class associations and clubs and provide them with an update on the programme, while our hugely successful Race Offi cials Conference saw over 300 attendees join from around the world over four nights.
The British Keelboat Academy moved online for 2020-21 with a series of ‘how to’ and ‘meet the expert’ videos, while the British Keelboat Sailing podcast and the RYA Rules of Racing webinars proved hugely popular, the latter attracting nearly 30,000 views across six episodes.
RYA ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2021
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