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RYA Covid Support for Northern Ireland Sailing Clubs & Centres

23rd April 2020
Strangford Lough Yacht Club Strangford Lough Yacht Club Credit: RYA

The RYA is offering guidance and advice to Affiliated Clubs and Recognised Training Centres to assist with emergency financial planning. The financial planning club guidance includes advice on reviewing income and expenditure, how to utilise savings, plus ideas to help generate revenue.

Clubs and training centres can also access a COVID-19 Financial Toolkit which has been created to support those working on emergency planning and budgeting processes.

The RYA is also asking clubs and training centres to complete a survey designed to help venues to work through some of the help and support currently available. This information will also help the RYA to target the most needed support and guidance and effectively influence major stakeholders including the UK Government.

RYA Director of Sport Development Alistair Dickson explains: “We know many clubs will already have existing forecasts or well-developed business plans in place however these are now unlikely to reflect the reality of the situation ahead. Therefore, it’s important to undertake some urgent planning as soon as possible and we hope that this guidance will provide some support during this process.”

Club Commodores and Training Centre Principals may have also seen that the Government has launched a new ‘support finder’ tool to help businesses and self-employed people across the UK to quickly and easily determine what financial support is available to them during the pandemic.

“We hugely appreciate the efforts and challenges that those running clubs and training centres are facing at this current time. If you have more specific questions or are seeking more detailed advice, please contact your Development Officer who will be happy to help and hold virtual meetings. Please also help us focus our support by filling in the Access to Support Survey; it will really help us to help you and influence major stakeholders like the UK Government.”

The Development Officer in Northern Ireland is Mary Martin tel 07919 923018 [email protected]

Betty Armstrong

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Betty Armstrong

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Betty Armstrong is Afloat and Yachting Life's Northern Ireland Correspondent. Betty grew up racing dinghies but now sails a more sedate Dehler 36 around County Down

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