RYA Scotland is mid-way through a four year plan, a significant part of which is to ensure that boating in Scotland offers ‘a place for everyone’. Equality underpins everything we do and since achieving the Sport Councils Advanced Equality Standard in 2016 we have continued to push to be the best we can be.

RYA Scotland believes that we should be a champion for underrepresented groups in our sport. We already have a brilliantly successful programme in RYA Sailability which ensures we welcome people with disabilities. We are bringing in a series of events which we believe will encourage more women to engage in boating activities and we will begin to look at much more meaningful engagement of young people in our decision making processes as we evaluate our stakeholder representation through 2019. However we also want to ensure that we recognise and support the inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people in our boating community, something we think we can do better.

Through 2018 we have been working towards the LGBT Youth Scotland Foundation Charter. Their support has been invaluable and challenging and has given us great confidence in our activities but also led us to understand we can and should do more and better for the LGBT+ Community in Scottish boating.

RYA Scotland has created a small group of Champions who are actively supporting our efforts to improve our support for the LGBT+ Community in Scottish boating and across our affiliated clubs and training centres. We have already made a significant input to the RYA UK guidance to clubs on transgender issues, supported the development of the policy on transgender squad members and made amendments to RYA Scotland policies to make them reflect LGBT+ rights more accurately.

Alongside this, we have commissioned LGBT Youth Scotland to deliver training on LGBT+ issues which staff, committee members and coaches have attended. Everyone felt this was really important and a great way to understand and address the issues LGBT+ people face when engaging in sport. We had some really positive outcomes from the training which are now beginning to translate into actions and we hope will engage clubs and training centres in the very near future.

To show our support for LGBT rights and LGBT History Month, the Management Committee of RYA Scotland have all signed a uniquely designed rainbow flag bearing the RYA Scotland Brand. We are challenging clubs and training centres to share this commitment by signing one of our five special rainbow flags, flying it at their club or centre, posting the image on their own social media channels using the tags below and including a link to the LGBT Charter of Rights.

#LGBTcharter
@LGBTYS
@ryascotland

To get involved contact admin@ryascotland.org.uk and one of our team may visit with a flag or we will send you a flag to sign and return. All the flags will be at the Club Development Day on the 24^th of February with the flags touring clubs over the rest of 2019.

Our journey continues as we work towards completing the Foundation Charter. If you want to know more about the LGBT Youth Scotland Charter and what this means for an organisation like RYA Scotland, you can read the details HERE and find out more about the LGBT Charter Rights  HERE

Despite the best efforts of Storm Callum, the show went on and the RYA Scotland team spent the three days of the show getting people on the water to try boating as well as catching up with members in the RYA Scotland members’ lounge.

As one of the major sponsors of Scotland’s Boat Show, RYA Scotland used the show as an opportunity to promote our sport and get people out on the water to try boating. Partnering up with sportscotland National Centre Cumbrae, You and Sea and Ocean Youth Trust Scotland, there were just over 200 opportunities to get on the water despite all on-water activities having to be cancelled on the Friday.

The persistent rain throughout Saturday did not deter people from getting afloat. In fact we have some really fantastic feedback from those who took part. Sisters Moira McColl and Christine Menzies took part in a one hour motor cruising session on board You and Sea’s 40 foot motor cruiser, Millbrook.

“We were delighted that they laid on the wildlife for us. Really interesting seeing the harbour porpoises and seals. I also had an experience of driving the boat which is something I don’t normally get to do” commented Christine.

Jason and Robbie Turner from Greenock both went on a one hour cruising session aboard Cumbrae’s 38ft yacht Santa Vey.

Robbie said: “I have been sailing with the Scouts at Lochgoilhead, but this is my first time on a bigger boat. It was really good.”

Jason then commented: “I have done a bit of sailing on the Pipers at Royal Gourock Yacht Club. This was the first time out on a cruising yacht like that and we will be definitely be aiming to do that again.”

Rosaline Mieke took her boys out on the water to experience powerboating as part of a 30 minute RIB driving experience with Cumbrae.

“Amazing I really enjoyed it and it was thrilling. I got to drive it. So it was spectacular! Brought the boys along and they really enjoyed it!”

RYA Gold members were invited to join the RYA Scotland team for a brunch of bacon and sausage rolls as well as a free tea or coffee right up to 12 noon on the Saturday morning. Around 100 people took up the invitation and used the opportunity to catch up with friends and to set themselves up for a day wandering the show and pontoons.

Outside of this time an RYA members’ lounge at The Chartroom was open all three days of the show and offered people somewhere warm to dry out and enjoy a free tea or coffee. The discounted lunch menu in the lounge also proved popular. A few clubs and individuals used the opportunity of the lounge to catch up with RYA Scotland staff and volunteers to ask questions.

James Allan of RYA Scotland said. “The weather had us worried for a few days at the start of the week but in the end we had a really successful three days at the show. On-water activities were cancelled on the Friday but despite this we still managed to fill nearly 150 on-water sessions. Our Gold Member Brunch and the Members’ Lounge were particularly well received and offered us a fantastic opportunity to talk to our members face to face. We are already thinking ahead to next year!”

RYA Scotland would like to take this opportunity to thank the partners who delivered the on-water activities – sportscotland National Centre Cumbrae, You and Sea and Ocean Youth Trust Scotland. A huge thanks also go to all the volunteers who helped over the three days supporting activity on the stand, on the water and in the members’ lounge. With everyone getting involved and doing a fantastic job RYA Scotland simply could not achieve as much as they do at the show.

If you visited the show and wish to take your adventure further then visit our ‘Where’s my Nearest?‘ page to find a club or training centre that will run a RYA training course to suit your boating.

Following a summer of discontent within the Conservative Party over the Chequers proposal, it seemed that the Government was finally making progress in its negotiations with the EU as national leaders prepared to gather for the European Council meeting in Salzburg on 19-20 September.

In the weeks leading up to the summit it was reported that the EU heads of government would assume a more prominent role in the Autumn negotiations, with the UK hoping this would lead to a more flexible negotiating stance.

The aim would then be to agree the final text of the Withdrawal Agreement (setting out the UK’s ‘divorce bill’ as well as agreements on citizens’ rights and the Irish border) and a political declaration on the long-term UK-EU relationship at a special summit in mid-November, ahead of ratification by the UK and EU in advance of March 2019’s Article 50 deadline.

Irish border developments

Signs of a more conciliatory attitude from the EU on the contentious issue of the ‘backstop’ proposal to avoid a ‘hard Irish border’ were in evidence in the week leading up to Salzburg, with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier suggesting that goods could be checked away from the border with the Republic. The UK subsequently rejected the proposal as “not credible”, claiming that it would still introduce a customs border in the Irish Sea.

However, notwithstanding the disagreements which remain over the Irish border backstop, the manner in which the EU rejected the Chequers proposal at the Salzburg summit still caught many by surprise. In her own press conference following the summit, the PM insisted that Chequers was the only “serious and credible” proposition for achieving free movement of goods and avoiding a hard Irish border.

Speaking the following day, the Prime Minister called on the EU to set out in more detail the reasons for its current stance on both the Irish Border backstop and the Chequers proposal and reiterated that the Government believed that no deal with the EU was better than a bad deal.

However, with Chequers seemingly dead as a basis for the long-term UK-EU relationship, the PM is now coming under heightened pressure from within her own party to change course. Eurosceptics – including reportedly several in the Cabinet – are already increasing their calls for the PM to negotiate a Canada-style free trade agreement, with a smaller number of pro-EU MPs in the Conservative Party advocating long-term UK membership of both the Single Market and the Customs Union.

Blind Brexit

Even if the UK and EU are able to bridge their differences on the Withdrawal Agreement and the declaration on the future relationship before the end of the year, any deal still faces the formidable obstacle of being approved by the House of Commons in a ‘meaningful vote’.

Anticipating a Parliamentary impasse, some senior Government figures have argued over recent weeks that the best approach would be to keep the political declaration on the future relationship as vague as possible, so not to jeopardise ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement, and leave the details of the future relationship to be worked out during the implementation period.

However, this so-called ‘blind Brexit’ would also struggle to gain approval in the Commons, with MPs wary of committing to large payments to the EU through the Withdrawal Agreement in return for no guarantee of a substantial trade deal.

The fall-out from Salzburg, through exposing the distance between the UK and EU positions at this late stage in the negotiations, has increased the chances of ‘no deal’, a contingency which the Government has stepped-up preparation for since July’s Chequers summit.

On balance, the most likely outcome still appears to be that the UK and EU’s shared preference for a deal will result in a compromise on the Irish border being incorporated into the Withdrawal Agreement and a sufficiently ‘fudged’ political declaration being published before the end of the year.

If this transpires, the key question remains: will the disruption (even if only in the short-term) which ‘no deal’ would cause and the fear of either another general election or a fresh referendum which could stop Brexit altogether be enough to convince a sufficient number of potential Conservative rebels to support the PM’s deal?

If it is, then the path will be clear for the UK to leave the EU on 29 March 2019 with the Withdrawal Agreement in place and a twenty-one-month implementation period in which to flesh-out the detail of the long-term UK-EU relationship following the appointment of a new EU Commission. If, however, the PM’s deal falls at that crucial hurdle, the range of political possibilities opening up begins to expand significantly, with the associated uncertainty and sense of flux likely trumping anything seen in British politics in recent years.

Call to action

So what does all this mean for recreational boating? The RYA is continuing to engage with government and supportive Parliamentarians to ensure that the needs and concerns of the recreational boating community are heard amidst the background noise of the negotiations.

In particular, we are concerned about what the Brexit related bills may mean for border controls, time limits on duration of stay both for individuals and vessels wishing to visit Europe, the future ability of recreational craft and their contents to travel freely throughout Europe without customs restrictions, and the ability of RYA qualification-holders to work in EU territory.

Through our Brexit-related engagement and other ongoing initiatives, such as ‘Push the Boat Out’, a significant number of MPs are already aware of the importance of the recreational boating sector to their constituencies and the UK as a whole. However, there is still more we can do to spread the word.

RYA members and supporters may wish to contact their local MP to highlight the importance of safeguarding the future of the recreational boating sector in the Brexit negotiations. If they do, they will find a handy template letter, along with an MP briefing paper, and guidance on how to approach their local MP on the RYA Current Affairs hub at www.rya.org.uk/go/brexit.

For more information about the RYA’s Brexit work or for further advice on how to contact local MPs, please contact the Cruising, Legal and Government Affairs team at brexit@rya.org.uk.