Dear Member,

Please find our latest newsletter for March with lots of activities, opportunities to go sailing and volunteering. 

Rickmansworth Canal Festival Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st May

You are invited to join us at the Rickmansworth Canal Festival on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st May. This is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in the community and help raise funds for BLYM. You can take part in fundraising activities, or lend a hand with land-based tasks such as setting up and clearing away. We are especially seeking qualified powerboat drivers to offer public rides around the lake, and there are plenty of other activities to get involved in.

Sign up now on the BLYM website and join us for a great weekend of fun and celebration. Under the Club Tab, click Volunteer for Duties, and click the Canal Festival boxes. We look forward to seeing you there!

Please note there will be no General Sailing on Saturday 20th May, or racing on Sunday 21st May. 

RYA Sailing School courses are now open

We've had a great start to the year with our 2023 sailing courses, running two weeks of Youth courses at Easter and several Powerboat courses. We've got plenty of upcoming courses including:

• First Aid - July 8th
• Adult Level 1 - 27th/28th May
• Youth Stages 1,2,3,4 - 29th-2nd June
• Safety Boat - 15th/16th July

After attending a BLYM course you will receive 3 months temporary membership, which allows you to attend any General Sailing day and hire out one of our many dinghies (subject of course to the weather and duty warden discretion). There is a lot more information on our website blym.org.uk on these courses and more details on the RYA training pathway.

Together Fund

BLYM would like to thank the RYA and Sport England for a generous award of £4,215 from the new “Together Fund”. The Together fund is a continuation of the Tackling Inequalities Fund(TIF) that was set up by Sport England to help the sport and physical activity sector through the COVID pandemic.

The COVID crisis had a disproportionate impact on certain social groups, making it difficult for these groups to either afford or feel able to enjoy, the benefits of water sports. These “Target Groups” can obtain access to BLYM's fund, please see below about how to apply for access.

BLYM has enabled over 200 members of the target groups, drawn primarily from children at local schools (including two whole-year groups from The Reach Free School in Rickmansworth) and from the BAME community, to try sailing or to do some training.

BLYM plans to invest the new money from the Together Fund in:

1. Enabling people from the target groups to keep sailing so that they can become an established group of regular sailors. To achieve this, BLYM would provide accessible, affordable, sailing opportunities and instructor support for training and regular sailing sessions, including RYA training and BLYM membership.
2. To continue generating interest in sailing in new sets of school pupils and people from the target groups, for example by delivering more sailing taster sessions to pupils at local schools.
3. Supporting sailing instructor training and creating opportunities for the continuous development of BLYM’s instructors.

Anyone interested in applying for support from this fund should be able to provide evidence of their situation: in particular, students in receipt of free school meals or households on universal credit. However, BLYM may, at its discretion, decide to support deserving candidates based on other evidence.

To find out more: please contact Ben Constable, Graham Thomas or Chris Hallett via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Enquiries, applications for funding and any awards will be done on a confidential basis. The identities of the applicants in receipt of funds will also be kept confidential.

Reminder for Instructors:  

Please continue to check the calendar and sign up for any sessions that you would like to help with. We have plenty of groups coming down over the next few months that will need your assistance! If you encounter any problems while signing up, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Safety Boat Course

BLYM will be offering a heavily subsidised safety boat course for instructors and potential wardens who have signed up to teach during the summer, using our Instructor Development and RYA Together fund. We anticipate that the cost will be roughly £40 per person. If you would like to receive a discounted place, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Priority will be given to those who have signed up to teach this summer. In case of high demand, we will prioritise on a first come, first served basis for those teaching.

See you at BLYM soon!