Castle Semple declared RYA Centre of Excellence
Castle Semple Centre has received National Recognition for becoming Scotland’s first Royal Yachting Association (RYA) ‘Sailability’ Centre of Excellence in Scotland. This means the Centre is fully equipped with having the specialised sailing equipment, experienced staff (over 25 years combined) and facilities to easily accommodate people with a wide range of disabilities.
Exciting Partnerships with the Rotary Club of Gryffe Valley, as well as the support of our local Sailing and Windsurfing Clubs along with RYA Scotland, have enabled us to expand our current range of facilities available to disabled sailors. The Rotary Club of Gryffe Valley has most generously donated a pontoon hoist which be installed at the Loch in the coming weeks in preparation for the Sailability Launch Day on Sunday 18th March.
Castle Semple Centre, in Lochwinnoch Renfrewshire, has for a long time been an RYA Training Centre providing quality sailing and powerboat tuition for budding sailors with and without disabilities. We have been working hard over the past 12 months to achieve the standards of equipment and training set by RYA Sailability required for the Centre of Excellence status.
As Centre of Excellence we will be holding a variety of taster days for potential new sailors along with a few outreach projects where we will send boats, staff and equipment to other venues to help them run taster days and attract new sailors in their area.
We will also be running a series of race training weekends throughout the year for existing sailors who want to take their sailing to a competitive level in either the Challenger or 2.4 class boats.
Lochore Meadows Watersports Centre in Fife will be joining us as our sister Centre of Excellence in the east area ( official launch day 28th April) and we look forward to working together to raise the profile of disability sailing across Scotland over the coming years.
