Volunteer development

The Club thrives on volunteers. All of the Instructors listed on an adjacent page are volunteers, and most have gained their qualifications with Sailing Club backing and support. We are part of the RYA Cymru Wales South Region, (RYA CW) and this organisation arranges courses for club members to acquire the instructor and race coaching qualifications. Some elements are delivered at Llandegfedd, whilst others will need a trip to another sailing club.

We encourage volunteers to maintain and add to their qualifications. Not only does this keep everyone up to date, it helps spread the load of running our own training courses when we have more helpers, and helps resolve the holiday situation when there are not as many Instructors available. The club will help subsidise the cost of this training, and often takes grant aid for this as it is in the Community Interest to gain qualifications and train people under the Sport for Wales vision of "a nation hooked on sport for life"

Why would you want to do these things? There are a number of reasons, possibly

To put something back into your sport?
To improve your own sailing ability
To see how you can easily make others enjoy the sport and improve their own skills
To see what the sport is about and learn a lot more
To while away the time whilst you have family members sailing and learning!

RYA CW runs courses when there is a demand for them. We help create this demand by listing those that we wish to see in the region. One can always go to other parts of Wales or to England to find courses as well.

Typical Courses offered by the RYA - with recognised certification.

Assistant Dinghy Instructor

Our Principal can issue certificates for this qualification, which is only valid for Llandegfedd Sailing Club. Candidates need to understand the role of the Dinghy Instructor and be familiar with the safety equipment and procedures at Llandegfedd. The Assistant Instructor assists qualified Instructors during training sessions. The only thing you need to be able to do is sail to the standard of one of the Advanced Sailing courses. (Start Racing/Seamanship etc) This is a good start for our Teenage Youths to start on the Instructing path. It can lead to summer work either locally or a gap year occupation when a little older.

If you want to start Instructing as part of the team, please contact our Training Principal Joanne Harris.

Dinghy Instructor

This is the key course to be a fully fledged instructor. LLSC can help by ensuring that you can pass the pre-entry sailing assessment day by sailing well. We will also make sure that you have the other necessary certificates such as PB2, Valid First Aid, Safeguarding certificate, RYA Membership etc.

This course, with the supporting skills, gives the key to how a boat works, and the toolset to let you share this with others. You don't need to be a brilliant sailor, or a brilliant teacher already. However, you do need to enjoy the sport, and talking and explaining things to others.

Advanced Dinghy Instructor (ADI)

This course equips an experienced Instructor to teach Performance Sailing, Sailing with Spinnakers to trainees. The Instructor has to have good technical ability and skills to demonstrate sailing high performance boats in all weathers.

Why would you do this? It really takes the sailing skill to a different level. Your web page scribe ended up trapezing with a large spinnaker - but without the rudder on the boat. Now that is impressive! Its all about balance and sensible manoeuvres along with clear communication between helm and crew.

Senior Instructor (SI)

The Senior Instructor carries the formal responsibility for ensuring that all training is completed following RYA guidelines. He or she supervises DIs and provides feedback and help when required. Prerequisites; DI volunteers, RYA Safety Boat, Safeguarding certificate, some experience in runing courses as a Dinghy Instructor.

Powerboat Instructor

This sets you up to Instruct others on RYA PB2 or Safety Boat if you have done the Safety Boat course yourself. A short course, all you need to know to pass on your powerboating skills. Prerequisites; sufficient powerboating experience to handle a boat safely, RYA PB2 or RYA Safety Boat, First Aid

Race Coach Level 2

This course equips a good club racing sailor with the techniques to impart knowledge to sailors so that they can improve their racing results. You don't need to be an Instructor, indeed, the coaching techniques are subtly different to those for an Instructor. Prerequisites are; RYA PB2, First Aid certificate, current racing knowledge. It is a useful one for good club sailors to acquire, and it only takes a weekend plus the First Aid certificate, typically another day's course.

Other courses

As noted, we can request any of the RYA courses, and if there is sufficient demand one can be arranged, or we may be put in touch with other regions. However, the following may interest some;

Club Race Officer - one day, very useful to club ODs. The slide deck for this can be used within the club to train new Race Officers
Regional Race Officer - two days, for running "named events". Fascinating stories of what goes wrong at the really big events.
Dinghy Safety Course - advice on reducing risks on large events/Open Meetings
Mark Laying - fun to learn what they do at large coastal events
VHF qualification - not relevant to LLSC as we have UHF, but needed if you go on the sea with maritime Radio
Instructors conferences - typically once per year, and an Instructor should attend every now and again and take a refresh

If you have any queries, or want general training advice, please contact our Training Principal Joanne Harris.