The RYA Dinghy and Watersports Show 2022

The RYA Dinghy and Watersports show was this year held at the Exhibition Centre at Farnborough and one club that was surely entitled to be present was Cody SC – having begun life on the airfield as the RAE Sailing Club over 60 years ago!

Thanks to the efforts of Rob and Steve and Mel, Cody was indeed present, with a small stand (see above) and also (in the dinghy cruising zone) Steve’s Trio, fully rigged for the sea, complete with new tan sails.

Also present at various times over the weekend were over a dozen members who helped staff both the stand and Steve’s dinghy – which attracted a good deal of attention – see below, with Simon and potential ‘customers’.

The two exhibits were very busy and good contacts were made with well over 60 people, some of whom have already applied for membership of the club.

In addition, talks on dinghy cruising were given by Jenny and also by Steve (see below). This was a very important occasion for Cody as shown by the Commodore’s summary.

Report on Cody’s participation at the RYA Dinghy Show by Rob – Commodore

The (annual – pre COVID) RYA Dinghy Show was held on the last weekend of February, and marked a number of firsts for the show and for Cody’s participation in it. This was the first ‘post COVID’ show since 2020, and the first time the Show has been held at Farnborough, rather than at Alexandra Palace which has been the normal venue for previous years, and so it was considerably easier for many of us to get to this time being as it was much closer to our local area. You can get a good idea of the show from this link here:

https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/246682/Thousands-flock-to-Farnborough

Cody has been sending quite a ‘low key’ attendance to previous shows, but for this show we had a much enhanced presence off the back of the RYA’s show theme this year of promoting Dinghy Cruising, which we were able to take good advantage of in promoting both our club and our style of dinghy sailing. Some summary statistics from our involvement this year are:

15 club members volunteered across the 2 day event to help on our stand and around the boat (see roll call later)

2 talks/presentations given across 2 days to promote our brand of dinghy sailing on the Mani Stage

1 Cody dinghy featured in the RYA Interactive Zone about Dinghy Cruising (one of four ‘cruising rigged’ dinghies in the Zone)

3 Cody members attended an RYA meeting/workshop on the Sunday morning to discuss developing an RYA Dinghy Cruising Strategy.

68 contacts made on potential new members interested in the club and what we do.

Over 130 Cody Trifold leaflets handed out by the Cody volunteers on the stand and at the boat.http://codysailingclub-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Cody_tri-fold2022.pdf

In particular, having a Cody boat ‘centre stage’ at the show really helped bring in the interested folk and catalyse the conversations. As Steve writes: “the conversations that we had around the boat were about Comet Trios is particular, dinghy cruising in general and what sorts of boat are good for dinghy cruising. I don’t think it’s possible to measure the huge value of having a Comet Trio at the show for both the club and for the Comet brand to illustrate its cruising credentials, as being between a Wayfarer, a Tideway14 and an RS Venture. Saturday was absolutely manic – we were continuously busy from opening to 3pm. Sunday was busy enough to have to have a minimum of 2 at the boat until about 3pm. On Saturday I am going to estimate that we had three conversations running at the same time and each of them would have averaged at about 10 minutes per conversation. So, in the rough order of about 170 conversations with people interested in dinghy cruising, Comet Trios and what sort of boat to buy”.

As you can see – a number of ‘firsts’ in the statistics above, and overall, a very successful presence at the show this year for us, I think. All the volunteers found the days they attended for interesting and rewarding, (possibly due in part to the incentives of convenient parking, complimentary drinks and snacks during the day and on the Saturday evening, and an exhibitors wristband giving complimentary entry to the show, which we were able to ‘re-deploy’ to good effect across the two days of the show) and a number of us also re-connected with a number of old acquaintances and clubs across Hampshire (e.g. FPSC and HISC) and the rest of the country as well. As Roy writes: “I actually found it became a rather pleasant social occasion – I was reacquainted with a former work colleague from 15 years ago, met a number of POG members (representing Littleton SC), caught up with other sailing friends (representing Frensham SC) and of course met the Cody members who visited over the two days – Pat & Tony, Mark & Sarah (and bump), Stephen Deakin, Debbie Morgan and Terry, Derek H – and also some former Cody members Paul Lingwood (aka Big Paul) and his now grown up son Charlie (now representing Langstone Ferry SC), and Richard Berry (the guy who purchased the wood GP14 after we modified it on Ryde Sands 20 years ago – and yes he’s still got it!)”.

In order to ensure that our volunteers for whom this would be a new experience could feel as comfortable and confident at the show as possible we were able to provide a pre-show Zoom meeting a few days prior to the show to give a quick overview and tips on how to work a ‘trade stand’ to give people an idea of what is important and not important when talking to attendees of the show, as well as providing an opportunity for volunteers to ask any questions and to give the mandatory Health and Safety briefing for all those staffing our stand, as well as doing some initial coordination of volunteers hosting and timings. I hope that all the volunteers this year will have found it a rewarding experience and if anyone is interested in helping out at future shows I can assure you that there is a lot to see, hear and buy at the show, as well as spending some time promoting our club, so if you are looking for that next ‘thing’ for your equipment or just want to spend some time talking to like-minded people, please do consider volunteering next time around.

So, overall, it was a very successful weekend, and we’ve made some excellent contacts, some of which have already turned into paid up new members of the club, and we will be following up the other contacts over the next few days and weeks. I would like to particularly thank Steve and Mel for going ‘above and beyond’ by taking and setting up Steve’s Comet Trio at the show as well as setting up the table, chairs and Cody Club banners that provide a great ‘intro’ to talking to people about who we are, where we come from and what we do.

Frensham Pond at Farnborough

CodySC is a group member at FPSC, and it was lovely to see Frensham Pond SC deliver a stand at the show, the first time they have exhibited at the show.