Bury Lake Young Mariners is an RYA-certified certified sailing school and training centre for people of ages 7+ that has been in operation since 1983 at Bury Lake in Rickmansworth Aquadrome, Hertfordshire, England. The charity has more than 100 boats and each year enables around 7,500 mostly young people to go sailing.

BLYM has no paid staff, and is run entirely by over 300 volunteers.[1]

Awards

2013

In 2013, Bury Lake Young Mariners won the prestigious Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.[2] The award is equivalent to the MBE and is the highest award that can be made to a voluntary group. The award was made for "assisting with youth development through accessible and affordable sailing and sail training activities".[3]

2015

The charity was one of five finalists for Club of the Year, awarded by the Royal Yachting Association.[4]

New Building Development

General information

The Original Clubhouse is now being replaced by three new buildings. The Boathouse, the 'Wetzone' and the New Clubhouse. The ongoing development started in 2017/8 and as of March 2023, The Boathouse and the Wetzone have been completed whilst the New Clubhouse is yet to be started.

Boathouse

The new boathouse has replaced the old 'green crate', which was a shipping container that held the club's sailing equipment. This new development has allowed for fleet expansion. The new boathouse also stores BLYM's 9 safety boats.

Wetzone

This building currently sits next to the clubhouse, on the opposite side of the site to the boathouse - running alongside Bury Lake. It holds all age changing rooms, bathrooms and a 'Wetstore', holding all of the BLYM owned sailing clothing - Buoyancy aids, Wetsuits e.t.c.

The Future

Bury Lake Young Mariners will soon build the final building in the project, which will be the new clubhouse. It will sit facing the 'Wetzone' and consist of classrooms, a galley and more. This will mean that the old club house will be demolished to make room for more boats to be housed and a larger rigging area.

Fleet

Sail boats

Currently, the club consists of;

  • 9 Oppies
  • 9 "Funboats"
  • 12 Toppers
  • 29 RS Zests - Successor to the Pico fleet.
  • 2 Vago's
  • 2 RS200s (Out of commission).
  • 6 RS Quests - Successor to the Bahia fleet.
  • 6 Wayfarer Mk IVs
  • 12 Lasers
  • 9 Coypus, which are the only remaining boats that were part of the original fleet and one of only two clubs in the UK that still sail them today.

Powered Craft

BLYM has a designated fleet of 9 Safety Boats. These are primarily for the safety of sailors and are used to assist and coach people on the water. The fleet consists of:

Instructor Team

Chairman

The current chairman is David Rideout. The first chairman of the club was Dr. Ken Smith, a chemistry teacher at Rickmansworth School

Chief Instructor/Club Principal

  • Club Principal - Ben Constable (RYA Senior Instructor).
  • Chief Instructor - Edward Bourton (RYA Senior Instructor).

They replaced Robert Arthur in the summer of 2022, who was previous joint Chief Instructor/Principal.

Youth Team

BLYM has an active youth team consisting of a few young instructors to discuss issues of the younger generations and to also ensure that young members of the club and instructors are represented properly.

References

  1. ↑ Frazer Ansell. "Young mariners sail to Queen's Award". Watford Observer.
  2. ↑ "Previous winners of Queen's Awards for Voluntary Service in Hertfordshire". Lord-lieutenant-herts.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-06-06.
  3. ↑ "queens-award-for-voluntary-service-recipients-2013" (PDF). www.gov.uk/government/publications. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  4. ↑ "RYA Club of Year-2015 finalists announced". Rya.org.uk. Retrieved 2015-06-06.
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