Last Friday I had a meeting with Brian Phipps and Rob White who made me aware of the depth of feeling in some quarters over the RYA policies in this area.
I have also been briefed by John Derbyshire the Racing Manager on the reasoning of the RYA Youth Steering Group regarding these submissions.
Clearly the RYA has not communicated its views sufficiently well in the areas of;
Youth cat race training
RYA submission on youth cat racing at the ISAF youth worlds.
Current RYA thinking on the Olympic classes for 2012.
…we will endeavour to do so in the next week or two.
I have suggested that John Derbyshire and Chris Atkins [the chairman of the RYA Racing Committee] meet with Brian and Rob so that both parties can explain their views. Following the meeting we will publish a paper that sets out our stance so that at least everyone is aware of the facts.
No RYA member’s money or club affiliation fees are spent on our Youth and Olympic programmes; it is all funded by the Lottery. We manage this funding in pursuit of medals in the relevant classes. There will be one less Olympic class in 2012.
I have coached and been involved with cats for over 30 years I even own one! …. There is no institutional anti-cat bias in the Association, but sometimes hard decisions have to be taken based on facts and not sentiment.
