Priority for cadet training events

It is not always possible to accommodate all cadets who apply to take part in BSC training events. As an RYA training centre we have to abide by strict limits on the ratio of pupils to instructors. Because we cannot finalise groups until we have the list of registered cadets and we know who is available to teach, it may not be possible to provide all cadets who have registered with a place in a training group.

In the event of a particular group being over subscribed, we will use the following criteria to determine which cadets we would prioritize:

• Cadets who can do both days of a training weekend.
• Cadets whose places have been paid for
• Cadets that have their own boats. See the section below about club boats.
• Cadets with parents, guardians or close relatives who are instructors.
• Siblings who have been selected in other groups.
• Availability of parents, guardians or relatives as adult volunteers during the weekend. The more days you can volunteer for, the better. Please note that if parents volunteer to help, but are unavailable when required then this will be taken into consideration in future.
• The attitude and behaviour of cadets and their relatives at previous cadet events.
• Regular attendance: it is much better if cadets sail regularly, so we will prioritise cadets who commit to more training weekends or who regularly sail at the club.
• For certain events we may prioritise newer members or cadets who have not yet been able to get a place at another weekend.

Although all of these will be taken into account there is no formal weighting of these criteria, and the final decision will be made by the Cadet Skipper. If there is no clear outcome based on the other criteria, then the time of registration will be taken into account - the earlier the better.

Special rules apply to cadet week, see Cadet week registration.

If a place is unavailable we will advise you as soon as possible, cancel your registration, and provide a full refund as a credit to your club account which can be paid to you by the treasurer on request.

Club boats

To sail on the river during a training weekend or cadet week you should ideally have your own boat. Sailors progress faster in their own boats. There are a limited number of club boats to hire for training weekends and cadet week, which can be used in certain groups. You cannot book these through boat booker or by email, instead you will need to apply for them as part of registering for an event. Club boats are not a substitute for owning a boat; the idea is that you should use them for one or two weekends and then purchase your own boat. In particular we do not normally allow sailors in the Topper MG groups to use a club boat as these are not suitable for race training. 

Hence when a limited number of boats are available to hire, the cadet skipper will allocate these firstly to cadets who have not borrowed that class of club boat for a training weekend or cadet week before. If there are several such cadets, then they will use the criteria listed above to determine (apart from the 'own boat' criterion).

Please note that the club does not have any Optimist dinghies suitable for sailing on the river, only Toppers, RS Fevas, and one Laser and 420.

Click here for more information about the BSC cadet section