Shropshire sailing club celebrates as newest activity draws hundreds
A Shropshire sailing club is celebrating a successful expansion plan after its newest activity has drawn hundreds of people to the water.
Chelmarsh Sailing Club introduced Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) earlier this year as part of a club restructure aimed at making it easier for new members to join.
Situated on the Chelmarsh Reservoir near Bridgnroth, the club has so far delivered introduction sessions to more than 200 people and had more than 30 join as club members this year.
Earlier in the year, committee members launched a diversification plan looking and having seen examples of other sailing clubs where SUP had been a success, Chelmarsh implemented the activitiy.
Thanks to a Sport England Small Grants award – with their application angled on opening up the reservoir to a different demographic – the club invested in 10 SUP boards to deliver courses while the club’s vice commodore, David Partridge, trained as a SUP instructor himself.
With the paddleboarders and sailors sharing the water in harmony, the club said the crossover will see interest in both activities grow on the water.
David Patridge said: "As a club we are very aware of staying relevant in a world where people’s leisure time is so precious. Like many clubs, we were finding people are looking for more social, flexible and less structured leisure activities. SUP’ping ticks these boxes and appeals to exactly the demographic we want to attract to sailing clubs.
“We’ve had paddleboarders who have seen our juniors sailing and then got their kids interested in sailing courses.
"Sailing is something they never thought about as they didn’t know the club was here or they thought sailing was too expensive. Raising local awareness of sailing through promoting SUP has been big for us.”
Chelmarsh Sailing Club is an Royal Yachting Association training centre.
To cater for people wishing to SUP, Chelmarsh set up an associate membership so paddleboarders get full use of the club and water, but don’t participate in sailing.
David added: “There’s been really positive crossover between the activities and there is now a real whole club ethos amongst the groups. We're seeing people using the club even when they aren’t on the water SUP’ing or sailing, which is testament to how successful it’s been.”
