Sailing
Whether you consider yourself a casual, social or competitive sailor Scaling Dam offers fantastic opportunities to realise your passion for sailing. Our wide range of support programmes cater for your needs.
- Try our Get into Sailing Taster Sessions Book Try Sailing
- Is gaining internationally recognised accreditations your goal? Sail Training Page
- Improve your skills through Social Sailing Sessions & Development Coaching Social Sailing Page
- Sharing Joys of Sailing with children and adults with disabilities Sailability page
- Youth and Junior Club provides family fun and a chance to improve sailing skills Youth and Junior
- Club Racing is very popular with members and SDSWC provides opportunity for Open meetings and Fleet Development Support
- Sailcamp A week of unforgettable fun on the water for our 8-16 year old club members
RYA Training Courses
As an RYA Recognised Training Centre, Scaling Dam has a comprehensive training programme in place to provide progression for people to continually improve their skills in the areas they wish to. More details are available on the Sail Training Page
Hire Club Boats
Club equipment is available for members to hire during casual watersports sessions at reasonable prices to cover the maintenance costs. Our fleet of boats has a broad selection to choose from and can be hired by anyone holding RYA Level 2 or Stage 3 (Stage 4 for the Fevas). Find out more on our Hire Club Boats, WIndsurfers, SUPS or Kayaks page.
Sailability
We operate as part of the Royal Yachting Association´s Sailability initiative bringing the exhilaration, self reliance and freedom that sailing brings to all people.
We also work closely with the North Yorks Moors National Park's Sustainable Development programme whose advice and financial assistance has allowed us to enhance the sailing opportunities for people with learning difficulty or disability.
We can mix & match gentle cruising, hands on sailing or formal training to suit individual needs and welcome groups or single participants. Parents and/or carers are welcome to share the experience.
We supply essential safety equipment but visitors need to wear clothing suitable for a cool and rainy day. We have a dedicated changing/shower/toilet facility for our disabled participants.
We like to recognise achievement with award of certificates, particularly with youngsters and, as a recognised RYA Training Centre, can deliver training to internationally recognised standards. We are qualified to transfer sailors with our certified hoists and set high standards in safety and protection of vulnerable persons.
Our active season is April to September inclusive. Our regular sailing times are Wednesday afternoons and Sunday mornings but other times are possible with prior arrangement. We welcome those who seek a single ´taster´ session but are delighted to help those who wish to sail regularly and improve their skills and confidence. Sailability prides itself in its inclusive policy with disabled sailors able to sail alongside able-bodied sailors on equal terms. Scaling Dam welcomes a growing membership of disabled sailors.
Find out more on our Sailability page
Youth & Junior Sailing
The club provides a range of activities for youth & junior sailors ranging from Learn to Sail programs and family days with camping through to advanced race coaching for our more experienced sailors. Sailing is one of the few sports where young people can compete successfully on a level basis against Adults. We encourage our young sailors to join in with main club races. There are races on Wednesday nights and Sundays, with special awards given for results by Y&J sailors.
Running along the club's 2024 SDSWC Annual Programme there are two main parts to the Youth & Junior (Y&J) calendar, these are the Y&J Saturdays and Sailcamp.
Social Sailing
As a social section, we welcome all manner of water craft including wind surfers, canoes and kayaks. Whether you consider yourself a casual, social or competitive sailor Scaling Dam offers fantastic opportunities to realise your passion for sailing. Social sailing is all about sharing that passion and could include comparing notes and technique over a pizza at the Friday Night club, trying out others boats, a relaxing Saturday cruise with a picnic lunch on the shore or sharing the water with the racers, while marvelling at their antics, on Sunday afternoon.
The most popular times for social sailing are Friday evenings and Saturdays, and additional social sailing activities are often arranged for the Saturday of Trophy Weekends. Details of these can be found in the annual program, with additional information provided on the website and club calendar links as each date approaches. The water is also open for social sailing during all racing sessions, however we do ask that you stay clear of the start area during start sequence (when lights are displayed in the race box on shore) to avoid confusing the race officers.
Buddy Sailing
'Buddy sailing' can take place to allow members to use the water outside of scheduled sailing times when there is no safety boat on the water.
More detailed information about the levels of Safety Cover being provided at different times are available both in the Safety Policy and the Club Byelaws. The Buddy Sailing page summarises the elements of these documents that relate to Buddy Sailing.
Racing
The SDSWC race programme runs from the beginning of March to the end of November and includes both multi-week race series and one off Trophy events. Racing is mainly held on Sundays and Wednesday evenings, with occasional special events on Saturdays. The majority of our races are general handicap races open to all sailing members, although class races are segregated by boat types & PY handicap numbers. Racing runs alongside all other activities on the water with training, social sailing and watersports activities using the water during racing sessions.
For more details visit Racing