Towards the end of June I wrote to the head honcho of the Royal Yachting Association, Sarah Sutcliffe, regarding the cancelation of my membership and my reasons why.

I received a confirmation of receipt from her personal assistant stating that my communication would be placed before the Chief Executive.

Time has ticked by. There has been no response.

The problems remain acute with supply to marinas and other outlets of calor gas in particular, yet the RYA clearly does not have the balls to respond to a member cancelling membership after some 40 plus years of loyalty.

All I was asking for was pressure from what purports to be ‘our’ governing body to be applied to suppliers…

It typifies the crassness of this organisation that clearly exists as a self-employment project with not a care for the ordinary sailor, other than the gathering of gold medals.

I can think of many an Olympians and I doubt if they would be similarly treated. The Royal Yachting Association needs to remember the greater majority of sailors sit on the lower rungs…

Their loss will be a charity’s gain.

The story thus far:

Ditch-crawler tackles Royal Yachting Association over the ‘gas’ problem, or tries to… | Nick Ardley

Now, I wrote to the editor of the ‘Yotty’ Newspaper – All at Sea. The editor was back to me in a trice.

The July 2022 issue of the paper has my letter and their findings – no more than I had gleaned. But, and this is an important point, they responded in a positive manner, agreeing it was something that needed to be sorted out.

The piece is added below:

I always try and pick up a copy of this publication when seen in a chandlery or marina office: it is quite informative, if largely south coast orientated (aren’t they all…)

So, I would like to say thank you to ‘All at Sea’ and the rags editor, Jane Hyde, and Simon Everett.

Over the past month I have enquired at five different outlets about the ‘gas problem’ and ALL reported the situation as dire!