Please note that voting will be held entirely by electronic or postal vote; in person voting will not be held at the Annual General Meeting.
Rhys Cooke (nominated for GC, 1st term)
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rachelle.turk Administrator Posts: 60
8 days ago
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I'm Rhys Cooke, I'm 31 and I am standing for nomination for a General Committee seat. I have been sailing from a very young age with my family, we were members of an active cruising club (Tollesbury Cruising Club) and this greatly influenced my introduction to sailing. Here my family went through several boats, each getting bigger as our trips expanded from coastal day sails to many trips across to the European mainland. At the age of 13/14 I was recruited into the RYA Recognised Junior Catamaran Squad sailing Hobie Dragoons, and then later into the Youth Squad racing Spitfire catamarans. From the age of 17 I’d take my parents boat out with friends, until I bought my own yacht Valkyrie with my partner Romy in 2022. We have since sailed approximately 9,000 nautical miles together, from the UK to the USA, and are currently in the Bahamas where we are making plans to run an OCC Cruise in Company February 2026.
As part of the General Committee, I'd like to support the Club’s goals to expand the membership, particularly looking at how to bring in younger members. When we were getting ready to leave it would have been great to have known about the OCC and the different ways the Club could have supported us. So for me, helping the Club work out how to reach potential members before they have done their qualifying passage, and how to support them on their journey is in my opinion, a vital part of achieving this. An idea for this is to seek partnerships with organisations such as the Tall Ships Sailing Trust, where we can offer young sailors a pipeline through the Youth Sponsorship Programme and then on to become ocean cruisers on their own vessels. I believe my experiences as a young sailor coming through these systems will help the club in achieving these goals.
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