Southport Yacht Club (SYC) had their annual Discover Sailing Day last month and I went to spend the day with them.

What was exciting was how they managed the day in a COVID-19 safe way and how some simple strategies turned the event into 40 people signing up for upcoming courses through their Discover Sailing Centre with over $8,000 in forward income.

They had three activities on the day.  Paddle boarding, Kids Fun Sailing and Family Sailing on either a Quest or a Hobie Wave. They also had an Inflatable waterslide, sausage sizzle BBQ, an ice cream truck, face painting and Live music to give the day a festival feel and to give attendees something to do in between sessions

366 people pre-registered to attend their choice of session, which were of 30 minutes duration. Each session started on time.  If you were late, they tried to put you in the next time slot if someone else did not turn up. Otherwise, they offered for them to come back another day.

Here are the key components that made the day a huge success:

Setting up your RevSport Event

Make the Discover Sailing event a paid event (but don’t make payment mandatory) and then use “Registration Types” in RevSport to manage activities, time slots and number of participants.  Making sure that all dollar values are $0 to make it a free event.  See below for an example.

If you are going to have a “book on the day incentive”, set up a Discount Code and decide when this will expire.

For more information on how to set up events and Discount Codes: System Support - Australian Sailing - Resources

Upcoming Course Availability

Discover Sailing Days are an important component of the Discover Sailing Program. Designed to both attract participants to the club on the day, and to send a strong message to the local community throughout the year that clubs are open and welcome new participants, volunteers and members.

With that in mind SYC had plenty of courses available for people to register on the day and provided them with a Discover Sailing Day booking incentive.  They had 2 x Start Sailing dinghy courses, 1 x Outthere sailing course, and one  Tackers 1 course set up and ready with start dates in the next two months. Volunteers manned the Sausage Sizzle and were available for a chat about helping the club.

• 2 - 3 volunteers/staff for the registration of participants for the Discover Sailing Day
• 2 volunteers/staff for booking participants into upcoming courses with laptop/ipad
• Brochures available for every course being offered with a QR code for ease of booking on-line.
• Incentives to book on the day (Discount code provide in brochures)
  • 10% off any course booked on the day.
  • 2 for 1 deal for the Tackers 1 course

SYC Sailing Coordinator Matthew Dickinsen commented that “The two for 1 Tackers 1 course is all about retention. If either siblings or friends sign up they are more likely to continue their sailing together”.

Marketing

• Started Marketing 2 months prior to the event
  • Promotion through the Club Facebook Page
  • Promotion through the Local Council Newsletter
  • Signage at the front of the club (a Sandwich Board with an A1 poster)
• Staged Ticket Release
• Used a QR Code for easy access to the event on-line link
• Post event - emailed all participants on the Monday afterwards with a list of all courses available and offering them the 10% discount if purchased by Wednesday.

Making the most of your volunteers/staff

• Be Prepared – Have a fact sheet with all the information about the event.  You can make it a bit of fun by having a quiz on the morning of the event with a prize of your choice for the person who gets the most points.  For example: What age group is Tackers aimed at? What date does the Tackers Course start on?
• When a participant was  booking a course, the question was asked who they sailed with or spoke to about the course, and that was registered. Another prize went to the person who had the most impact on sales for the day.

The most important message I got from visiting the SYC Discover Sailing Day was to make sure your staff/volunteers are talking to everyone about the benefits of sailing and what the club offers.

Covid Safety

• Everyone had to book online for their preferred time and activity. There were no opportunities for walk in’s.
• They had a tent set up next to the water with Lifejackets.  This was manned with volunteers that spray cleaned each jacket after it was worn.
• Hand sanitizing stations were available.
• Boats were sanitized after each session.
• Family sailing, whatever you booked for was who was on your boat – to a max of four people.
• Different coloured wrist bands for different activities with times written on the band.
• Coloured markers on the beach that matched the coloured wrist bands to keep groups separated.
• Maximum of 20 people per activity in each time slot.

Over the past week, the club has done a debrief on the day. Some interesting data came out, with more adults interested in sailing rather than juniors. The cheaper courses were not the most popular. They had people attend from 34 different suburbs around the Club and one family even travelled an hour and a half to be there.

For next year they will look at making the day longer and having 8 time slots instead of 6 and have more staff/volunteers just walking around talking to people.

And a nice story to end …

One lady I spoke to had just come back from a holiday in Airlie Beach where she tried sailing for the first time at Whitsunday Sailing Club.  Sailing Manager Ross Chisholm suggested to her that she should get in touch with Southport Yacht Club.  She came to the Discover Sailing Day and has booked for both her children and herself into the upcoming courses.  She has since emailed Ross and WSC to say thank you and how excited she is to be learning sailing. We all win by helping each other!

Setting up your own Discover Sailing Day.

Australian Sailing has a range of resources to help clubs deliver their own Discover Sailing Days.

Click on the links below for more information:

Discover Sailing Days - Australian Sailing - Resources

Discover Sailing Day

If you, or the person responsible, at your club needs any assistance or requires more information, please contact your Australian Sailing Club Services Officer.

https://www.sailing.org.au/about/ourstaff/