The NSSA are saddened to share the news of the death of Barbara Darling on 4 July after a short battle with cancer.
 
Born in Corbridge in 1937, Barbara spent her early childhood in North Yorkshire and Northumberland and obtained a scholarship for a Stockton girls’ school before going to Alnwick Teacher Training College to become a secondary school maths teacher.
 
Jobs in Ripon and Manchester allowed her to enjoy her love of hockey and the outdoors and she became heavily involved in outdoor education at many schools she worked at; leading walking & climbing expeditions to the local hills and Scotland.  As part of these activities she was introduced to sailing and after returning to the North East in the late 1960’s she joined Tynemouth Sailing Club and started crewing for David in his National 12. 
Sailing formed a large part of their leisure activities after their marriage and as part of her teaching career she also became involved with the newly formed National School’s Sailing Association (NSSA) and became a Sailing Master (the basis for the RYA’s Dinghy Instructor qualification).  She regularly took youngsters sailing or into the hills in a 29 seater bus - which she drove!
 
A move to Leeds led her and David to join Ripon SC along with their young daughters, Fiona & Naomi, in the early 1980’s.  Barbara got involved with the training programme, eventually becoming Training Principal, and also set up a large amount of the structure the club still benefits from today within their Youth & Junior programme, running the club’s first RYA Young Opportunity sailing course in 1987 as well as taking young sailors from across the region to the NSSA’s national events for over twenty years. 
 
After their retirement back to the North East in 1996, Barbara enjoyed sailing and being actively involved at both Tynemouth SC and Derwent Reservoir SC in the family’s National 12s, RS200 and Mirrors as well as acting as Training Principal at Tynemouth SC while they established their training centre. 
 
Barbara helped set up the Yorkshire & Humberside School’s Traveller Series in the early 1980’s and, on her return to the North East in 1996, set up the North Youth Traveller Series.  The two series have now merged and form the NE Region’s Youth Traveller Series.  She also continued her long association with the NSSA acting as their Treasurer from 1995 - 2006, contributing to a consolidation and restructuring of their operations to accommodate the new look of sailing within education.
 
Barbara was presented with the RYA’s President’s Award in 2003 in recognition of her contribution to youth sailing development in the north.
In recent years Barbara & David joined Bassenthwaite SC having spent many happy weeks there as part of the annual Bass Week regatta and they both enjoyed pottering on sunny afternoons or joining in with the racing.  Whilst her ill health in the last few years had prevented her from participating herself, she found great joy in spending time at sailing clubs and watching the sailing, particularly as her grand-children took to the water and learnt to sail themselves.
 
Our thoughts are with David, Fiona & Naomi and their families at this time.  As the next generation of young sailors come to love the burble of water under their bow; may her legacy and contribution to the sport live on. 

The Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions and organisations guidance for this event are now available;

The Team Trophy awarded at the National Youth Regatta is hugely sought-after, this year teams will compete for the crown of 'top team' using the Virtual Regatta platform. With a prize fund of £100 in RS Sailing Store vouchers, this is an event not to be missed.  Local groups to run local Championships by 17th July to select your representative. Should more than 19 groups who wish to participate in NSSA Finals on Mon 27th July we will hold NSSA Semi finals (if required) on Fri 24th July. Finalists will have the fantastic opportunity to compete against Sam Whaley, a member of the British Sailing Team.

Please click here for the combined NOR and SIs for this event

For guidance on how to run your local championships click here

12 hour race – this is postponed and will no longer take place on the weekend of 4th and 5th July due to COVID-19. We are working on the possibility of hosting another event with a similar format on 19th/20th September so pencil it in your diaries, more information to follow as government guidance becomes clearer. If we are able to proceed this event will still take place at Upton Warren – Aztec Adventure.

e-sailing event -  The Team Trophy awarded at the National Youth Regatta is hugely sought-after, this year teams will compete for the crown of 'top team' using the Virtual Regatta platform. With a prize fund of £100 in RS Sailing Store vouchers, this is an event not to be missed. Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions out soon! Local groups to run local Championships by 17th July to select your representative. Should more than 19 groups who wish to participate in NSSA Finals on Mon 27th July we will hold NSSA Semi finals (if required) on Fri 24th July. Finalists will have the fantastic opportunity to compete against Sam Whaley, a member of the British Sailing Team. NOR, SIs and guidance for organisations can be found in the events section of the website. 

 

Single handed team racing – at this stage we still plan for this event to go ahead as planned on 17th and 18th October but this is under regular review and we will keep you posted.

Q&As - We have put together some Q&A sessions with questions you have asked through social media, the first of these from Meg Pascoe was published to our Facebook page this week with two more to follow from Alison Young (Team GB Laser Radial Sailor) and Karen Thomas (Chair of the British Universities Sailing Association) in the coming weeks

The Annual General Meeting for the NSSA will be held on Wednesday 29th July 2020 at 19.30pm and, due to current circumstances, will be taking place via Zoom. 

If you wish to take part please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and the meeting invitation along with any other relavent information will be sent to you closer to the time. We hope as many of you join us as possible as we want to hear what you would like to see from us in the next year. 

It is has been an unusual time for all of us during lockdown and we are all missing being out on the water but things are starting to look up as some sailing clubs are beginning to open back up again. However whilst we wait for this to fully take off here a few places you can go for great on the water tips and videos to add to your knowledge of our great sport;

The RYA youtube channel has lots of great videos as well as regular updates about how sailing is going to start up again;

https://www.youtube.com/user/RYA1875

The British Sailing team youtube channel also has great content including their 'Tune-in Tuesdays' aimed specifically at young people starting out or wanting to improve in racing;

https://www.youtube.com/user/BritishSailingTeam

As well as all of this why not have a look at our archive site for lots of great history about the NSSA and the various trophies awarded at our events;

https://sites.google.com/a/nssa.org.uk/thearchive/

If you have found anything you think others will find useful then please share them with us on Facebook or Instagram. 

Keep safe everyone and we look forward to seeing you a back on the water as soon as possible! 

  1. Event updates due to COVID-19
  2. Opportunity to compete in Aspire Merlin Rocket Nationals 2020
  3. NSSA Single Handed Team Racing
  4. NSSA Single Handed Team Racing 2019