Terms, Conditions, Code Of Conduct & Privacy

14. Insurance and Safety (from the club constitution)

  • Members of the Club, their guests and visitors, use the Club facilities entirely at their own risk, and the Club will not accept any liability for any damage to or loss of property belonging to members, their guests or visitors to the Club.
  • The Club will not accept any liability for personal injury arising out of the use of the Club facilities, or out of the participation in any event organized by the Club, whether sustained by members, guests or visitors, whether or not such damage or injury could have been attributed to or was occasioned by the neglect, default or negligence of any of the officers, committee or servants of the Club.
  • It shall be the responsibility of all boat owners or skipper to ensure that any boat in their charge shall be seaworthy in accordance with class rules and/or Club bye-laws and shall obey any local harbour bye-laws.
  • Sailors and persons afloat in RIBs or other boats shall wear personal flotation devices at all times.
  • Windsurfers and kitesurfers shall wear personal flotation devices according to the rules of the Irish Windsurfing Association or the Irish Kitesurfing Association as appropriate.
  • All persons taking part in any Club event shall obey the instructions of the Officer of the Day and his/her assistants at all times.
  • It shall be the responsibility of each boat owner or skipper to ensure that his/her boat has adequate third party risk insurance, and to be able to provide proof of such insurance if asked. The executive committee shall set in place the necessary insurances for the Club as a whole.

Other Notes

  • Members should look out for the safety and wellbeing of other members ; always go to the assistance of any one in trouble.
  • Members should respect others equipment and the club equipment returning it in the condition in which they found it or better.
  • Report any breakages or faulty equipment to the relevant officer.
  • Dinghy Park is for the convenience of active sailing members participating in club activities. Galway City Sailing Club is unable to accommodate boat storage and similar requests. The club reserves the right to move any boat in the dinghy park at our discretion to facilitate club sessions, other boats etc. The club reserves the right to suspend and cancel dinghy parking. Boat owners are responsible to secure their boats and will be held responsible for any damage they cause in the dinghy park. Boat owners are required to have appropriate boat insurance.
  • Members are expected to participate in and facilitate club sailing activities, joining safety rota, shore officer etc.
Conduct On The Water
  • Always wear suitable clothing for the conditions – it is always colder at sea, and wetsuits in summer and drysuits in winter are recommended. The onset of hyperthermia can be very rapid if you are not adequately clad. Parents/guardians must ensure their children have the right equipment.
  • The duty officer can warn you not to go sailing if he/she considers you are not suitably equipped.
  • Donʼt take out a boat that you are not capable of righting in the case of a capsize – dinghies do capsize, be prepared. Practice capsizing but tell the safety boat and the duty officer that you intend to do this beforehand.
  • Check that all rigging is sound, and sheets/ropes are not frayed and are rigged properly.
  • Be sure you know how the centreboard/daggerboard is operated and check it is easily operated. The same for the rudder.
  • If you are unsure of your ability to control the boat with full sail up, reef the sail if possible, if not donʼt sail.
  • Know where the hazards are : the rocks on either side of the beach ; the shipping channel – keep clear and never cross it when a ship is entering or leaving the docks – they go much faster than you think; the submerged causeway to Hare Island – stay to the west of this.
  • Know what the wind direction is: where will you be blown if you lose control? donʼt sail too close to a lee shore.
  • Know what the tide is doing – donʼt leave trolleys or equipment below the high tide line.
  • Donʼt go afloat until the safety boat is on station.
  • For club sailing: stay within the designated sailing area – ie. north of line Hare Island to Mutton Island – east of channel – west of Hare Island causeway.
  • Keep clear of other boats and know the basic rules of sailing.
  • Donʼt go afloat if it is too windy!! The duty officer can cancel club sailing if conditions are not suitable.

Children And Vulnerable Adults

Galway City Sailing Club wishes to provide the best possible environment for all young people involved in the sport. Young people deserve to be given enjoyable, safe sporting opportunities, free of abuse of any kind. These participants have rights, which must be respected, and responsibilities that they must accept. Young people should be encouraged to realise that they have responsibilities to treat other participants and sports leaders with fairness and respect.

Young participants are entitled to:

  • Be safe and to feel safe
  • Be listened to
  • Be believed
  • Be treated with dignity, sensitivity and respect
  • Have a voice in the club.
  • Participate on an equal basis
  • Be happy, have fun and enjoy sport
  • Experience competition at a level at which they feel comfortable
  •  Make complaints and have them dealt with
  • Get help against bullies
  • Say no
  • To protect their own bodies
  • Confidentiality

Code of Conduct for Young People

  • Young participants should always:
  • Treat instructors, coaches and other leaders and organisers with respect
  • Play fairly at all times, do their best
  • Respect fellow participant, even when things go wrong
  • Respect opponents, be gracious in defeat
  • Abide by the rules set down by team managers when travelling to away events.
  • Behave in a manner that avoids bringing the sport of sailing into disrepute
  • Talk to children’s officer if they have any problems.

Young players should never:

  • Cheat
  • Use violence or physical contact
  • Shout or argue with officials, team mates or opponents
  • Harm team members, opponents or their property
  • Bully or use bullying tactics to isolate another player
  • Use unfair or bullying tactics to gain advantage
  • Take banned substances
  • Keep secrets, especially if they have been caused harm
  • Tell lies about adults / young people
  • Spread rumours

Membership and Course Participation
The Club reserves its right to rescind membership, boat parking and or access to sailing courses.

Photographic Images
Members, Guests and course participants grant the club / organisers the absolute right to use the images resulting from photography at the activity mentioned above. This includes any reproductions or adaptations of the images for general publicity, social media and club website purposes.

Liability
ISA/RYA Instructors, ISA/RYA senior instructors or ISA/RYA coaches do not accept responsibility for any loss, damage or injury suffered by persons and/or their property arising out of or during the course of their activities whilst training and/or coaching and/or instructing unless such injury loss or damage was caused by, or resulted from negligence or deliberate act.

Updates

This is the latest version of our code of conduct, other copies, PDFs, downloads etc are for reference. We reserve the right to update and amend at our sole discretion.

Privacy Policy

We do not share your information with any other organisation except in the case of Irish Sailing* of which we are members. All information held is for the exclusive use of Galway City Sailing Club and is never made available to any third party. Any third parties we may use (e.g. for IT and web issues) are solely for business directly related to Galway City Sailing Club. We comply with GDPR requirements and keep records about you confidential and secure. Our website uses SSL Technology to protect your information.
*Irish Sailing will register details of Certification (if taken) on their system to keep a record of your training achievements (this replaces previous paper based certification).
*Irish Sailing will register your membership of the organisation, name, email etc..

Mailing Lists

By becoming a club member you are agreeing to be contacted with information relating to Galway City Sailing Club. As a club member we will add you to our members mailing list to keep you informed of club activities, courses, news and other activities relating to the club. In the event of your membership lapsing you agree to be moved to our friends mailing list. You can ask to be removed from our friends list at any time by emailing admin@galwaycitysailingclub.com.

Contact Forms

By using our contact forms you consent to Galway City Sailing Club storing and using your personal information to get back in touch with you.

Sign In Information

You are required to sign to all club activities. This information is required for safety and administration purposes. Sign in information is also required for Covid-19 Contact tracing.

Club Membership, Sailing & Powerboat Course Registrations

For Membership, Sailing Course Registrations and Certification:
You understand the personal data on forms (“Personal Data”) will be used by the Club and Irish Sailing for the contractual purpose of registering (or re-registering), maintaining my Membership & to enter details onto the ISA Checklick system for accreditation and certification purposes.

You understand that the Personal Data will be retained by the Club and Irish Sailing for such period as my Membership subsists.

You understand that you can resign your Membership by writing to the Club or Irish Sailing and your Personal Data will then be erased.

You understand that your Personal Data will also be used for administrative purposes to maintain Membership including registrations, certification, events, disciplinary matters, safeguarding reports, boat licence, ECHO, IRC, Safetrax, instructor qualifications and for statistical purposes.

You understand that if you do not provide Personal Data your Membership cannot be registered with the Club and Irish Sailing.

eCommerce Purchases

When you purchase products on this website we keep a record of the transaction for six years. We use the information to process your membership and course purchases and to contact you in the event of a query regarding you order. We collect the minimum of information required to make the transaction.

eCommerce Account

You can purchase from our website without opening an account. We also offer the option to open an account for ease of recurrent purchases. You can delete this account at any time or request us to do so my emailing admin@galwaycitysailingclub.com.

Information Deletion and Records

You can request a copy of all personal information we hold on you and request that information to be deleted by contacting admin@galwaycitysailingclub.com with your request.

Cookie Policy

What are cookies?
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We use Google Analytics to analyse how visitors use our site in aggregate form. Google Analytics uses cookies to identify unique visitors and record how they use a website. It does not collect any personally identifiable information and does not track movements between different websites. You can “opt out” of Google Analytics cookies by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout) to block Google Analytics on all websites, or you can configure your browser to block cookies.