canoe club – the hay navy

2020 Regular Sessions and Activities were naturally put on hold because of the pandemic BUT before that hit Canoe Club Hay was running free regular weekly canoeing sessions, summer-hols family trips, autumn/winter white-water trips and school taster sessions galore! The Club is planning its come-back next year but in the meantime here’s the low-down on the story so far . . .

Location? The River Wye, mainly based at Racquety Farm, Hay on Wye

Who’s it for? Club Members and their families, the local community (all ages from 8 upwards) plus continued work with Hay School and Clyro School and Clifford School to provide Summer Taster Sessions for Years 4, 5 and 6.

Why? Hay on Wye needs/wants/deserves a Canoe Club . . we have the river on our doorsteps and hope that a Club will enable more of us locals to get out and enjoy the river instead of presuming it’s just there for visitors and tourists. Canoe Club Hay-on-Wye is funded by Sport Wales and is Quality Marked and Affiliated to Canoe Wales.

Story so far . . .

We launched the Club in 2016 and ran a number of free Open Canoe sessions on the River Wye for all age-groups from 8 years upwards (this is a British Canoeing/Canoe Wales age stipulation for insurance purposes) generating an initial Membership database to register interest.

In 2017 as a result of commercial sponsorship from ‘want to canoe?’ and funding from British Canoeing we ran more free taster sessions for families and for the local primary schools creating a membership database of over 150 participants.

In 2018 as a result of funding and support from Hay Town Council, Hay Cheese Market Fund, commercial sponsorship from ‘want to canoe?’ and a grant from Sport Wales we’ve successfully run 30 free canoeing sessions and engaged over 100 local children with open canoeing through the project.

In 2019 as a result of funding and support from Hay Town Council, Hay Cheese Market Fund and commercial sponsorship from ‘want to canoe?’ we successfully ran 57 free canoeing sessions and 5 white-water days in the winter months (white-water canoeing sessions for our more advanced paddlers Year 7 and upwards).

We had a bank of 32 regular paddlers/members at our Friday and Sunday Clubs.

In 2021 we aim to increase our free sessions in length to enable longer time out on the water, try to increase capacity for these sessions (covid-19 allowing) to take in new members as well as run more taster sessions for local schools. As the White Water days were for small groups prior to the pandemic we feel it likely they will be the first aspect of the club to re-open.

The Club aims and objectives are to:

• Enable members of our community to get out and enjoy the river instead of presuming it’s just there for visitors and tourists.
• engage local children, young people and adults with the river, the outdoors and the environment through canoeing
• promote an active, outdoor lifestyle to better improve the health and well-being of our community through the use of natural resources and outdoor learning
• provide a safe, social space in which to meet new people in your community through canoeing and the outdoors

contact details:

Canoe Club Hay on Wye

Telephone No: 01497 820604

Email: club@canoehire.co.uk