About Us

BNYA was formed with the primary intention of ensuring that information about the sport of sailing is preserved, where sailing is construed in the widest possible sense. It boils down to two main objectives:

• to identify the existence of source material or artefacts and
• to capture people’s knowledge not otherwise documented.

by:

• digitising the material
• adding it to a database and cross-indexing it facilitate a search strategy

It is a virtual archive in that it does not particularly want to hold archival material, just a digitised version (although sometimes necessary, or it will help find homes if needed) but be a consolidated resource.

Registered Charity status has been obtained and we have a Gift Aid account.

A number of initiatives have been undertaken using voluntary help.

• Capturing Available Material downloading on-line material and cataloguing and referencing known collections. Materials are indexed to boats, classes, organisations, events, etc. and each to each other to provide a research trail. if you, your ancestors, your organisation, etc. have any documents, photos, etc. that should be included, then these notes for contributors will help you and us work out a way forward.
• Cataloguing by Users can be undertaken using an on-line interface. If you or your organisation has any material that you are keeping for any reason, full details are available here, but there are three steps to follow:
  1. enter information about you or your organisation (private information need not be published)
  2. enter summary information about your 'collection' or 'collections'
  3. enter details about items in the collection

  or contact us to help process your records.

• We have a selection of scanning equipment for digitisation: photo scanners, fast sheet scanners, book scanners
• A facility to record oral histories is available. This is a key element of collecting information that is not otherwise available and from people who cannot be expected to write down their experiences - see here for further information and to 'volunteer' interviewees. Or, reminiscences can be self-recorded.
• Publishing for those who have a story to tell, they may be prepared to write it down - in a book, monograph, essay or memories. Books and monographs can be physically published (see here), shorter items in a digital format.
• Archiving Web Sites/Pages on the basis that it has a transient life and cannot be retrieved once taken down. It is just as important to capture current history as it is to find information about 'old' history. Our priorities at the moment are sites such as personal, campaign, blog, team or event sites which may be expected to otherwise have a short life. And it is amazing that when a web site is renewed older material is not transferred.
• A wiki was set up on an experimental basis to record and update knowledge - not so much to provide a detailed reference on all aspects of sailing, but to capture information that people have that is not available from elsewhere, such as their own recollections and experiences. This proved complex to develop due to the fragmented nature of information in the system and users were too inexperienced to edit the pages so this is no longer available.

We are seeking volunteers to help with building the archive and more members to chip in with the admin costs of this worthwhile project and who will form a network of contacts for tracking down information. It is an expansive and complex area so do contact us and join our endeavours. Do explore the site and contact us with any queries/suggestions, etc..