Training in sports boating in Spain. Technical sports personnel issues

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Training in sports boating in Spain. Technical sports personnel issues

José Manuel Liceras, Director of the Training Institute of the Sailing Federation of the Valencian Community
Carlos Torrado Campos, Manager of CEACNA and RCN Torrevieja

The professionalization of sports boating: a necessary change

Sports nautical training in Spain is undergoing an important transformation. What was once a sector dominated by “love for sailing” and summer jobs is now becoming a regulated profession with clear requirements.

The legal framework: from federations to autonomous communities

Until 1999, federations directly managed training. With the 2010 decree, all this became the responsibility of the autonomous communities, becoming a special regime Vocational Training. What we used to know as “monitor” and “instructor” is now the “sports technician”.

Current qualifications include:

• Initial cycle (280 hours): school monitor
• Final cycle (600 hours): sports technician/coach, divided into fixed rig and free rig
• Higher cycle: sports director

The problem is that these 2010 royal decrees are already outdated. New modalities such as foils or Formula Kite (which is Olympic) are not covered, so they need to be revised.

The new laws that change the game

The 2022 Sports Law establishes that sports professionals must have quality and safety, and that requires training. At the national level, they are about to release a state law for sports professionals that:

• Officially recognizes qualifications
• Gives professional autonomy with clear competencies
• Allows homologation of professional experience without a degree (it’s not giving anything away, it has its procedures)

In the Valencian Community, on July 8, 2025, a decree was issued regulating the practice of sports professionals. It’s now official: if you work with athletes, you need to be qualified. And not just in sailing: it applies to gym monitors, physical trainers, everyone.

The landscape of qualifications

Right now several profiles coexist:

• Vocational Training: TAFAC (intermediate level in activities in the natural environment), TEFAC, TEGUM (physical conditioning activities). These young people have hours in nautical activities and can work as auxiliary sports monitors.
• Professional certificates: to recognize the experience of people who have been working for years without an official degree
• Sports technicians: specific sailing qualifications (initial, final and higher cycle)
• University: diploma and degree, with competencies in everything

The reality of sailing schools: problems and more problems

At the base (school monitors):

• They are vital but hard to find
• We don’t retain them: summer job, I make some money and see you later
• Every year we have to look for people again
• Little experience and limited training

Sports technicians (final cycle):

• They are mandatory for regattas (at regional and national level)
• There are very few
• Those that exist know they are few and ask for high salaries
• The club needs to hire them only at specific times, not full-time
• Dilemma: do I risk the money with the expensive one or bet on one with less experience?

The Generation Z factor:

• Little commitment
• They want to work little and earn a lot
• Training and experience are needed that they often don’t have

Directors (higher cycle):

• Also lacking
• They need stability to be able to make a living from this

The trap of the racer-monitor

For years the formula has been: “This kid sails very well, so let him teach”. The problem is that knowing how to sail doesn’t mean knowing how to teach. Many young racers get the qualification to earn some money, teach classes in summer while studying their degree, and in three years they leave to do something else.

And the worst part: there are kids who leave after summer and don’t repeat the course because the monitor doesn’t connect with them. They’re more focused on their phone or talking to the person next to them than creating dynamics so the kids have fun.

The solution: vocational training technicians

The Valencian Community is having success with a new path: young people who study TEGUM (technician in the natural environment) or similar training. These come with a different mentality:

• Their profession is teaching, they like working with children and adults
• They come with dynamics and methodologies
• They do internships at the club (600 hours in dual mode)
• During those internships they discover the nautical world and many stay
• Completely trained, without knowing how to sail initially, but eager to learn

The ideal process:

1. A young person does internships at your club in spring (sea baptisms, school courses, agreements with municipalities)
2. They like it, they train in nautical skills (initial cycle, final cycle)
3. In three months you have a qualified coach, perfect for paddle surf, kayak, gamboa
4. You build loyalty: you give them work in winter (trailer and boat maintenance, regatta organization, adult courses)
5. They complete their workday, have stability, stay at the club

A necessary change of mentality

As Carlos Torrado says in the talk, with a brutal comparison: “With what it costs to make a samurai, and how little it costs to kill him”. It costs a lot to train a sailing coach who can lead an Optimist team to compete, and they leave in one summer.

The current situation is unsustainable:

• You can’t have workers in contact with minors without qualifications
• Laws on child protection, equality, harassment… A coach traveling with children has enormous responsibilities
• The “passing worker” no longer works
• There are no technicians available to hire in the market

What needs to be done:

• Train the technicians ourselves: they’re not in the market, we have to create them
• Build their loyalty: give them a life plan, professional development, stability
• Versatility: they should be able to do paddle surf, kayak, buoy marking, maintenance, drive vans, organize regattas
• Investment in training: just as sailors and administrative staff are trained, we must finance technicians getting their qualifications

The regulation is already here

The Valencian Government is going to start putting inspectors in clubs to verify that all technicians have their papers in order. There’s no going back now.

And this is not just for sailing: canoeing is in the same situation and rowing has very little time left to reach the same point. All nautical sports are going down the same path.

Conclusion: from vocation to profession

Sports boating has to stop depending on “love for sailing” as the only engine. Yes, you have to have passion for this (because being from 9 in the morning to 7 in the evening waiting for wind, enduring days of 20 knots with waves and seasickness is not for everyone), but passion alone doesn’t pay bills or give stability.

Yacht clubs have to:

• Look for technicians in vocational training for sports education
• Train them in specific nautical skills
• Give them a professional life project
• Value their versatility
• Understand that they are professionals like sailors, administrative staff or managers

Because in the end, these workers are not just “the sailing monitor”: they are educators, trainers, transmitters of values. And that deserves professionalism, stability and recognition.

Those who are trained in your locality, in your club, with your project, they stay. The club next door won’t take them away because they are loyal. And that is the only guarantee of success in the medium and long term.

This presentation is part of the symposium on yacht clubs, where the current challenges of the sports nautical sector in Spain were addressed.