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CALENDAR

Join the NBYA Connector
(WhatsApp Community)

SIGN UP for the NBYA Connector WhatsApp Community


The NBYA Connector is a simple way to stay plugged into the sailing community across Narragansett Bay. Whether you're looking for a boat to sail on, building a crew, or just want to stay in the loop, this WhatsApp-based community makes it easy to connect in real time.

How It Works

Sign up using the form on this page to receive your invitation link to the NBYA Connector WhatsApp Community. You’ll need WhatsApp installed on your phone to join.

Once you click the invite link, you’ll automatically be added to the NBYA Connector Announcements group. From there, you can choose to join additional groups based on your interests, location, or type of sailing.

NOTE: Currently, join requests for the different groups are being managed manually. In general these will be approved rapidly. If it's taking too long, message connector@nbya.org for help.

Available Groups (so far)

You can opt into any of the following:

  • Women’s Sailing
  • Junior Keelboat
  • West Bay (East Greenwich, Wickford, and surrounding areas)
  • South Bay (Newport, Jamestown, and surrounding areas)
  • North Bay (Bristol, Tiverton, Barrington, and surrounding areas)
  • Twenty Hundred Club

As the community grows, we’ll continue adding more specialized groups—such as specific club race nights or fleets—to keep conversations relevant and useful.

Find a Crew or Fill a Spot

The Connector is designed to make it easy to match sailors and boats. Looking to crew? Post your availability, experience level, and the event you're interested in. Need crew? Share your boat details, positions available, and event timing. Keep posts clear and specific so others can quickly respond.

Conversation_Example

Community Guidelines

To keep the Connector useful and welcoming for everyone:

  • Be respectful and constructive in all interactions
  • Keep posts relevant to sailing, crewing, and NBYA-related activity
  • Avoid spam, excessive self-promotion, or off-topic content
  • Use the appropriate group for your message

We reserve the right to remove participants who do not follow these guidelines.

Group Management

As groups grow, we may appoint active members as group admins to help keep conversations organized and free of spam. If a particular sailing scene or event gains traction, we’ll spin up new dedicated groups to support it.

Questions or Issues

If you experience any issues, have concerns about group activity, or need help, please contact us at connector@nbya.org

NBYA Connector Sign-Up!

Detailed How-To Instructions

REMEMBER: The NBYA Connector WhatsApp will not be perfect. We'll hit some speedbumps along the way. Be patient. Questions or issues - alert connector@nbya.org.

  1. Make sure you have WhatsApp installed on your device - https://www.whatsapp.com/download
  2. Once you've completed the NBYA Connector Sign-up form you will receive an email from NBYA. This email will have a join link for the NBYA Connector Community on WhatsApp - click the link to join! PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THE JOIN LINK OR POST IT ANYWHERE- we're trying to minimize spammers joining the community. Recommend that people register online at https://NBYA.org/connector instead. Note that the join link will change periodically to help prevent spammers - need a new link? Sign-up again.
  3. Users will be presented with a Welcome Message and then a  "Next" button or similar - click the button
  4. Users will then end up in the NBYA Connector Announcements channel - this channel is one-way only - from NBYA Admins to NBYA Connector Users. This group will post reminders on getting folks to share their info to find a boat or find crew, community guideline reminders, and very occasional special announcements. 
  5. Eventually, you'll see a "VIEW COMMUNITY" button where you'll see the available groups where you can participate. Select a group to join.
  6. You'll then get a REQUEST TO JOIN group button - press the button. We're keeping the community and groups locked down to minimize spammers gaining access - if there is a spammer, report them!
  7. We'll try to process JOIN requests quickly, once approved you'll have access to the group
  8. Introduce yourself and what you're looking to do. E.g. Hi, my name is John Smith, I'm looking to get on a boat for the Jamestown Yacht Club Tuesday night PHRF series. I'm usually a jib trimmer but am happy doing bow or calling wind from the rail.
  9. It will take a bit of time to get the community rolling - some groups may be more active than others
  10. Questions or issues - alert connector@nbya.org