Sail Numbers 

The RYA is an Issuing Authority for sail numbers in the UK.

The RYA Technical Department issues offshore sail numbers, essential for all racing yachts and advisory for cruising yachts venturing to sea.

These sail numbers are an important way of uniquely identifying a yacht for search and rescue purposes, and are a requirement of the Racing Rules of Sailing, Rule 77 - Identification on Sails. The RYA recommend that all yachts have a unique sail number.

If the owner sells the boat on, except in exceptional circumstances, the sail number remains with the boat and details of the new owner should be passed on to the RYA Technical Department with the appropriate registration fee. Sail Numbers will be in the form of GBR four digit number with a suffix of Y, L, T or N e.g. GBR 4567T. Multihulls will be given a suffix of M.

Allocation of a single number is free of charge to RYA Gold Members, £15.31 RYA Personal Members, and £25.53 to non members and companies. You can apply online for sail number.

It is also possible to obtain an out of sequence sail number. These are subject to availability, for further details and prices please contact either technical@rya.org.uk or call 02380 60 4200. 

Dinghy & Keelboat Sail Number Allocation/Building Fees

The RYA issue sail numbers and collect the building fees (design royalties) for all the following classes:-

Albacore	£72.00
Eighteen	£20.42
Firefly	£128.40
Graduate	£128.40
Hornet	£206.40
Merlin-Rocket	£20.42
Scorpion	£156.00
Solo	£128.40
Sonata	£324.00
Squib	£246.00
Swallow	£66.38

 

For all RYA administered International Classes except the Optimist and Dragon the fee is £20.42. For the Optimist Class the fee is £25.53 unless the application is accompanied with a current RYA Membership number when the fee is £15.32. The Dragon Class fee is £51.06 All prices are inclusive of VAT at 20%

Block of Sail Numbers

If a class or builder is interested in reserving a block of sail numbers, then please contact the RYA Technical Department. For example, the Hunter 707 Class have the GBR 7000N series, the 1720 Sportsboats have the GBR 1720L series. It is possible to reserve a batch of sail numbers and pay as and when the next boat is built. In addition special numbers either singular or in block, can be made available at special rate. Just ask. If you would like anymore information on sail numbers please contact us by email or on 023 8060 4200.