About RYA Racing 

From putting sailors on podiums to delivering World Class race officials, coaches and events, RYA Racing leads the way

The RYA’s Racing team is responsible for delivering World Class sail racing activity across Britain while putting the nation at the forefront of global racing excellence and innovation.  

Driven by the three aims of attracting more racing sailors, retaining racers in the sport for longer and making racing as enjoyable as possible, the RYA’s exhaustive range of racing programmes, initiatives and activities ensure that everyone is catered for whether a person is gunning for Olympic gold or is strictly all about being a mark layer on a Sunday morning.  

More than 60 people are employed full or part-time by RYA Racing based either at the RYA’s Hamble HQ or as outworkers. A further 80 plus volunteers sit on no fewer than 12 Racing Committees, which ratify RYA Racing policy and effectively determine what is delivered by the Racing Department.   

Although the RYA’s unrivalled success at getting sailors on to podiums at major international events has made Britain the envy of the world, the RYA works tirelessly across all areas of racing to ensure that, although they may not always get the headlines, RYA Racing’s countless other activities are no less coveted.  

The Youth and Junior Programme are the bedrock of Britain’s Olympic success, developing and feeding sailors on to the RYA’s Olympic Development and Performance programmes, while for those sailors whose passion is big boats, RYA Racing has established celebrated keelboat and match racing initiatives with RYA-supported sailors frequently competing at major national and international regattas.  

Likewise the RYA’s Team Racing programmes are designed to engage those sailors who may not be interested in pursuing an Olympic campaign or that are looking to continue sailing competitively throughout their university years and beyond.  

To produce top class enjoyable sailing for absolutely everybody – regardless of level or craft – RYA Racing’s drive for excellence resonates throughout all facets of Race Management, Race Officials and Coaching education and professional development, which are all also pioneered and administered by the department.  

No-one wants to race in regattas that are run unprofessionally and are not fun and working towards certain accepted standards for club racing up to Olympic Classes events will help with people’s expectations and enjoyment when they venture out on to the water.  

The RYA Racing Events team plays a pivotal role in improving racing standards across the board as attracting World Class Championship events to British shores not only continues to raise the profile of the sport in the UK but also provides race officials and race management teams with many opportunities to hone their talents at big events and take those talents back to their clubs and centres.  

Volunteers are a massive driving force behind everything RYA Racing strives to achieve and recognising their contributions and abilities is also of paramount importance.