What/Who is the RYA?
History, national governing body, membership organisation and more. If your question isn't anwered here then please do not hesitate to contact us, pressoffice@rya.org.uk
The RYA - Overview
The RYA - Explained
The RYA - Overview
The RYA is the national body for all forms of boating, including dinghy and yacht racing, motor and sail cruising, RIBs and sports boats, powerboat racing, windsurfing, inland cruising and narrow boats, and personal watercraft.
The RYA’s history goes back to 1875, when it was founded as the Yacht Racing Association. It became the Royal Yachting Association in 1952. Now universally known simply by its initials, the RYA remains constituted as a membership association, with a Council of elected volunteers as its supreme policy-making body.
The RYA’s day to day management is vested in a professional staff of 130, the majority based at modern headquarters in Hamble on the UK’s South Coast. Other staff work regionally while RYA Scotland, RYA Northern Ireland and the Welsh Yachting Association are organised as autonomous bodies in their respective home countries.
The RYA’s income derives mainly from membership subscriptions and club affiliation fees, training activities, and the sale of RYA publications. It receives some lottery funding which is ‘ring-fenced’ to support Britain’s national sailing squad and its supporting development programme. The RYAs annual turnover is approximately £17m.
THE RYA - Explained
1. A National Governing Body
Racing
The RYA administers the international racing rules of sailing (including windsurfing) in the UK, and the sport of powerboating. It’s coaching and development schemes actively support over 600 of Britain’s top sailors, from talented juniors to Olympic and World Champions. Sailing is one of Britain’s most successful Olympic sports and Britain holds the No. 1 spot in the sport’s international rankings. In powerboating, Britain’s Steve Curtis has won the Class 1 World Championship a record eight times.
Sport Development
The RYA has piloted and now manages specific schemes to promote boating to key audiences – especially young people. Onboard gives school-aged children the chance to try sailing and continue in sailing. Team15 provides similar opportunities for children under 15 to enjoy windsurfing in a fun competitive environment.
Sport Administration and Governance
The RYA works widely with government and other organisations from the public, private, media and not for profit sectors. It represents members’ interests on over 50 statutory and consultative committees in the UK and internationally. It is widely held to be amongst the best-run and most progressive of all the UK sport’s national governing bodies.
Disable Sailing
Sailing offers a unique range of opportunities for disabled people to enjoy physical activity and take part in competitive events. RYA Sailability raises funds for facilities and volunteers to support this. It has established more than 200 ‘foundation clubs’ (sailing clubs with dedicated facilities for disabled sailing) throughout the UK and has raised some £4m in the past three years to support such schemes.
2. A Membership Organisation
The RYA has over 100,000 personal members and 1,500 affiliated clubs and class associations. The latter represent some 350,000 active sailors throughout the UK.
Personal membership benefits include dedicated craft and travel insurance, free legal and general advice, and a range of relevant membership discounts. Affiliated clubs have access to free expert advice on a wide range of issues and can make use of dedicated club insurance arrangements.
The RYA represents the interests of its members and the wider boating community, and campaigns actively on boating, marine, inland water environmental and safety issues at a local level up to an international level. It has in-house experts supported by a legal team with specialised knowledge of these areas and also retains consultants and researchers, when necessary, to provide advice and guidance at local, regional, national, EU and global level.
The RYA provides a number of services to personal members and affiliated clubs can utilise including; legal advice and legal services, technical services relating to safety standards, craft build, cruising advice and so on.
Members receive regular information through the RYA website, the RYA Magazine and RYA e-newsletters.
3. Internationally Recognised Training
For sailing, windsurfing and powerboating at both recreational and professional levels.
The RYA provides practical and theoretical training courses, from novice to expert level, in all boating disciplines. It also administers a number of statutory marine qualifications. There are 2,250 RYA training centres in the UK and abroad, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand and the USA. These deliver over 170,000 training courses annually. UK organisations that have adopted RYA training include the Royal Navy, RNLI, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the MoD, the Police and the Fire Service.
4. Commercial Activites
The RYA is a leading maritime publisher, with some 80+ book, DVD and multimedia titles on its current list. Its publications are highly regarded internationally and RYA titles have been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages. It is developing special southern hemisphere editions of its leading training titles to meet demand from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and a co-publishing agreement is in prospect for the USA.
The membership magazine, RYA Magazine, has the highest circulation of all the UK’s leading boating magazines.