15 October 2025
Learning from Accidents & Incidents
Working together to improve safety
During the RYA Youth National Championships at Pwllheli earlier this year there was an incident with rapidly increasing wind speeds and sea states resulting in a mass recovery of the fleet and the abandonment of a number of 29ers.
The challenging conditions placed considerable demands on sailors, parents, volunteers and staff, and thanks to the skill and dedication of all involved sailors were safely recovered to shore.
We’ve been committed to learning from this distressing incident and ensuring the sport of sailing continues to have a strong record of safety, built on robust structures, teamwork, and communication. By listening, learning and working together we will continue to improve and ensure the wellbeing of all who take part.
The RYA commissioned an independent review into the Youth Nationals incident which made a number of observations and recommendations. The summary and response is available to view online, as are some key learnings from the RYA’s Safety Management Group’s review of trends from the reports of accidents and incidents that it receives from affiliates, training centres, individual members and other events.
‘Learning from Accidents & Incidents’ will be a key topic at this autumn’s RYA Connected Conferences – free of charge to attend for affiliates – where we’ll further explore the observations and recommendations from the Youth Nationals incident and others so that clubs and organisations can apply them to their own events, both in terms of prevention and response.
