Could your event be an RYA Junior Club Championship qualifier?

The RYA Junior Club Championships has been established to find the best junior racing clubs from all regions and Home Countries throughout the UK and bring them together to compete against each other.

The dates and venue have now been confirmed for the 2026 RYA Junior Club Championships Grand Final – and we need your help to identify events, or events series, which will form the qualification route to the Grand Final for this team-based competition.

What is the Junior Club Championships?

The Junior Club Championships concept was unveiled earlier this year, as part of the RYA’s ‘Racing for Life’ aim of making racing fun for young sailors, developing great fundamentals, and creating a lifelong love of sailing.

Progression and increased engagement is about creating fun, locally-based environments and ensuring young sailors want to get involved for the long-term, wider benefits of the sport.

As part of this, we want to encourage a team culture where junior sailors from clubs travel and compete together to represent their club.

To underpin this, we need to ensure there is a comprehensive programme of local level competition which is regularly accessible to those stepping into racing, without the need to travel excessive distances.

The 2026 Junior Club Championships Grand Final

The 2026 Grand Final will be held from 19-20 September at Northampton Sailing Club.

A total of 20 club teams can qualify to take part, with two teams qualifying per RYA region (North West, North East, Midlands, East, London & South East, South and South West) and two each from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Club teams will comprise of six sailors per team, and will race in two-boat teams using club-owned Toppers and RS Fevas.

This Junior Club Championships is aimed at confident club-level junior sailors who are actively participating in their local racing scenes, typically those who have progressed beyond Learn to Race and are developing experience in club competitions. It’s not intended for sailors who are regularly competing on the national class circuits.

How can club teams qualify for the final?

We are looking to select a number of events throughout each region or Home Country which give access to local junior sailors, and can help create a qualification ranking system based on the Portsmouth Yardstick scheme.

We are well aware that there are many fantastic events for junior sailors happening up and down the country and we want to work together, so if you have an existing event for junior sailors and would be willing to collaborate then we would love to hear from you.

Would-be qualification events would need to commit to the following requirements:

• Open entry to junior sailors
• At least three different clubs represented and no more than 40% of each fleet to be from any one club
• Racing to be offered under PY and/or at least one Recognised Pathway Class;
• To record elapsed times for each competitor
• To submit results, including elapsed times, through the RYA Results Portal (PYOnline.org.uk)

We will select events ensuring there’s a reasonable spread and frequency across each region, and will analyse submitted results using PY to determine a club score and allow clubs across the region to be compared. 

Read more about the intentions behind the Junior Club Championships qualification framework. 

Nominate your event to be a qualifier

If you have an event and would like more information, or would like it to be considered as an RYA Junior Club Championship Qualifier, please email racing.events@rya.org.uk by Monday 19 January 2026.

Please include details of your event, including venue, dates, classes offered and typical entry numbers as well as confirmation that you can meet the requirements outlined above.