RYA Northern Ireland 2024/2025 Annual Report

RYA Northern Ireland has released its 2024/25 Annual Report, which covers the period between 1^st April 2024 and 31^st March 2025 and details the steps taken to develop sailing and boating in Northern Ireland, as well as highlighting some of the key moments throughout the year.

The team at RYA NI have worked hard to make progress towards the goals outlined in the organisation’s five-year strategy, Navigating the Future. These goals are: Maximise athlete potential, Inspire people to give their time, Improve diversity and Re-imagine pathways.

Commented on the year as a whole, RYA NI CEO, Greg Yarnall, said: “The year has seen some fantastic success and achievements across the sailing community in Northern Ireland. We have worked tirelessly to develop sailing over the past 12 months and we would like to thank clubs, volunteers, instructors, coaches and officials for your commitment, passion and dedication to the sport over this time.”

The full annual report can be read here, but a few of its highlights can be seen below.

Inspire people to give their time

2024-25 has seen significant progress in delivering high-quality training and development opportunities across Northern Ireland, ensuring a growing, skilled workforce to support sailing and water sports participation. Our targets have not only been met, but exceeded in many areas, with increased access in rural locations and the introduction of new qualification levels.

• Three Race Coach Level 2 Courses were delivered, qualifying 18 new coaches.
• One Race Coach Level 3 Course delivered - the first ever to be held in Northern Ireland-with seven participants.
• 93 opportunities Coach Development Programmes were delivered through seven workshops, mentoring, shadowing, and CPD
• 26 shadowing/mentoring opportunities were delivered
• 5 coaches were funded from NI to travel to Rutland to join in with coaches from across the UK for a development opportunity
• 46 participants attended our Regional Training Day and 67% reported learning something new
• Four racing rules events were delivered across EDYC, PSC, ABC, and BBC, with 133 attendees
• 5 clubs were supported with funding from our ‘We’re All In’ programme, culminating in six volunteer recruitment and engagement events, engaging 150 volunteers
• 2 Designated Safeguarding Children Officer Safeguarding Awareness courses were delivered
• Our Annual Awards hosted at the Harbour Commissioners Office in Belfast to recognise the fantastic work of done by volunteers across the country

Maximise Athlete Potential

In 2024 we saw the official launch of the NI Sailing Team and there were a number of fantastic performances from Northern Irish sailors. The NI Squad now consists of 10 ILCA sailors, 13 Topper sailors and 8 RS Feva sailors.

• A Northern Irish ‘Clean Sweep’ was achieved at the Celtic Cup which was hosted at the Killyleagh Oasis Centre in February. The NI Sailing Team won the Topper and ILCA classes, as well as securing the overall trophy against their Scottish and Welsh counterparts
• Bobby Driscoll represented Ireland in the ISAF Youth Worlds. This was the first time that a Northern Irish sailor has represented Ireland at this event in a number of years
• Emily and Annabel Ridout finished 1^st in the RS Feva National Championships
• Hannah Dadley-Young finished 1^st in the 29er Irish Nationals
• Dan McGaughey finished 1^st in the ILCA 7 Irish Nationals
• In January, RYA NI Performance Manager, Andrew Baker took five sailors to Sail Coach base Valencia to join with Wales and Scotland and other sailing nations to form an international training camp. The camp was a great success and is something that will continue to be built upon into the future.
• There were 126 participants at the RYA Northern Ireland Youth Championships which were hosted at Strangford Lough Yacht Club
• £24,500 was given to sailors in funding

Improve diversity

The Northern Irish sailing community continues to become more diverse through new initiatives, programmes and targeted funding.

RYA Northern Ireland’s goal to reach 3,633 female members (10% growth) was successfully achieved. Through the continued efforts of the Women on Water (WoW) programmes and the commitment of clubs delivering tailored initiatives to meet the needs of their members, female participation has grown significantly. Female membership now stands at 40.3% (3,896 members) - a strong reflection of the progress made.

• 63 % of people filling out our Women and Girls survey said they have seen positive change in the opportunities for women and girls in sailing through RYA NI.
• 65% people filling out our Women and Girls survey said of clubs they feel as though they have seen positive change in the coverage of Women and Girls in the sport on RYA NI social media channels.

Re-imagine pathways

During 2024/25 a number of programmes and initiatives were run by RYA Northern Ireland to offer different pathway opportunities to young and developing sailors. They were a major success and going forward they will ensure that sailors will stay engaged in the sport for longer.

• A female focussed camp was hosted between 27 and 28 April 2024 engaging 23 girls between the ages of 12 and 21- Attendees heard from athletes and coaches who showcased the journey of the Olympic pathway, and the importance of training, competing outside their club, trying different boats and having the knowledge of ‘what it takes’ to pursue the performance pathway
• Several Team Racing sessions were held early in the 2024 season, engaging over 40 new participants across three locations. The sessions had extremely positive feedback with 100% of participants saying they would recommend Team Racing to others.
• Transition Days were brought in to support the drop out we experience as junior sailors move into youth classes and youth into senior. These sessions were designed to showcase the recommended classes in NI, allowing participants to try out different boats, meet new boat owners and class association representatives
• In 2024 RYANI had ten OnBoard providers delivering activity to young people. Three OnBoard providers received funding from the Active Clubs grants including the introduction of a school's programme.
• 150 new participants were introduced to the sport via the OnBoard programme

Also included in our Annual Report for 2024/25 is a summary of the progress we have made to Celebrate the sport via social media, the workshops we have delivered to Connect and Empower clubs to learn how to make progress in the sport, how we Lobby and Advocate on behalf of participants in Northern Ireland, strengthening governance structure in the sport and a summary of RYA Northern Ireland’s finances.

If you have questions about a specific aspect of the 2024/25 Annual Report, please contact greg.yarnall@rya.org.uk