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Recognised Clubs

Celebrating clubs that allow junior sailors to develop their sailing and racing skills, and encourage young sailors at grassroots level to stay in the sport

How to become a British Youth Sailing Recognised Club

To become a BYS Recognised Club you first need to be affiliated to the RYA and then please go through the list below. These are the core essentials to be considered and the beginning of your journey to grow junior racing and training whilst also building your membership base to secure your club for generations to come.

  • Run some regular junior race training
  • Ensure there are some racing opportunities for a Recognised Class with at least four boats
  • Send at least one sailor to the BYS Regional Junior Championships every two years
  • Have someone who can coordinate the junior training and racing activity – a designated volunteer role
  • This should be delivered and supported by RYA qualified coaches or Racing Instructors.
  • And of course, confirm to all the relevant safety and safeguarding standards – which are on our website in the polices section.

If your club wishes to be considered then please get in touch with a Regional RYA staff member who can guide you in the process and discuss with you in more detail the criteria and benefits that come with a successful application.

Applications are considered on a quarterly basis so once you have applied you should hear back in less than 12 weeks.

The BYS Recognised Club 
application form is available to download.

Please complete the form and return it to your Regional Performance Manager.

British Youth Sailing Recognised Club

The RYA works in partnership with sailing clubs through the British Youth Sailing Recognised Club Programme to help them establish or further develop their junior race training.

Being recognised gives a club status and access to additional resources to support young sailors to develop their sailing and racing skills, helping a club grow its young membership base.

Why

The key challenge for our sport is to encourage more young people to start participating in sailing and progress into racing.  This is best done at club level and a successful Regional Training Group and Youth Performance Squad training and racing programme, will enable a club to flourish.  The BYS Recognised Club status distinguishes those sailing clubs with a commitment to the development of regional and youth racing and race training, which is delivered in a safe and fun environment.

How

In order for a club to achieve BYS Recognised Club status, a club must demonstrate that it runs a regular race training programme within at least one of the BYS Recognised Classes.  In order to achieve the high standards of training that are expected of BYS Recognised Clubs, training must be delivered by qualified RYA Coaches to RYA Recognised Training Centre standards (or equivalent) with a Safeguarding in place.