Sail

Poole has been involved in sailing for arguably over 2000 years, when trading with Europe or when having problems with the Romans and Vikings.

More recently a Poole ship joined Drake’s fleet to defeat the Armada. This ship was escorted to the Harbour entrance by the the Town Mayor. Poole’s yachting history has been well documented elsewhere, but the Royal Motor Yacht Club’s involvement in some high profile events are perhaps less well known.

The twelve metre yachts, Sceptre and Evaine used the Club and Poole Bay prior to the unsuccessful Americas Cup Bid in 1958.

Poole bay Olympic Sailing Association also used the club prior to various sailing Olympics. Rodney Pattison who won two gold and one silver medal, in the Flying Dutchman class undertook some of his “Tuning up” from the club.

Royal Motor Yacht Club members have been very much to the fore in a number of events. Sir Peter Ogden’s “Spirit of Jethou” has twice won the New York Challenge Cup in Cowes Week. Roger Mowll’s “Petal”, Andrew Pearce’s “Magnums” and Harry Evans’s various “Alvines” have also been very successful at a number of International events over the years.

The Royal Motor Yacht Club has a diverse and rich programme of sailing events. In addition to a very active Cruising section, Races and Regattas are run throughout the season.

The Sail sub-Committee are responsible for the organisation of racing which takes place on Thursday evenings (5 classes which consist of Cruisers – Class 1 & 2, J24s, Shrimpers and Flying Fifteens) and Sunday mornings (Flying Fifteens – the Shrimpers September and October only) from the end of April until the end of October. The X-boats come and join us for an Autumn Series during October.

We also hold two regattas – a one-day event for Shrimpers, X-boats and Redwings and a two-day event for the Flying Fifteens.

RYA courses are held during the year consisting of Levels 1, 2 and Safety Boat courses and also First Aid, VHF and Radar.

The Club’s most prestigious event of the year is the Sail Training Week where we aim to give children an introduction to sailing. This year 72 children took RYA Stages 1 – 4 and we also had 24 children doing a Level 1 Powerboat course.

 Race Series Schedule