The RYA (Royal Yachting Association) was founded in 1875 as the Yacht Racing Association.

The RYA formally became the Royal Yachting Association in 1953 and set up its first training committee in 1967 and by the following year seventy two schools had applied for RYA recognition.

In 1969 the armed forces adopted the RYA training scheme and the Yachtmaster Qualifications Panel was set up in 1971.

Today, the RYA has over 100,000 members, it is responsible for training the British Olympic Team (since 1908) and has become the British national body for virtually all boating interests from yacht cruising to windsurfing, personal watercraft to larger powercraft.

It is Europe's largest marine publisher selling over 500,000 copies of it's own books every year catering for every aspect of boating.

The RYA has 2,220 training centres in 20 countries and these centres issue a total number of certificates in excess of 150,000 each year.

If you want to learn to sail through an organisation with a huge range of resources, very high standards of training for it's instructors and a non-profit organisation with the best interests of the boating population at heart, look for the RYA Training Centre logo.