Yachting

Sailing has been around for travel and fishing, but it’s only become a sport since the early 17th century. The Dutch are said to be the first nation who raced yachts for fun. They gave a ship to Charles II and the sport quickly became popular in England before being taken up in America.

Up until the second half of the 20th century, yachting was a luxury sport for the rich. However, during the 1950s and 60s, new materials became available – such as plywood – which made boat construction easier and cheaper than ever before, making the sport more accessible to everyone.

Today, it is a pastime enjoyed by millions of people worldwide – both competitively and non-competitively on lakes and rivers to the wide open ocean.

Sailing specifically refers to the sport of using wind to power sails and propel the boat forward (rather than engines). Unlike windsurfing and surfing, the sport takes place in an enclosed boat rather than on a board.

Today it is mostly a recreational activity. There are two types of sailing – racing and cruising. Racing is the branch of yachting you will recognise from the Olympics, however cruising is probably what most people would enjoy on their holidays or on the weekends.

Sailing was first contested as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Paris Games. Since then, the classes of boats allowed to compete have continually evolved to reflect advances in yacht design and technology. Equipment advances over the past 20 years have created a trend towards smaller and lighter craft, placing ever greater demands on both the athletic and technical capacities of the sailors.

You can learn to sail on a yacht (usually around 9m long and can fit multiple people onboard) or a dinghy (around 2m to 4m long and fit one or two people inside).

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is the national governing body for sailing in the UK – it’s qualifications are widely recognised across the world, so if you learn to sail in the UK, you can take your certificates with you pretty much anywhere.