Connections Connecting with our community
Forging meaningful connections with our members and other boaters helps drive us forward so we can innovate and deliver more for you. Here are a few things we’ve worked on this year:
• We want to make sure young boaters have a voice and can shape what comes next for them, so we launched the RYA Futures Lab, our first ever youth ambassador programme. Through Futures Lab we’re working with young leaders, creators, and changemakers aged 16 – 25 to help get more young people into the sport by breaking down barriers to participation and better understand what matters to young sailors.
• We’ve also partnered with SailGP to launch JUMP – the Junior Upskill Mentor Programme. This exciting initiative gives young women aged 16 – 25 the chance to shadow professionals from the RYA and SailGP in the lead up to and during the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Grand Prix Portsmouth event. Through this scheme we hope to show more young women the diverse range of thrilling career opportunities available to them in the maritime industry which current insights show is 81% male in its make-up.
• ‘Reduce the risk, boost your skills’ – that’s the message of our 2026 annual safety campaign in conjunction with the HM Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. As part of this campaign we’ve created a free booklet that contains safety and equipment checklists, as well as a comprehensive list of pre-season safety checks, so boaters can take to the waves safely this season. The booklet is available on the HM Coastguard’s website.
• At the end of 2025, we opened our Reflections on Water Survey to our members, instructors and volunteers. Designed to capture the most complete picture of life on the water in the UK, this is the largest survey we’ve ever run. The 5,500 responses we captured have shown us just how much our community loves being on the water – with many describing it as their ‘happy place’ – but it also highlighted the ways in which are people are prevented from or put off participating. These are our opportunities for growth. As the survey has better articulated what these problems are, we’re in a better position to find solutions such as more flexible and family-friendly formats, improved newcomer pathways and clearer progression routes.
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RYA Annual Strategic Report 2026
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