Yachting

The Royal Thames has a rich and varied programme of yachting events both cruising and racing.

 Go Straight To The Month by Month Events Calendar, on the left hand side of this page.Thanks in particular to our acquisition, in concert with the Royal Yacht Squadron, of a fleet of six matched and modified J80s, our racing programme now extends through all twelve months of the year.  In the main the winter months - October thorugh until the following April - are spent primarily at Queen Mary reservoir at Staines, close to Heathrow airport and the northern end of the M3 where the J80s have their winter quarters. In th summer they and we move to The Solent. The Js in the summer are operated primarily by RYS, while we move into open water mode.  Click here to go to our main J80 information page, and here to see the complete calendar for the J80 programme, both RTYC and RYS.

Some of our Racing events are restricted only to members, but most are open and our Race Management team, led by Chief Sailing Officer Malcolm McKeag and Honorary Chief Race Officer Gillian Smith has a well-deserved reputation for well-run races and well-managed courses. In addition to acting in concert with other Cowes clubs to provide the weekly regattas for the Cowes local keelboat classes, Royal Thames is one of the three clubs that form the first Triumvirate of Skandia Cowes Week. Another jewel in the Club's Solent crown is our Inshore Series for Farr 45s, which this year will consist of two weekends of back-to-back windward/leeward racing for the David Dielh trophy, an action-packed and scintilating match racing weekend for the Club's imposing Imperial Trophy, first presented by Kaiser Willhelm IV in 1904, and a weekend of two-boat team racing (yes - two-boat team racing, in Farr 45s!) in September.

As well as running racing events, Club members are active participants in all disciplines of the sport. A special forte of the club is team racing, particularly team racing in keelboats and even more particularly two-boat team racing in keelboats. Club members travel widely both to Europe and North America to compete against the best of overseas clubs and host return matches in the UK. As well as its own inter-club team racing programme the club organises and runs the National Championship of two-boat team racing each year in the J80s at Queen Mary as well as the biennial Royal Thames Cumberland Cup international team racing contest.

The Club's cruising programme is no less full, with activities ranging from simple local meets for just a few boats to overseas rallies in far-flung corners of the globe. A particular feature of the Club's overseas rallies, exploiting the club's unique international membership connections, is privileged access to events and locations not normally open to other clubs or to the public.

For more details of the Club's varied yachting programme, visit the specific Racing and Cruising pages.