The Club has a full and active Rally programme which usually begins around the Easter Weekend and ends with the ‘Frostbite’ rally at the end of November!

The rally calendar is published in the Club Annual Programme and members are updated regularly about any changes, via the website, e-newsletters and on the Club notice-boards.

Rallies are a great opportunity for sailing in company, in the Solent, and further afield, including Cherbourg. Many boat-owners look for crew to accompany them on rallies – visit the crew register to share your interest in this.

Many Rally officers will set a ‘timed passage’ course to keep us on our toes, and details are e-mailed in advance to participating rally participants. During sailing legs, keep a listening watch on Ch 77.

Rallies are usually held at weekends and members arrange to meet up more formally on the Saturday night, but frequently meet informally on Friday nights and Sundays by local arrangement. The usual programme is that after arrival on a Saturday there is Pontoon Party at 17:00 hours, convened near the hosting boat. Watch out for RAFYC battle flags nearby!

Pontoon party etiquette is that you normally bring your own drinks and a plate of nibbles to share with everyone. Normally the Rally Office host arranges for us to eat out on the Saturday evening at a club, pub, restaurant or BBQ on a beach! Payment for moorings and berths is normally sorted out individually on a boat by boat basis and dinner normally paid for at the event.

Occasionally arrangements are made for Safari suppers where we circulate among the various boats for drinks, starters, main courses, desserts etc. Again protocol is to bring glasses and a bottle. These social evenings are again normally coordinated by the Rally Officer. Communication is increasingly carried out by mobile phone, once in port.

The sign-up sheet for Rallies is usually opened approximately 6 weeks before-hand. You can enroll in two ways:

1. Through the web site.
2. Call the office.

The club racing calendar is aligned with combined Hamble River Combined Clubs and other Solent Clubs, with our biggest event being the annual Battle of Britain Regatta held in September.

In addition to our own events we also host a number of other Clubs and events throughout the year, details are published below when available.

Hamble River Sailing Club

Offer a wide range of opportunities for racing for both the serious and the beginner such as Men on Boats & Woman on Water as well as for younger members which are accessible to our members through our affiliation – login and go here

SWSA Southampton Water Sailing Association

The RAFYC is a member of SWSA and club members can join and of their events either as a cruiser or keen racer as published in their calendar here Sailing Cruiser Racing in Southampton Water and the Solent

Southampton Sailing Club
Southampton Sailing Club invite RAFYC members to participate in their Summer 2022 10 Race Series open to SSC members and visitors racing small multihulls, dinghies and sailing cruisers (of draft equal to or less than 1.8m). Participation is free of charge, they are encouraging competitors to support the Red Cross Ukraine Appeal by gathering sponsorship on a per lap basis, or by making a lump sum contribution. Details on SSC website.

Battle of Britain Regatta (BoB)

This is the club’s premier annual racing event run every September to commemorate the end of the Battle of Britain. With five races open to all competing yachts run over two days catering for IRC and Club Class (for non-rated boats), with other classes by invitation/arrangement, that has included Quarter Tonners, XOD’s, Folkboats, and Contessa’s plus others to add variety to the event!

The Entry Form, Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions will be available on the Regatta page for download or on-line entry, the details will be published on the Regatta year page in due course, please see the link below.

The Regatta event is open to all club members with plenty of shoreside activities arranged for those who don’t race, typically includes a Beer Festival running from Friday Lunchtime through to Sunday afternoon, open to Members, RHCC, HRSC, RAFYC Affiliated Clubs and Visiting Sailors.

Following a successful return to our full regatta format in 2023 the event is open for all classes, IRC, Club Class, XOD’s and includes Round 3 of the Folkboat Summer Series – it will be a busy weekend!

The dates for your diary are Friday 13^th September for opening Shoreside activities with Racing on Saturday 14^th and Sunday 15^th.

For more details and to sign up follow this link Battle of Britain Regatta 2024

Battle of Britain Regatta – Results 2024

Saturday started with a beautiful sunny day and 28 boats across all classes milling around the start area waiting for the wind to fill in, which it eventually did allowing the first race to get under way at 12:45! The wind gently increased across the afternoon with close racing across all classes with the last race finishing at Hamble Point just after 17:00.

Sunday was another champagne sailing day with the first race of the day away at 11:20 with the breeze building across the afternoon with again very close racing, with the Folkboats finishing at the W/L Line, so the visitor boats could head home, with a lively run to the finish at Hamble Point for the rest of the fleet in the final race of the weekend.

Overall top three in each class as follows – please note error noticed in results corrected 20/9/24 Thalia drops to third and challenger up to second :

Full Results All classes Battle of Britain 2024

RCS

Marc Donoghue

Battle of Britain Regatta – Results 2023

With 33 entries across three classes everybody was hoping for an exciting weekend’s racing, alas the wind gods decided not to play with each class getting one race on Saturday and Sunday.

The results are as follows:

• XOD
• Folkboat
• Club Class

To see photo’s from the day go here

Details of previous events, 2019, 2022 and 2023 are available here

Out of respect for the sad passing of our beloved Queen Elizabeth II the 2022 event was cancelled.

There are no results for 2020 or 2021 as it was not possible to run this event using the regatta format.

Battle of Britain Regatta – Results 2019

Overall Regatta Winners Each Class

Please open the links below for full results of each class/race

Overall Results for all Classes

Results for Saturday 14^th September

IRC Class Day 1

Club Class with Spinnaker Day 1

Club Class without Spinnaker Day 1

Results for Sunday 15^th September

Day 2 Race 4 all Classes

Battle of Britain Regatta – Results 2018

The Battle of Britain Regatta weekend dawned bright and clear on Saturday and again on Sunday. The chosen location for the Committee boat was a good one, but there were plenty of other racing events going on at the same time and in nearly the same place.

Saturdays breezes were light to begin with so the first flight of races were quite slow and sedate , but as the day went on the breeze got up to about 12 or 13 knots with occasional gusts up to 15 or 16 knots. The second and third races a bit more brisk than the first ones, but everybody seemed to have a good days sailing.

Sunday was also fairly light to begin with but the first three races got away on time and the breeze filled in a bit more for the second race of the day , with some interesting antics from some of the asymmetric spinnaker users, all the races were completed in good time and in good order and all 25 boats racing seemed to have had a good time.

Good work done by the race management team and everybody who made it all go so well back at the club. Our Thanks to our Sponsor BMT for a host of beautiful trophies.

Overall Regatta Winners in Each Class

Please open the links below to view PDF of listed results

Overall Results for all Classes

Results Saturday 15^th September

IRC Class Day 1

Club Class with Spinnaker Day 1

Club Class without Spinnaker Day 1

Results Sunday 16^th September

IRC Class Day 2

Club Class with Spinnaker Day 2

Club Class without Spinnaker Day

RCS

John Best

Battle of Britain Regatta – Results 2017

With the wind from the north and going variable during the day, particularly Saturday, a challenge was set for Kathy Smalley our Race Officer and the crews on the water to make the most of the conditions. Nevertheless everybody had an excellent time with good racing in the testing winds, or lack of, with many reporting back and thanking Kathy for a great weekend.

On behalf of the Club and competitors I would also like to thank Kathy for being our excellent Race Officer.

Overall Results for each Class 2017

Results Saturday 16th September

Race 1

Race 2

Race 3

Results Sunday 17th September

Race 4

Race 5

RCS

Ron Colvin

Battle of Britain Regatta – Results 2016

The weekend presented some testing conditions with strong gusty southerly breeze Saturday. and a strong westerly breeze Sunday, leading to some gear failure and retirements. Though, overall the racing was enjoyed by all. The Club would like to thank Kathy & Rupert Smalley for being our excellent race officers.

Overall Results for each Class 2016

Class 1 – Overall

J88 Class – Overall

Class 2 – Overall

Club Class – Overall

Results Day 1 – Saturday 24th September

Class 1

Class 2

Club Class

Results Day 2 – Sunday 25th September

Class 1

Class 2

Club Class

Race Photos

BoB Regatta 2018 Gallery

Images Courtesy of Martin Farrow – please contact Martin for high resolution images or prints, framed etc.

BoB Regatta 2017 Gallery

Images courtesy of Martin Farrow

BoB Regatta 2016 Gallery

Please note this is Martin Farrow’s client site and you will need to enter BOB2016 to view the pictures.

BoB Regatta 2015 Gallery

Images Courtesy of Martin Farrow

Trophies

The Club is fortunate in having a well endowed trophy cabinet, some items having an historic heritage. There are some well known names engraved on these trophies and we hope the current winners will go on to become memorable in their turn.

Our Club embraces the spirit of friendly competition, recognising our members’ sailing skills with trophies for both cruising and racing. Non-boat owners are not left out as some trophies can be won by any member!

Our trophies are awarded for results in the locally popular Solent events as well as Club regattas and cruising competitions. So we are looking for the best RAFYC result in events such as the Warsash Spring Series, Round the Island, Bursledon Regatta and the Hamble River Winter Series as well as the Battle of Britain Regatta, cruising logs & photos and one or two more unusual competitions.

Some of this requires a certain amount of cooperation from members. The only sure way we know that you have participated in an event, particularly Round the Island, is that you have let us know of your entry. There’s only so much that can be done by comparison of the Club members’ data with published results & that’s only as good as the data we hold – so if you change your boat please, please let the office know! Both race entries and boat changes can also be emailed to rcsailing(I am sure you can figure out what goes here)rafyc.co.uk which is monitored by RCS.

By the way – if you think you never go racing, what do you do when faced with a passage where you would like to arrive well before closing time (without using the engine)?

The skills used here are much the same as those practiced by racing sailors – without all that shouting, obviously…

We regret that trophies may not be removed from the club.