Northampton Sailing Club wins national award
Northampton Sailing Club, based near Brixworth at Pitsford Reservoir has been awarded Active Club of the Year 2026 by the Royal Yachting Association (RYA). The club was also a finalist in the Young Person’s Award 2026.
The club provides a friendly and welcoming environment and actively encourages participation in sailing, windsurfing, wingfoiling and paddleboarding. This is by offering a varied programme of events including training and coaching sessions for beginners through to experienced racers of all ages.
Race Coaching
While membership is declining in many clubs, Northampton Sailing Club has doubled its membership in the last couple of years and is actively encouraging more sailors out on the water. It set up adult race sailing coaching to encourage more members to join in club racing, and around 30 people signed up for it. This morphed into a group whose abilities range from complete beginners through to experienced sailors who have raced before but would like to, as one of the members coined the phrase, “Be Less Last"! It ran throughout the Summer and Autumn on a Tuesday evening last year and was very well attended. It continues into 2026, with onshore sessions initially until April when it’s light enough to get out on the water. Some of Northampton’s experienced sailors provide the coaching, which provides a stepping stone to an RYA Level 1 sailing course, or to join in the Sunday racing.
Windsurfing
In addition, six members of the windsurf group have trained to Intermediate Instructor level and run sessions for members interested in starting windsurfing or coming back to it after a break. They've had members aged from 10 through to 78 attend the sessions, and a strong and growing group of windsurfers can be seen out on the water every Sunday.
Young Persons’ Award
With regard to the Young Person’s Award, Northampton continues to foster its thriving Pirates club with 65 8-16 year-olds learning to sail or windsurf. The club has been awarded RYA Pathway Club status and has setup a Northampton Race Group (NRG) team who are offered extra race coaching to attend events to include the Northamptonshire Youth Series
(NYS) and Topper Traveller opens. The club has also purchased two new Toppers and two new Fevas to support the NRG team in their events.
Open Day
Northampton Sailing Club also provides taster sessions and training days for non-members. It is hosting an open day on Saturday 2nd May where anyone can visit the club and find out more about the activities by chatting to members, and have a go.
To find out more go to www.northamptonsailingclub.org