The Club offers members the opportunity to race on Sundays all year round, as well as on Wednesday evenings during the Spring and Summer months, with options for a variety of different racing formats. Our aim is to make racing competitive and fair, but always friendly and fun.
Members (excluding juniors) are also required up to twice a year to help run the Sunday racing or perform other duties. We encourage regular racers to do at least two duties a year as combined Officer On Duty (OOD) and Race Officer (RO). Those who have little or no racing experience are encouraged to be an assistant OOD/RO, or to volunteer to other practical duties at the club.
On this page you will find links to all the required information for anyone racing at the Club, along with the whole club calendar. All competitors are encouraged to read the material on this page.
For the Officer on Duty List please see DutyMan
GENERAL SAILING INSTRUCTIONS FOR ASC
General Instructions for anyone sailing at the club.
RACE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2025
View or download the Race Programme for 2025
Notice of Race – Winter Series 2025-6
Alternatively, you can see the calendar on the What’s On page.
WORLD SAILING RACING RULES
The Racing Rules of Sailing published by World Sailing govern the sport of sailing in all its forms all over the world, from club racing at Aylesbury right up to the Olympics and the America’s Cup. Due to the nature of club sailing on a small inland lake such as Weston Turville some of those Rules are modified for the purposes of racing at Aylesbury Sailing Club. You will find the few modifications we apply to the Racing Rules set out in the Notice to Competitors and Race Instructions which are available on the link above. The main special rules we apply at Aylesbury are the starting procedure (we use 9 minute, 6 minute and 3 minute signals rather than the more conventional 5-4-1) and the ‘zone’ for the purposes of the ‘giving mark-room’ rules is 2 boat lengths rather than 3 boat lengths due to the very limited size of the water). Save for those modifications, the Racing Rules apply to all races held at the Club (although we always try not to be officious).
World Sailing published an amended set of Rules which will apply from 1 January 2025 until 2028 . There have been some important changes to the Rules which all sailors need to make themselves familiar with. There are some very good video tutorials available online and books like “The Rules in Practice 2025-2028” which have lots of illustrations showing how the rules apply in various different situations which you will frequently encounter on the water.
Of course, the more experienced sailors at the club will always be more than willing to explain aspects of the rules to you if you are not clear about anything.
RACE START INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPETITORS AND GUIDANCE FOR RACE OFFICERS
THERE IS A BLUE FOLDER IN THE RACE HUT WHICH CONTAINS THE BELOW GUIDANCE NOTES ALONG WITH SOME INSTRUCTIONS ON USING THE SAFETY BOAT AND THE ENGINE WINCH.
View or download the Club’s Guidance for Race Officers. The guidance is also a useful reminder for competitors of how the races are run and what the various flags and sound signals mean.
Please also visit the Safety Boat page for guidance on setting up and using the support boat and using the walkie-talkies.
Handicap racing using PY numbers
Results of races are calculated using a Portsmouth Yardstick rating system. You can learn about how the system works here.
The Club may sometimes apply a special club PY rating based on the PY calculated using the RYA calculator for results of Club races only. The current club rating can be found here.
You will also see from the results page that we often try something a bit novel in terms of the handicapping during the Winter Series. For example, during the 2024-5 Winter Series we have experimented with a personal handicap for each individual competitor which is based on an average of previous performances in the series.
Pursuit Start Times
View the current individual starting times for pursuit races.
Gold, Silver and Bronze Fleets
View the current Fleet allocations.
Novice Class
Information about the Novice Class can be found on the link below.
Aylesbury Sailing Club 