Youth Pathways

Originally known as the Laser, the ILCA dinghy is the worlds’ most popular single-handed dinghy and is an Olympic class for both men and women. RAYC owns the largest club fleet of ILCA boats in NZ and we have 15 boats that sailors are able to use on our courses. It is a challenging boat that rewards a comprehensive knowledge of sailing skills, boat handling and tactical knowledge. The boats are expensive and require a good amount of care to look after them, so the sailors that move into the group need to have a good level of proficiency and only sailors fully assessed by our coaches can transition into this class. Our ILCA Race groups are similar to the Feva Race groups, the sailors in these groups are working towards representing the RAYC Race Team at regattas and sailing for the club.

The 29er is the next step up from the RS Feva in the double-handed pathway, it is a high performance, double-handed skiff with a single trapeze and a big asymmetric spinnaker that can get the boat up to high speed which is heaps of fun for sailors racing them. It requires a high level of skill and is a feeder class through the Yachting New Zealand pathway to the Olympic 49er class. We have multiple coaches at RAYC who have achieved top rankings at international 29er regattas so are able to provide top-level coaching within this class. Sailors do need to have their own 29er to get involved in this class.

The Nacra-15 is another option for the double-handed pathway and is a catamaran type boat that is capable of some awesome top speeds and is another class that is heaps of fun. We have some of the Olympic Nacra-17 boats training off the ramp at RAYC and the Nacra-15 is the youth boat that feeds into that class.