Thames Sailing Club

Thames Sailing Club was founded in 1870 making it Britain’s oldest river sailing club. With our original clubhouse and racing the historic Thames A Raters, the most exciting boats on the river, we offer excellent river sailing combined with a friendly, traditional setting that is second to none – all within easy reach of London.

Our amazing Thames A Raters, the unchallenged ‘Queen of the River’, were designed in Victorian times to make the most of the light river breezes and are still the fastest boats on the Thames. Built in wood originally, and glass fibre more recently, the Raters are mostly operated by syndicates. New members will find no difficulty getting a crewing slot on these three-person boats, and if you get the bug (as most do!) it’s relatively inexpensive to join a syndicate for a full share of the action.

Our largest class is the lively Merlin Rocket where we have a particularly active group of Vintage Merlins and we also have a number of club boats for members use.