Did you know that the RYA is one of the oldest and most regular clients of Alexandra Palace?

Celebrating 50 years of theirs globally-recognised training schemes, we were extremely proud to host this event again for the 25th consecutive year.

RYA, which has more than 270,000 subscribers and a network of more than 2,400 recognised training centres in 58 countries worldwide and supports the delivery of over 100 different courses, put on a great show this weekend.

Between Saturday and Sunday, thousands of visitors explored all the main rooms of the venue.

For this reason internal and external departments and contractors had been working very hard for days to get the venue ready, as this event takes over the whole building.

Some of the highlights: after walking through the main entrance, you’d find yourself amazed by a boat display in the middle of Palm Court. Entering the main exhibition rooms such as the West and Great Halls, you could not only admire but also buy a huge variety of dinghies and boats, visit stands, enter competitions, see Olympians (including the British sailing team!) and listen to industry speakers.

Worthy mentioning is stand C26 where you would find Nellie the fat fish and give your contribution to the collection of plastic waste and keep our oceans clean.

You couldn’t leave the event without visiting the premium interactive area and get involved with lots of fun activities in the Panorama Room, which included: water 360 virtual reality, model boats races in the activity pool, a sailing simulator and trapeze rig and much more…

The RYA dinghy show 2020 was a perfect day for families and people of all ages. It’s amazing to see the Palace converted to house all the attractions and on such a large scale. Not long ago these rooms were holding gigs, the darts or the snooker – as they will do again – but for one weekend they offered something very different.

By Marco Garghentino