About Us

The best inland sailing in the UK

Grafham Water Sailing Club is an active family friendly club located in Cambridgeshire. Our members sail dinghies, foilers, windsurfers, day keelboats and small sailing cruisers. We also have groups for model yachting, stand-up paddleboards and virtual sailing.

We sail on a 1,600 acre reservoir, 3 miles long and, at its maximum 1.5 miles wide. Grafham Water is renowned as one of the best inland sailing venues in the UK. We are surrounded by flat countryside and few trees making for constant wind conditions.

The club is located in central England, about three miles from the A1/A14 junction, between Bedford, Northampton, Cambridge and Peterborough and about 60 miles north of London.

We are open for sailing seven days a week throughout the year, except at Christmas/New Year. We offer organised racing on Sundays and Wednesdays. Coaching is available on Saturdays and the sociable sailing group meets on Tuesdays.

All classes of boat are welcome. We have fleet racing for Lasers/ILCA, Solos, D-Zeros and Flying Fifteens. We have a large handicap fleet of asymmetric and foiling boats and a catamaran fleet. Grafham benefits from experienced race management teams who operate to a high standard. Racing is run from Committee boats, and our mark layers are well trained and experienced. They ensure that our club racing is fun, and offers good racing for the wide range of boats that race at Grafham.

Click to find out more about our racing fleets and all our range of activities.

The club has been running for more than sixty years and has around 1,300 members using more than 700 boats.

All levels of sailing ability from beginners through to the very experienced are catered for. Newcomers to sailing can learn to sail through sailing lessons with our RYA accredited Training Centre, using your own boat or one of the club fleet.

The Club is an RYA Recognised Training Centre and we offer RYA certified training courses for dinghy and keelboat sailing, windsurfing and powerboating. These courses are for existing and new Club members. Club membership also allows you to hire our Club boats after successful completion of your Level 2 course, and to join in our free “Tuesday Group”, “Friendly Friday” evening and “Sociable Saturday” afternoon sessions to introduce you to racing and give you help on the water. The club has a fleet of boats that are available for hire by competent club members when they’re not being used for training courses.

We have a large clubhouse on three storeys with a ‘wet bar’ area on the ground floor serving food during main activity times. Large changing rooms are located on the middle floor and the top floor has a smart ‘dry bar’ with spectacular views across the lake.

Grafham Water is a Site of Special Scientific Interest with much to offer non-sailing members of the family too. There is a 9 mile long cycle track around the lake, a cycle hire shop, several children’s play areas, bird hides where you can observe the huge variety of water fowl and a variety of other activities at the Visitor Centre on the north shore.

Membership is open to sailors and non sailors of all ages, including individuals, couples and families. Click here for full details of our membership categories and fees.