Wimbleball Sailing Club clearly supports beginners. It describes itself as an RYA-certified training centre with courses for adults, children, beginners and more experienced sailors. The membership page says training courses are available for complete beginners and notes many members joined after completing a course. A 2026 youth Stage 1 booking page states no previous sailing experience is required.
Training
Training is available. The club states it is an RYA-certified training centre. The membership page says it is affiliated to the RYA and offers training for children and adults, including complete beginners. The training booking page lists 2026 RYA Youth Sailing Scheme courses, while the events page lists an adult RYA National Sailing Scheme course. The training contact shown is Deb Ryles at learn2sailwsc@gmail.com.
The club has an official Dinghy Sailing - Taster Sessions article saying it can offer a morning or afternoon dinghy session with an experienced club member and asks people to contact Deb Ryles at learn2sailwsc@gmail.com to arrange a date, with a listed price of GBP 30. However, the same article includes a note saying the club is currently unable to offer a taster session because water level is below the minimum required for launching and recovery. A later reopening/news item confirms sailing restarted, but it does not explicitly confirm tasters restarted, so current taster availability is unresolved.
The club describes itself as family friendly. Membership categories include families and juniors, and the family membership definition covers children living at home under 18 or under 25 in full-time education/training. The club says it strongly encourages newcomers and juniors. Youth evidence includes Osprey weeks for ages 8-18 and RYA Youth Sailing Scheme booking pages, including Stage 1 beginner courses for children 11 and under or 11 and over.
Access
The club has a Wimbleball Sailability group providing sailing opportunities to disabled people and local care home residents. The Sailability page gives named contacts and phone/email details. Youth training event pages ask parents to let the training coordinator know if a child has additional needs. The official pages do not give a full access-facilities audit, so practical access details should be confirmed with the club.
Costs
Costs, sessions, and boats
Prices
Official 2026/27 membership fees found: family GBP 131, individual GBP 91, young adult GBP 65, junior GBP 35, shore GBP 15, winter GBP 105, Sailability volunteer GBP 10, no-duty fee GBP 148. Berth fees listed as dinghy GBP 60, SUP/canoe GBP 39, mooring GBP 85. Visitor fees with own boat are listed as max 3 visits per year: adult including 1 crew GBP 10, junior including 1 crew GBP 5, extra sailing visitors in group GBP 5, non-sailing members of group free. Training examples found include RYA adult/youth courses at GBP 240, youth regatta GBP 100 for 3 days or GBP 70 for two days, and a taster-session article listing GBP 30, although current taster availability is uncertain. Club-boat maintenance fees are referenced via an attachment on the membership page, but exact fees were not visible in the page text.
Official site describes a family-friendly club at Wimbleball Lake with RYA training, racing, recreational sailing, memberships and a Sailability group.
The membership page says most members eventually buy their own boat, but the club has some club boats available to use and asks users to contribute to maintenance by paying a small fee. This appears to be club-boat use rather than public commercial hire. The exact maintenance fee was not visible in page text; a linked Boat Maintenance Fees download was present but not accessible through the research tool. Members can also berth a boat at Wimbleball.
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