Unlike most five-year-olds, the RS Aero won’t make a haphazard dribbly attempt at blowing out five candles on a cake this weekend. True to its style, the RS Aero will be celebrating its fifth birthday with three bustling parties across the globe. A crowd of RS Aero sailors and followers will be raising a glass (or two) in awe of everything the boat has achieved so far.
In perfect timing for the classes birthday weekend, the British RS Aero Southern Championships have reached a record number of entries with 63 boats racing and celebrating at the open meeting.
As proud parents, here are some of the RS Aero’s best moments that we feel we need to shout about;
- 2000+ boats distributed worldwide
- 120 events across the globe last year, with even more planned in 2019
- There are RS Aero’s on nearly every continent and over 50 countries
- There were 200+ competitors, from 16 countries at the RS Aero’s fourth World Championships back in 2018
- The RS Aero was the top scorer of the 2024 Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy Event trials back in March 2019
- The RS Aero was recognised as being superior in almost every aspect in the 2024 Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy Event evaluation report released in May 2019.
- Arguably most importantly, the RS Aero Class has become infamous for its awesome racing, memorable socials, and truly friendly culture.
Peter Barton, the RS Aero Class Manager, has been at the helm of the RS Aero Class since the boats humble start. He shared his thoughts leading up to the milestone birthday, “Since starting my role five years ago, my role has changed in enormity. Having started with just 20 owners we now have over 2000 RS Aero sailors sailing and competing worldwide. There are not enough hours in the day to give the Class all the love that it deserves. It is incredibly gratifying to see so many sailors enjoying the boat and the classes structure of events, training and development. This is only possible because of the enthusiastic and passionate team working behind the scenes.”
Developing a boat and bringing it to market is an exciting and nerve-wracking process, five years ago today the RS Aero was launched and it has been flying ever since. Alex Newton-Southon, RS Sailing CEO – Design & Technical reflects on the last five years, “Development of the RS Aero took the best part of three years, we knew we had something really special and we wanted the RS Aero to be perfect, without compromise. I feel like we achieved that”.
“The design features and the buzz you get from sailing the boat really sets the RS Aero apart from the competition. The boat was really well received by sailors following the launch and nearly five years on, the RS Aero received the ultimate recognition from the World Sailing, Technical Equipment Committee. They described the RS Aero as a high-end quality product, and it won the trials with an unprecedented margin. As a single-handed sailor the RS Aero is a boat that is very close to my heart, we are incredibly proud of the RS Aero’s successes so far and we can’t wait to watch the boat the RS Aero Class evolve”
Jo Richards who was part of the RS Aero design team, shared his thoughts. “We had a reasonable feel for the need for the boat in the UK but we could not have predicted the take up in international countries. Personally, I was delighted at the number of boats competing and the number of countries competing at the 2018 RS Aero World Championships. The take-up of racing RS Aero’s has been unprecedented, but I think it’s also fantastic to find that sailors just go RS Aero sailing for the buzz of sailing the boat. I hope that the RS Aero keeps heading in the same direction!”
We could not have predicted the feeling that the RS Aero instils in its helms or the tenacity and friendliness of this relatively new class but we could not be prouder of the RS Aero and the RS Aero Class Associations achievements so far. We can not wait to see where it will be in five more years’ time.
Happy 5th Birthday to the RS Aero!
