About the London School of Sailing
At LSS we are all about creating cracking experiences to be shared by a growing community of seafaring adventurers!
Whether it is exploring the Caribbean Islands, racing around the Fastnet Rock, learning what on earth all this sailing malarky is on about, or just watching the sun go down with a cold beer/gin/wine
Sailing is an excellent facilitator of all of these
Most of our UK-based sailing is out of the River Hamble
LSS was conceived in 2014, by our founder Ruaraidh Plummer. Inspired by instructing hundreds of Yacht and Dinghy training courses and seeing how the majority of students rarely put it into practice before forgetting everything.
After teaching dinghy sailing in Vassiliki for 6 years and seeing how receptive people are to learning in a friendly environment, we’ve set out to help sailors learn from the ground up.
Ruaraidh Plummer
Ruaraidh (pronounced like Brewery without the B) is an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor and keen racer. He grew up in SW London but was taught how to sail on his Grandad’s wooden Fireball (Pyrosphere) in the Fal Estuary. He and his dad raced an RS400 at various locations around the South & West of England. After a sailing holiday to Wildwind in Greece, it was game over. Ruaraidh got a job out there, did his instructor’s course and taught dinghy sailing through his university summers (possibly a few extra).
After several years of honing his dinghy sailing, Ruaraidh moved up to yachts, starting off as a deckhand on an 82ft maxi racer. After being mate on a few deliveries around the UK and acquiring his Yachtmasters Offshore in the Solent he turned to yacht racing and had the opportunity to work with the Abu Dhabi Volvo Ocean Race team where the “deep end” took on a new meaning.
He has now been instructing and race-coaching on the Solent for over 12 years and gets kicks from getting people over their fears as well as training up crews to become competitive racing ninjas!
QUALIFICATIONS:
RYA / MCA Yachtmaster Instructor (Sail)
VHF/SRC Radio Instructor
RYA Theory Instructor
Charter agent
RACE HISTORY:
ROLEX FASTNET RACE; 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023
RORC CARIBBEAN 600; 2023, 2024
ROLEX MIDDLE SEA RACE; 2019, 2024,
ARC TRANSAT; 2020
RORC TRANSATLANTIC RACE; 2023
CRUISING TRIPS/ LOCAL KNOWLEDGE OF:
UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS - MOST OF IT (SOUTH COAST IN DEPTH)
IRELAND - SOUTH COAST
FRANCE - NORMANDY/BRITTANY
SPAIN - ATLANTIC COAST, BALIERICS ISLANDS, COSTA BRAVA
GREECE - AEGEAN, SARONIC GULF, IONIAN
CROATIA - CENTRAL & SOUTHERN AREAS
ITALY - SICILY, SARDINIA
MALTA
TURKEY - FETHIYE
CARIBBEAN - BVI’S, ANTIGUA, GRENADA, SVG, ST BARTHS,