The 3rd CB is recognised by the Royal Yachting Association (amongst other things, the national governing body for boating in the UK) as a training centre. This means that we can teach, assess and award certificates of competence in dinghy sailing and power boating. Although we continue to teach and award the Scout Asssociation's boating badges such as the Nautical Skills Badges, we also ensure that our training is of the standard required by the RYA, meaning that in addition to the various Scout awards, young members can also achieve nationally recognised sailing qualifications. In addition, as the Scouts' leader qualification scheme for undertaking water activities within Scouting is based upon the RYA's award scheme, having RYA recognition makes it easier for the 3rd CB to keep its leaders suitably qualified.

Maintaining this recognition requires hard work by various people in achieving various qualifications that then have to be regularly updated, the maintenance of specific high standards of teaching, equipment and safety, and the succesful completion of an annual assessment carried out by national RYA staff.

The RYA Establishment is operated within the 3rd CB by a collection of professionally trained sailing and powerboating instructors.

At present the group can run the following RYA courses for our members:

• Dinghy Level 1 - Start Sailing
• Dinghy Level 2 - Basic Skills
• Dinghy Seamanship Skills
• Dinghy Sailing with Spinnakers
• Dinghy Day Sailing
• Youth Scheme - Start Sailing Stage 1
• Youth Scheme - Start Sailing Stage 2
• Youth Scheme - Start Sailing Stage 3
• Powerboat Level 1
• Powerboat Level 2