Hamble School of Yachting announce David Robson as Principal and Chief Instructor

Hamble School of Yachting has announced David Robson as its Principal and Chief Instructor, with David starting with the South Coast RYA sailing school last week.

David had an accomplished career in the Royal Navy from the age of 17 and was quickly drafted to the Submarine Service as a Weapons Engineer. During his 26 years of service, David served on five submarines: HMS Revenge, Talent, Triumph, Torbay and Trenchant.

Whilst in the Navy, David developed his passion for sailing in the early 1990’s, starting with dinghies then moving onto cruising yachts and became a Yachtmaster in 1998.

As part of his transition to “civvy street", David gained his RYA Cruising Instructor qualification. On leaving the Navy, Robson became a full time instructor, gained his Yachtmaster Instructor certificate and took on the role of Chief Instructor at a Solent based sailing school.

David then moved to the Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Center (JSASTC) in Gosport as sailing Instructor. During his nine years there, he passed on his knowledge and skills to the next generation of service men and women.

In 2022, he was invited by the RYA to become one of their Yachtmaster Instructor Trainers, which he considers one of his many career highlights.

Chris Rushton, MD of Clipper Ventures, who owns the highly regarded RYA sailing school (and who ran the school himself from the age of 21) says, “David brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to HSY. As a Yachtmaster Instructor Trainer and Yachtmaster Examiner, David will maintain the high standards of both our professional and leisure sailing courses. And from his years of teaching, he will help us encourage more people to try sailing for the first time.”

As part of his varied role at Hamble School of Yachting (HSY), David is responsible for the high standards of training, equipment maintenance and wellbeing of training centre’s students and instructors.