THE RYA Olympic Classes National Ranking Series is set to get underway with online entries now open for three weekends of Olympic classes sailing this autumn.

The first weekend of racing is at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA), and will see racing in the Finn, 470 Men and Women, Nacra 17, RS:X 9.5 and RS:X 8.5 today and tomorrow.

The 49er and 49erFX classes first national ranker will be their National Championships held at Hayling Island Sailing Club, also this weekend.

The second weekend of racing will also take place on the Olympic waters in Weymouth and Portland on September 18-19 with all the above Olympic and the three Paralympic classes, the 2.4mR, SKUD and Sonar.

The RSX 9.5 men and RS:X 8.5 open events will take place at Grafham Water in conjunction with the 2015 UKWA National Championship Series.

The final instalment will be on October 17-18 and will end what has been a highly charged season of Olympic and Paralympic classes racing.

A compulsory series for the British Sailing Team, the three weekends of racing offer the perfect opportunity for the nation’s finest sailors to fine tune their racing skills, while also providing the chance for aspiring stars of the future, local club sailors and class stalwarts to test their skills against the best of the best.

The series also counts towards the grant qualification series which provides support to International Olympic Classes events – Eurocups and the ISAF Sailing World Cup as well as Class Europeans and World Championships.

Barrie Edgington, British Sailing Team Podium Potential Squad manager, said: “The RYA National Ranking Series provides an opportunity for sailors to test their talents against some of the best up-and-coming sailors as well as the best of the best from the British Sailing Team.

“WPNSA is a fantastic world class sailing venue which will no doubt deliver a real mixture of conditions for the sailor to test themselves across the three weekends of racing.”