Welcome to the Neil Holmes Powerboat Training Academy.

We hope you will take the time to read through our site and see what is on offer and if you don’t find what you are looking for give us a call and we will do our best to help.

The Academy is a unique training facility based on the Itchen River close to the centre of Southampton. Offering RYA courses, high performance and race tuition we are recognised by the RYA as a ‘specialist training establishment’ as well as an RYA training centre.

Tuition is by Neil Holmes who holds many titles including 7 world championships, 3 world speed records and numerous national and European awards so is well qualified for all your boating needs. Neil is the founder and designer of the Phantom Evolution range of sports ribs and also works with several top manufactures on research and development.  

Our chief instructor for RYA courses is Don Roper; Don has a wealth of experience having trained the marine police and comes to us highly recommended.

Specialising in high performance and race training we can help each student to develop their boat handling skills from first time boaters to more advanced boating and racing techniques. We pride ourselves on making the centre friendly and relaxed and offer training on a ‘one to one’ or team basis.

Our RYA courses follow the recognised syllabus; other training is exclusively tailored to meet your own needs as we recognise that everyone develops at a different pace, we also take into account your hull design, boat type and finally what you want to achieve from your training.

Consultancy, boat set up and testing is also offered at the Academy, so whether you are purchasing a new or second hand boat or just want to ‘set up’ your existing boat to make the most of its performance give us a call. After all if you are spending thousands of pounds on your ‘new toy’ you want to make sure it’s right for you!

Boat reviews are another area Neil specialises in, writing articles for several well known magazines and with boat tests ranging from 18ft sports boats up to 70ft cruisers there is always plenty of variety.

Media interest in the Academy is high with regular features in all types of magazines and recently Neil appeared on scrap heap challenge, teaching presenter Lisa Rogers to drive our Evolution rib, we have also trained a number of high profile clients who wish to remain nameless!
 
And if you really want to give someone a special treat maybe for a birthday or Christmas present  we offer gift vouchers ranging from half a day’s training to a full weekends boating tuition, especially popular are our ‘race training experiences’. No boating experience is necessary to use one of our gift vouchers.

Give us a call or drop us an email, we are always happy to discuss your requirements.