The Asian Yachting Federation evolved from the need to provide a greater voice to the sport in Asia and to promote increased competition in Asian waters.

The founding members of the Federation were Burma (now Myanmar), China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The founders also decided to invite and include all members of the Asian Games Federation (now Olympic Council of Asia) to become members of the Asian Yachting Federation.

In 1980, they set out to draft the Constitution of the Federation, which was accepted by the members during their meeting on 28 November 1982 at Mumbai, India. As agreed between the members, the office bearers of the Federation held their office in rotation, with the country which hosted the previous Asian Regatta / Games nominating the President and the country hosting the next Asian Regatta nominating the Hony Secretary General as well as the Secretariat. In addition, the Vice President of the Federation was nominated by the country offering to host the Asian Regatta.

The first Asian Regatta was hosted during 20th to 24th November 1981 by India. Since then, Asian Regattas have been hosted by members of the Asian Sailing Federation in rotation. Asian Regatta is normally organised a year before the Asian Games to ensure that venue preparations and infrastructure issues are tested well before the Asian Games.

The period 1978 to 2012, saw many offshore events being institutionalised in Asia. Most popular amongst them being the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta, the Royal Langkawi International Regatta, the Horsburgh Challenge – Singapore, the Top of The Gulf Regatta & Coronation Cup, the Biennial Rolex China Sea Race and the China Cup International Regatta and Sailing Arabia – The Tour are just a few of which have been attracting keelboats and ocean-going catamaran teams from around the world.

Asia is also becoming a hot bed for extreme sailing sports. In recent years, Asia has attracted top international events, including the Volvo Ocean Race and the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and more recently, the Extreme Sailing Series.

In the Youth and Olympic classes, Asian sailors have shown a remarkable growth in their competence at world level. Many of the Asian sailors are now ranked in the top ten positions in the youth / junior classes. The success at the Olympic Games has been limited thus far, however, with continued focus we are very hopeful that many more Asian sailors would be seen at the podium at the Olympic Games in the years to come.

In February 2012 at the General Body Meeting at Langkawi, Malaysia, the proposal to amend the Constitution of the Federation to establish a permanent Secretariat at Singapore, opening of a Bank Account for the Federation and to elect the Executive Committee with tenure of four years was placed before the General Body. These proposals were unanimously accepted by members and accordingly, an Extra Ordinary General Meeting was convened at Singapore in Jun 2012 to amend the Constitution and elections to the Executive Committee were held.

Dr Malav Shroff (IND) was elected the President, with Rodney Tan (SIN) and Rashid Al Kindi (OMA) being elected as the Vice Presidents. The Executive Committee nominated Lukman Bin Hj Abu Bakar (MAS) as the Hon Treasurer and Jason Lim (SIN) as the Secretary General. Mr Park Soon Ho (KOR) was appointed as the President of Honour.

In order to promote the development of the sport the ASAF has established several events such as the ASAF Youth Sailing Cup Series (Youth Classes), ASAF Sailing Cup (Olympic Classes) and the ASAF Keelboat Cup series, which are administered by ASAF. Concurrently, a much greater emphasis on preparing Race officials from Asia has been put into place.

The Asian Sailing Federation is officially recognised by World Sailing (the governing authority for sailing world-wide) and the Olympic Council of Asia.

The Asian Sailing Federation has seen a steady growth in its membership and currently 28 Member National Authorities which are affiliated to International Sailing Federation and their National Olympic Committees recognised by the Olympic Council of Asia are members of the Asian Sailing Federation.