Sailing Overview

Our Club has a long tradition of members enjoying their sailing in company. In recent years we have developed that idea to incorporate both social sailing (rallying) & racing, it has become very successful and we see numbers at some of our events at the 40 mark, our highest

attendance was on our annual visit to the Medina Mariners up the River from Cowes, we had 46 club boats attend, a fantastic opportunity to meet other members and talk through how the season has gone so far and what they have planned for their holidays, its also a great place for a BBQ, which is hosted by our friends at the Medina Mariners.

We sail to most places (or motor) around the Solent from Poole in the West to Chichester in the East, once a year we also have a race/rally South to Cherbourg, which some members use as the start to their summer Holidays

At all our weekend events we encourage members to mingle by having a club boat that we can all meet up on and have a glass or two of the grape stuff, at one race/rally we have had over 50 members on one boat, at this point you may wish to close some or all of your seacock’s!!

We have other events at our club which include the annual visit from our great friends in the Gaffers Association, of which some are members of our very own club. We can always rely on a good turnout for the Todd’s Double weekend and every other year we celebrate with our Club Regatta.

During the summer on a Wednesday evening we have club racing around Southampton Water, which starts and finishes at the Club’s start-hut on the foreshore. We race two fleets with a 5 minute interval between starts and different courses. You can race your own boat and make up your own crew from members, family and or friends or chat up one of the skippers to crew for them.

An evening race is a great way of splitting the week up, particularly as you can have a meal and a pint in our fantastic Club House. We have an annual prize-giving dinner which is a great evening to talk about what could have been and of course complain that your boats handicap is wrong!

We have a thriving junior section which is run on an evening during the summer normally on a Tuesday, where the kids get a chance to learn how to sail and also have some races around the buoy’s, the club has a number of boats the youngsters can use from a Laser Pico and Mirrors up to Enterprises and Wayfarers.

The youngsters are not only the children of our members, but also some come from the local community, they are fantastically supported by parents and members of the club, and at their season end the celebrate with a BBQ and prizes on the foreshore.

The racing is competitive but also very friendly, the socialising after the event is by far the best part, an opportunity to talk sailing or just general, how lucky are we to be a part of such a wonderful sport and in such a beautiful part of the country, somewhere where we can relax in lovely surroundings and all done in the fresh air.

Many thanks to Frank Absalom for this page.