Weymouth
Sailing
Club

‘Raging Bee’, one of the two JPK 10.10s at the Yacht Club de Cherbourg, is having an amazing season, having won her division and come 3rd overall in the Round the island, and 4th in the RORC IRC championship. With an excellent team aboard she is back at Cowes Week and leading IRC5 by a massive 14 points as of Thursday afternoon with two bullets, a second and a third.

WSC's Rob Horton, Rich Veale and Nix Middleton-Stewart are joining Draig for this year's Fastnet. Kay, Kev and crew are doing a sterling job in supporting Sail4Cancer. They are holding a fundraising evening on Friday, just before they leave at CCSC, please go along and show your support. The story of the campaign and details of the evening below:

Thanks to the hard work of She Taylor, our forthcoming Centenary Exhibition has secured a £4000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This will fund the exhibition in the Longshed, including display boards and a digital screen, featuring stories and key events from the club’s first one hundred years.

As well as telling the club’s story to our members and friends, we hope the exhibition will engage a wider audience and show what a vibrant asset the club is to Weymouth.

The Centenary Exhibition will run daily from Sat 31st August until Sat 7th September.

The Bussell Cup came home to Weymouth Sailing Club after remaining uncontested at Parkstone Yacht Club for 24 years. Our team of Merlin sailors beat the visitors by three races to none. The picture shows Sam Pasco and Sam Mottershead, Robin Clifton-Day (whose crew is not shown) and Mike and Penny Fenwick. Kathy Claydon is holds the cup.

WSC Merlin Rocket team today defeated Parkstone Yacht Club's team 3-0.
The Bussell Cup has been uncontested since 1989 when it was won by Parkstone.

Mike and Penny, Robin and Mike and Sam and Sam have got it back for us. Fantastic performances in no wind and then lots of wind.

The final round of public consultations about the Navitus Bay Wind Farm runs from 2nd September to 11th October 2013. Details are on the official web site of the proposers (a 50-50 Joint Venture between Eneco Wind UK Ltd (Eneco) and EDF Energy).

There is of course much opposition to the proposal and you may care to look at their web site as well.

If you wish to have your say please peruse both sites and make your feelings felt by taking part in the consultation.

It was with some nervousness that I entered the National Championship as I had only sailed on an Osprey twice prior to the first day of the competition. As I normally sail a Laser Radial the Osprey not only handles very differently but I also had to get used to trying to work with an assistant helm. Overall, I enjoyed the racing.

Tim Bowden from WSC kindly agreed to loan “Able 2” his veteran Osprey which was nearly the oldest boat in the fleet but proved not to be the slowest in the fleet. This was great as my target going in was not to finish last- which we didn’t.

OSPREYS FLYING HIGH WITH 40 BOAT ENTRY

40 Ospreys came to Weymouth for four sun soaked days of championship racing. The Osprey class has driven major growth in its entry, up from 29 last year, in this, the 60th year of the Osprey class. Boats ranged from recent FRP examples to wooden boats of up to 50 years vintage, and all enjoyed equal competition.

The coming weekend marks a very special event in the 100-year history of Weymouth Sailing Club.

Saturday, July 27 sees the re-introduction of the Club’s Bussell Cup. Originally offered by W L Bussell in 1926 it is a silver Challenge Cup for inter-port races and was last contested in 1985. The current holder, Parkstone Yacht Club, has been challenged by WSC as part of our Centenary programme. First contested in one design dinghies such as the XOD and Weymouth’s own Falcon (designed by Bussell in 1927), this year it will be competed for in fast and technical Merlin Rocket dinghies. Three boats represent each club.

Adrian, he who shall be obeyed got it absolutely right again keeping us all ashore until the breeze filled in just enough to run the sixth race. Tension was in the air in more ways than one, in the form of rolling fog and the unwanted attentions of a far of ship and menacing helicopter threatening to join the party.