Weymouth
Sailing
Club

Sunday 20 July, nine WSC Squibs were joined by a further nine Club cruisers for their annual Picnic Race.  A visiting Squibber Hilary Martin from Royal Victoria YC travelled to Weymouth to join the party.  Mark Bugler in Saskia VI was Race Officer for the day.  The Squibs started the race with a quick beat from X to Chemmers and then enjoyed a fast run down to Ringstead in a stiff breeze.  The Squibs tied up behind the anchored cruisers and the crews were ferried ashore by the safety RIB to share a BBQ on the sheltered beach.  The breeze increased to a force 6 for the race back to Bowleze mark and the finish at O.  The winning trophy donated by Ernie Lee was won by Paul Withers with Dorothy King in their new Squib 77 Doro.  Ernie Lee and Marcus Bray were second in Jubilation and Vernon and She Taylor were third in Hussy.  Thanks were recorded to all those who helped with the organisation.

The race is very dependent on having the right weather conditions and this year it was considered to be near perfect. 

Spirit of the Sea, Weymouth and Portland’s Maritime Festival, took place from 5^th to 13^th July, with the Henri-Lloyd Regatta forming part of the last four days.  Low-key at first, due to the terrible weather, it built up to quite a spectacle by the last weekend.  Those of you that visited the club will have seen the throngs of people enjoying the Seafood Festival on our side of the harbour, the music in Hope Square and the MarinEx trade exhibition on Customs House Quay.  Some other highlights were the colourful Moving Tides children’s procession on Saturday, the music on the beach from local bands each evening and the Thunder Cats Boat Ballet in Newton’s Cove. The idea is to hold Spirit each year and next year’s event should be even bigger and better. 

Put the date in your diary, 9 to 12 July 2009, with the regatta again taking place over the last four days.

http://www.spiritofthesea.org.uk 

Peter Hopford 

Many thanks to all the sponsors of the 2008 Henri-Lloyd Regatta who helped to make this year's event a great success.

Thanks also go Frank and Jeni Newton on 'Sorebones' did a superb job running the keelboat racing with help from Catherine, Peter, Malcom and Irene plus the on-water mark layers and ashore team.  

Weymouth and Portland Maritime Festival, The Spirit of the Sea got off to a start this weekend with the J24 Class National Championships.  The championships are being hosted by Yacht Clubs of Weymouth 5 - 8 July with many WSC members helping on and off the water.  30 competing boats from all over the country are moored in the harbour outside the RDYC.  The sailors are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the boat with a party to be held at Weymouth Sailing Club on Sunday 7July evening.

Details and results of J24 National Championships http://www.ycw.org.uk/J24_2008.aspx

The Spirit of the Sea continues  until 13 July with a full programme of events including the Henri Lloyd Regatta.  Details can be found on www.spiritofthesea.org.uk

Club members have had a diverse selection of activities this weekend.  A working party headed by Peter Staff with Steve Pitman, Mark Bugler and others replaced the footropes on the Cove moorings on Sunday morning. All went well and all the footropes have now been replaced. This has made it easier to access the inner moorings as the lines of moorings no longer bow together to such an extent.  Many thanks to all the helpers.

A report from Wild Child, one of several WSC boats who took part in the Round the Island Race

‘Wild Child’ crept out of Cowes in good time for her start under a cloudy sky with 15knots from the west, only to see some very expensive repairs coming back in already – Atomic’s carbon mast. someone else’s pulpit – it was clearly going to be that kind of day. A brisk beat up towards the Needles among the J109s, with a jib peel to a No 3 as the breeze picked up; a close rounding very near the lighthouse, followed by an increasingly exciting sleigh-ride under spinnaker down to St Catherine’s against the tide but with a breeze which cleared the sky and went up to around 25 knots, resulting in lumpy seas and lots of wild broaching and burst kites all around us. We lost a sheet at St Catherine’s, and took a moment to recover the situation with a quick drop, then dropped and re-hoisted rather than gybe just beyond the headland, and surfed down towards Bembridge, reaching 13.5 knots over the ground on occasion. Keeping inshore on the leg up the forts, and then close in to Ryde sands, paid off as the wind was quite free off the land, and we finished in 7hrs 18 mins, achieving 8^th in class, out of 49.

If you are doing anything that would interest other members, please let the editor know.

Trustee of Weymouth Sailing Club Denis Holliday has been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.  He has been awarded an MBE for his services to the community in Dorchester. 

Denis helmed Squib 'Fuggles' for many years and is still active as a WSC Trustee.  He is also a member of the Tall Ships Youth Trust.  He works two days a week at the Dorchester County Museum and until recently drove elderley people to the Age Concern Day Centre.   He has also worked with Cancer Research, the Samaritans and Weymouth Lifeboat.

At 91 years old, he still continues to support many of the Club social events and is still a very popular member of the Squib 'dining group'. 

Many congratulations Denis MBE!

Photo by kind permission of Dorset Echo. 

 At last it seems as if our dinghy fleet is starting to grow again.   Last week another Wayfarer called Dragonfly owned by Shaun Perrett & family arrived in the club.  The picture shows Shaun helping out with the YOB's evening. 

Four of Weymouth Sailing Club's Squib fleet have taken part in the National Squib 40th Anniversary Regatta hosted by Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.  The Squibs who took part were National Champions Mike and Penny Fenwick in Ghost Rider, She and Vernon Taylor in Hussy, Deo and Alan McDine in Jumble and Peter Jackson and Iain Jones in Aldebaran.  An attraction at the event was a raffle for a new Squib - every boat entered got a free ticket with more tickets being given out as daily prizes.

40th Anniversary Regatta results

Weymouth Squib fleet continues to be one of the most active one-design fleets on the South Coast with regular turn-outs of 15-20 boats for club race nights.  Recent new member to the fleet is International Race Juror, Paul Withers, with his newly purchased Squib 77 Brita.

Theme Park or Marine Community? A future for Weymouth Harbour. 

I write in response to the front page article and linked editorial in last Thursday’s Echo which examined some of the options proposed for the future of the harbour being put forward by Marine Development Manager Julia Long and Business and Planning Performance Manager Roger Hogbin to Weymouth and Portland Council.

• It appears that there was a 10% drop in the numbers of visiting yachts to the harbour last year. This seems to form the basis of the argument for the consideration of some radical plans which include a floating casino, restaurants and “themed attraction?”

• This simplistic analysis fails to appreciate that it is the old world charm of our harbour combined with good local restaurants, pubs and conveniently situated sailing clubs that attracts visiting yachtsmen in the first place. Visitors to Weymouth flock to the harbour side to soak up the atmosphere of an historic working port and enjoy a drink or meal overlooking the marine spectacle.