Membership

We are a sailing club

Not just a racing club. We offer a warm welcome to those new to sailing who just want to learn enough to potter around on a Saturday morning, right through to serious racers who expect a high standard of race management. Alongside, we have an active and growing windsurfer membership.

We are a friendly club

Nothing gives us greater pleasure than new members telling us how welcoming they find us. We run Taster Mornings in the summer for prospective new members to look around the club, meet some of our regular members and have a taster sail. We have a New Member Co-ordinator dedicated to meeting the needs of those who are recently joined and we have a special day for new members to get together. For members who join without having purchased a boat, we have single and double-handed boats for hire at very reasonable rates.

We are a training club

We are an RYA Accredited Training Centre with a regular programme of RYA level 1 and 2 training courses taught be our own instructors. We have national award-winning recognition for the quality of our youth training. We hold training for all classes as well as club-wide training. In the last year we have made extensive use of our new video facilities for coaching.

After completing your RYA level 2 training, members are able to take advantage of our club's boat hire facilities.  Several classes of boat are available for hire, including single handers, double handers for both novices and experienced racers.  More details are available here.

We are a family club

Sailing is a sport that is not dependent on athletic stamina, and we have regular sailors from age 8 years through to competitive 70 year olds. Our Cadet Squadron offers locally unparalleled opportunities for children and young people to learn and enjoy sailing in a safe, sociable and fun environment. We have a strong track record of producing very capable and competitive young sailors.

We are a social club

Our outstanding purpose-built clubhouse looks out over the lake and is the ideal spot to while away an afternoon sitting, chatting, and watching the more active members of the family exert themselves. Even better, is to do all that on the patio ... when the sun shines. Our galley is open on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the season and is renowned for good food and good value. We vary our social events which have recently featured a barn dance to present our annual prizes, a summer weekend regatta with a combination of serious and silly events, a Scalextric evening, some visiting speakers, and even a quiz or two.

We have a lot of water!

Ours is the biggest, and deepest lake in the area allowing us to cope with boats as big as the Flying Fifteen and as fast as the RS400. It is an attractively landscaped setting, but does not suffer from islands or tree banks and all the associated problems of difficult ‘flukey’ conditions that these create.

We are serious about racing

We offer more races per week than any other local club. We race all year round, and during the main season we have races on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays and Thursday evenings. We ring the changes with class, handicap, trophy days and fun personal handicap series. Our current fleets are Albacores, Asymmetrics, Cadets, Flying Fifteens, Lasers, Solos, and General Handicap. Our strong reputation for race management and excellent facilities makes us an attractive venue for open events. We are proud to host the Albacore Inland Championships, and one of the largest club open meetings for Cadets with, typically, half the UK Nationals fleet attending.

We have no problems with weed

Due to the extensive work and scientific approach by club members, we have achieved virtually weed-free sailing over the last 3 years. Not many inland clubs can claim this, and we aim to continue to be at the forefront of the fight against weed while maintaining the lake as a healthy and balanced ecosystem for wildlife.

We are a self-sufficient club

The club is run entirely by members for members. We have recently managed to reduce the number of duties to three half-days per year, and feedback from members is that helping out enhances the experience of membership, as well as sensibly keeping down costs.

We are committed to continuously improving facilities

We are proud of our excellent facilities, but we have a policy of continuous improvement. This year, for example, has seen us investing in cutting-edge developments in automated race management systems, in a new windsurfer store, with further development plans in the pipeline.