About Seafarers Sailing Club
The Seafarers Sailing Club is a small, friendly club formed to encourage
the sport of dinghy sailing by the promotion of racing, cruising and
training. The first Commodore of the Sailing Club recently wrote a letter to to the club explaining how
the club came to be founded. This letter can be read here.
The clubhouse is situated on the Solent between Hill Head and Lee-on-Solent overlooking the Isle of Wight. The Club has approximately 130 paying members. As the majority have "family" membership, the number of people entitled to use our facilities is over 200. There are over 100 boat spaces in the compound which is usually just sufficient to meet members' demands. Boats are removed from the compound during the winter.
The Club holds races every Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning during the sailing season which runs from the beginning of April to the middle of November. The number of boats taking part can be as few as 5 or as many as 30. During the summer, when nights are longer, there are also races on Thursday evenings. The sailing programme includes about a dozen cruises each year. The destination is often to the Isle of Wight to one of the several pubs near the shoreline. One of the cruises involves an overnight camp. This is very popular with Cadet members. In addition to the programmed cruises there is often a midweek cruise for our retired or non-working members.
A duty crew comprising a duty race officer, helm and crew for the rescue boat plus two or three other members, runs each race. It is an important responsibility of Club membership that, four or five times each year, each member must attend as part of a duty crew. The only other significant responsibility concerns payment of fees (see Membership page).
The Club is an RYA Training Centre. Each season we run a Basic Skills course for beginners plus a more advanced course to enable our more experienced members to extend their skills and qualifications. The Club also trains its own rescue boat helms. The Basic Skills course consists of a number of theory sessions on midweek evenings during April and May. The practical element of the course takes place during the school mid-term break at the end of May. The Club owns a few dinghies which can be used by members with suitable RYA qualifications.
As boat space is at a premium, members are not allowed to berth multi-hulls or any dinghy with an overall length greater than 5 metres in the compound. Despite this a wide variety of traditional and modern designs are sailed including Mirror, Topper, Laser (4.7 to 2000), Wayfarer, ISO and Buzz. At present, the most prolific class is the Solo.
The Club does not have a "social-only" membership category. Nevertheless we have a busy social program with activities being held about once a month. Past events include formal dinners, barbecues, skittle evenings, American suppers, ploughman'slunches and an annual dinner dance. The clubhouse and bar are open on Tuesday evenings throughout the year and at lunchtime on the first Sunday of each month. The Club also competes with other local sailing clubs in darts and snooker competitions.