About Seafarers Sailing Club
The Seafarers Sailing Club is a small, friendly club formed in 1961 to encourage
the sport of dinghy sailing by the promotion of racing, cruising and training.
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.
The Club is committed to providing "affordable" access to sailing; membership fees are usually the lowest in the area. This is achieved through an ethos of self-help. The Club occupied its present site in 1974. During 1975 a small, temporary clubhouse was built. Construction was almost totally DIY to keep the cost down. Significant rebuilds occurred in 1984, 1990, 2000 and 2008. In all of these, members carrying out most of the work - skilled and un-skilled – helped keep costs to a minimum. The Club has no employees; members carry out all routine maintenance of buildings, boats and the tractor.
The Club holds races every Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning during the sailing season which runs from the beginning of April to the end of October. 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 currently operates two Avon rigid inflatables with outboard motors as safety boats. The Club owns four dinghies that can be used by suitably qualified members; a Wayfarer, an RS Vision, a Topaz and a Topper. Another major asset is the Siromer tractor that was purchased in 2005. The tractor, driven by trained members, is used to assist with the launch and recovery of boats, particularly the safety boat. Training expenses are kept to a minimum by making full use of experienced members, and their boats, as an integral part of our training programme.
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 crews. The Basic Skills course consists of a number of theory sessions on midweek evenings during April and May. Most of the practical element of the course takes place during the school mid-term break at the end of May.
The Club does not have a "social-only" membership category. Nevertheless we have a busy social programme with activities being held about once a month. Past events include formal dinners, barbecues, skittle evenings, American suppers, and ploughman’s lunches. 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.
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 classes are the Solo, the Topaz and the Laser.