Hayling Ferry Sailing Club is a small, friendly club, superbly located at the western tip of Hayling Island. From our well equipped club house, our fleet of catamarans and monohulls enjoys some of the best sailing in the Solent and the south coast of England.
New members are always welcome whether you own a boat or not.
David Lloyd, winner of 31 national Dart 18 titles in 6 different countries, has very kindly offered to come and give us a few pointers on how to sail our Darts (and other boats) better. In addition to Dart 18s, he's competed in the F18 and Tornado Worlds and also sailed Spitfires, Dart 15s and keelboats to name a few. David will be going over how to set your boat up for different conditions, going through different manoeuvres, and, if conditions permit, offering advice on the water. All welcome!
Rumour has it that one of our members is the proud new owner of a foiling A Class. Possibly the first A Class at the club and definitely the first foiling boat.
With a low RYA PN of 684 it should be just marginally slower than an F18. No pressure then Ken :-)
Hayling Ferry Sailing Club will be at the Virtual RYA Dinghy Show this year. Come and find us in the Exhibition Halls and WIN a 1/2 day session on one of the club SL 16 catamarans!
The show runs from 10am until 5pm on Saturday 27th to Sunday 28th February. Registration for the show is free at https://ryadinghyshow.vfairs.com/en/registration.
Following a vote at last year's AGM, the club has bought 2 stand-up paddle boards for use by club members. Thanks to Matt W for doing the legwork and getting us a great deal on 2 Fanatic 10'4" boards designed for all-round use. Details will be out in plenty of time for next season.
HFSC are fortunate to count 2 Surrey Search and Rescue (SURSAR) volunteers as club members (Matt W and Chris G) who have both been active on the support boat during our short sailing season this year. To help with fund-raising, SURSAR have teamed up with The Crafty Brewing Co to produce a classic IPA beer. Every bottle sold includes a donation to their invaluable efforts! If you'd like to support this worthy cause you can buy direct from The Crafty Brewing Co website.
For the last scheduled race of the season, the forecast was just the right side of too windy to avoid being cancelled. With the tide out, a course was agreed of 2 laps around the Fairway, Outer passage, Inner passage, Fairway and NW Sinah green channel buoy with an option to shorten to 1 lap if needed.
With a north westerly F4-5 forecast and lovely blue skies and flat seas for the HFSC penultimate trophy race of the season, the decision was made to run the 3 Forts Race – a simple course with big marks that everyone can see!
For the 3rd race of the season the forecast NNE F5/6 breeze put some off and left just 2 Dart 18s prepared to race.
A simple short course was agreed:
HFSC’s second event of the season was a pursuit race. Unlike a normal elapsed time race where all the boats start together and finish at different times, a pursuit race is the other way round – the duration of the race is fixed (in this case 2 hours), and the boats start at different times depending on their relative handicaps (so the slowest boat starts first). The order of the boats on the water at the 2 hour mark decides their race finish positions.
Following the 29th March lockdown easing, the RYA have confirmed that sailing clubs can reopen for both organised and informal sailing. From 12th April the club house can be accessed only to use changing rooms and toilets so race briefings should be outside. No camping at the club for now but technically self-contained overnight stays (i.e. motorhomes with facilities) are permitted. The Rule of 6/2 households applies outside of any organised activity at the club including socialising before and after a race.
