Dinghies

It is a real privilege sailing on the Severn Estuary, an area of outstanding natural beauty, amazing sunsets, extreme tides and fantastic sailing.

The Fleet

Our dinghy fleet is highly eclectic, from Day Boats to Catamarans, Lasers to Flying Fifteens, Buzzes, Aeros, RS200s and many more. As a result, almost all of the racing is off Portsmouth handicaps and we also use personal handicaps for our Pursuit Series, so it is not just the top sailors who have a chance of silverware.

Tides

The tides define the sailing at Thornbury, with sailing restricted to an hour and a half either side of high water. Whilst this makes arranging the calendar a challenge, it ensures that no 2 races are the same, even races sailed on the same day can be completely different as they are raced on an incoming and an outgoing tide. It is certainly challenging, but it is highly rewarding and rarely dull.

Racing

We run Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Series, racing off Portsmouth handicaps. There is a Midweek Pursuit that runs over the Spring and Summer, taking advantage of the longer evenings for some great racing off personal handicaps in addition to the boat handicaps, which are adjusted as the series plays out. This has proved very popular in recent years, as it opens up great opportunities for slower boats and less experienced sailors to get in the thick of the action. Click here for more.

Free Sailing

Free Sailing, a recent innovation, is also proving popular, especially with new members and less experienced sailors. Each session is planned on the day by the race officer and depends on who is there and what they want to do. It offers a great chance to gain time and experience on the water, perhaps with some race training or some informal sail training focusing on a particular skill, under the watchful eyes of the RIB crews who provide full safety cover.

The club also runs some events that are open to visitors, there is a Laser Open every year and other class events are run when we can. Visitors are very welcome at our Regatta, where we have fleet events as part of the programme.

Last updated 15:19 on 8 March 2024