Thanks for all the info guys.

Hmmmm looks like handicap racing for me then .

I would recommend Roadford, less than 30 miles from Plymouth with a varied fleet on a 750 acre lake. Buzzes, Finns, I14's and a variety of others giving good racing throughout the year.

Crews currently required for 505, Fliying Fifteen and FD. 

but no big fleets to race in anywhere near plymouth? just a few boats of each class? are there no clubs on the coast with good racing (either class or handicap)?

We usually muster a lot more than ten boats,and manage to do so all throughout the year.Starcross is a magnificent club which has been around a long time, with a large membership and a good range of classes. But from my own point of view the sailing time is limited by the tides, which is something we do not have to worry about.

By comparison we are a new club which is developing and attracting new members and slowly developing. 

We have a quite a few  members from Plymouth and some from a lot further afield, so if it is criminal to sail in the surroundings that we have, then I and quite a few others here are the  hardened criminals that will continue to do so.   

Everything seems so far away and petrol ain't cheap these days! 

I can't belive that somewhere like Plymouth doesn't have an established fleet of anything... Pretty poor effort really.

It seems like there is a lot of yacht racing down there but that doesn't interest me that much. I've been crewing on sportsboats for the last year or two but I really want to get back into helming and dinghies again.

I am flabbergasted.....people actual get in their cars and drive away from the sea which can be launched into in any state of tide and head to a lake or a sea area where the tide is a factor....what has the world come to and what are the Plymouth clubs doing???

ps. why head inland to sail in winter, the water is colder for a start!

Sailed in Plymouth for most of my life but now sail at Roadford for several reasons.

1 No fleet racing (to heavy for B14) sail a Finn none in Plymouth.Chance to race against 4 others at Roadford.

2 Cost of Parking a boat plus parking charges for cars

3 Lack of security I've had one boat vandalised and equipment stolen on    numerous occasions both from the boats and the changing rooms in most Plymouth clubs.

4 No Crews all sailing lead mines hence Finn after years of sailing two man trapeze boats.

Reason for big yacht fleet thats were all the dinghy sailors went when dinghies became as expensive as good quality secondhand yachts.

5 Little varity in courses sailed

6 Being subject to the antics of speed boats, jet skis and the rest of the  gin palace mob. Who do not respect other boat users both on and off the water. Being free of Ship movements and the sailing areas being closed when an "Event " takes place.

Roadford is also very well controlled very friendly, alot cheaper than Plymouth by a very long way. I have been a member for 5 years and have never had anything stolen or vandalised. Parking is free and its true that we do not have a posh clubhouse hanging around  are necks which require high joining fee's and annual memberships to pay for the maintainance, rates, rent etc.

I have benefited from sailing inshore in that my awareness of shifts and tactical sailing is better which put with the sea skills of tidal awareness boat speed etc. has made me a far better sailor all round.

Al Finn 424, FD365 on loan, Shark41 etc.

I have recently started sailing at Roadford, and it is a very friendly club and my girlfriend and I have been made very welcombe. It is a good sized piece of water and it takes us between 45 min to an hour to drive from Plymouth, which is about the same time that it would take to get to Salcombe, but Salcombe Yacht Club was more expensive. Although I have worked in Salcombe for the past 5 years as an instructor and love sailing there I've never realy enjoyed racing there, ( I'm too young for a Solo, and we used to have a red N12 but we wanted a spinnaker )

I would love to sail in dinghies Plymouth but Roadford is a great place to sail and the club is one the most wecombing that that been to. Well worth a look when deciding where to sail. If people would like to car share from Plymouth we would be happy to.     

Hi all,

I too live in Plymouth and cannot comprehend the lack of any dinghy racing, I have sailed here for several years and in many of the popular locations around Europe and consider Plymouth (on a good day) as one of the best. I also struggle with driving the 45mins to Roadford Lake every Sunday which I have been doing for the last four years, however as it has been said we have a fantasticly friendly little club, with few but competitive sailors in their fleets, we have a great relationship with the Watersports centre who willingly provide superb safety cover for very minor costs compared to other clubs. We can also sail the faster boats on the lake, where you would struggle at Saltash, Starcross, Salcombe etc, allbeit very frustrating at times not being able to use 34m of kite due to the course!

Anyway...I know there are lots of boats over at MBC who I would love to race against and if I could get enough interest from these and all the other sailors in the area I would be more than happy to push the organisation of a race series in Plymouth. Depending on interest we could run windward leeward courses only or a mix if there were lots of non assymetrics. The next step would have to be to get one of the large Yacht racing clubs to 'host' the racing (RWYC im thinking) to provide comm boat etc, but again I would happily provide my moddest OOD abilities until we can get a rota or otherwise set up? We would also need to decide whether weekend or evenings etc.

So rather than us all thinking what a great shame it is that there is no racing in Plymouth, shall we do something about it (possibly starting something big)?.. or am I alone in this?

Any feedback appreciated!!

Hi guys

There is a huge void in plymouth where an active dinghy fraternity once existed.

I've sailed in Plymouth for about 22 years now and watched the slow ebb of interest.

The problem is multifactorial and has certain factors that are unique to Plymouth and also some that reflect the national state of sailing within the UK.

Plymouth problems

1. Too many sailing clubs.

Each club has a small but relatively active dinghy membership = too little talent spread too thinly. No mentoring. Each wants a slice of the action and are reluctant to co operate.

2. The clubs are spread around the city.

We have approx 4 dinghy sailing clubs on the Tamar and 4 clubs on the Plym, each have their own race evening and cater for a wide range of dinghies and classes. Sounds ideal? unfortunately you will find that there will be only be about max 4 boats out in a particular class typically lasers, ents etc.

3. The Mount Batten sailing centre.  It's massively overpriced for the economy of West Devon.The centre is a profit making organisation, and provides a centre for most waterbased activities and organisations. It is clean tidy and has a bar most sailing clubs would die for. However it is too expensive to attract the casual dinghy racer, and the members it does have, it screws every penny out of them in an attempt to make a profit.

for example

Non affliate family member £348 Pa. + dinghy storage fee on top of this £175 -£247 or £300 for a cat.

For this sum it provides a warm shower and somewhere to park your car and boat. The centre uses a public slipway, so we are invaded by the birmingham diving fraternity, and share it with the teaching sailing boats based at the centre. All these visitors only pay £5.00 to use the shower.

So launching and recovery can be a complete 'mare as there can  be 2 x big diving ribs and up to 10 picos being launched / recovered on the slipway at one time.

It doesn't organise or hold any racing. For this you have to join another sailing club in Plymouth ( an extra expense, and the clubs are based across the other side of Plym river, which will take you 30 mins to get there, so you don't feel inclined to visit your sailing club)  This is typically Mayflower SC - which only provides races 1x a month between april - sept. Or the  RPCYC - Wednesday eves, for med handicap, and doesn't set courses futher south than Drakes island. So no good for fast assymetrics, as the wind is fickle too shifty and very frustrating when we could have 2 miles of upwind/ downwind sailing. The racing also starts at 18:40 which is too early for us.

I organised an open meeting at plymouth a few weeks ago and MSC provided excellent windward /leeward racing outside the breakwater. The visitors from across the country thought that the racing and sailing was brilliant, but the MSC clubhouse derelict, smelly and a disgrace. The fleet was split between the MSC and Mt Batten sites providing a logistical difficulties and loss of the usual B14 open meeting fun and games.

In spite of these difficulties there are signs that interest in dinghy sailing is increasing. I've been trying to grow a group of assymetric dinghies based at Mt Batten. We now have 5 B14's, 3 of which are very active, we also have the student 49ers which come and go, 3x Rs 800's and some Iso's Rs 700's, musto skiff, I 14  Rs 400's / 200's, L4k's etc.

I'm sorting a group email system so we can organise our own sailing ( + training for B14's ) typically on Wed - thur - friday eves and weekends when available. The Mayflower racing - although only 1x month -  fits well into the national B14 circuit and the Southwest B14 circuit which MarkE from Starcross organises. There are also other local events during the summer within 15miles that we could also try if we felt the need. we won't race with RPCYC as the courses and price of joining don't suit us I feel that quality of racing is much more important that quantity, hence at the moment we sail and practice amongst ourselves rather than get the plymouth B14 fleet to travel. However this may change next year.

If you feel you want to sail, train and race assymetrics in one of the best sailing locations on the south coast, get in touch when you come to Plymouth.

If you want to race tactical orientated but slow dinghies, there are about 22 clubs around the plymouth area where you will be welcomed, not to mention travelling to other clubs around the region. My choice would be Starcross or Roadford.

I just see the future of sailing is going to be based at a very local level, and I'm trying to grow our own B14 / assymetric fleet.  Soon it's going to be just too expensive to travel across the country looking for a decent race.

RodB

So the B14s are looking good down here! What would you guys think of other fast boats joining you? The thread was started looking for a fleet in the area so this maybe the answer, sounds like the biggest around.

But again, the problems are being pointed out, so if we know what they all are then this is a good base to work from as we know exactly what we would be trying to achieve!

As much as you are trying to develop your own fleet would you still be interested racing other similars in Plymouth? And with your organisation looking good perhapse helping? 

However much I enjoy faster boats it is clear that we would need a broad spread of classes for different skill levels to develop a decent sailing club as well as developing fleets within- giving people the choice. And then we can get those kids in Picos enthused about sailing when they see the fancy boats out at the same time, great all round!

The yachts are all based out of different marinas yet have a great turn out each wednesday night and then many crews are willing to drive round to RWYC for the club atmosphere etc, would this be an idea?  If mayflower were to provide the racing we could easily find a more convenient base?

(Sorry..Didn't mean that sailing a fast assymetric at Starcross wasn't possible, just giving the general gripe of not being able to use a big kite on many inland sailing courses in any real breeze, we can only go one way with the kite up and thats where it wants to go...not beam reaching round a headland in an F5!  but makes you a much better sailor! And we too were fine with the kite on Sunday..getting to the start..it was when we got it down that the problems started!  )

If I would id sail at Starcross - I dont for many reasons, the main one being - my god I love Plymouth Sound!! & the other, long daggerboards, shallow water just dont go! Torpoint race and so does Cawsand - so there is racing in the sound, just gota look for it!

& Mount Batten are starting to "race"........... hummmm! But for the ££££ is it worth it?

Plymouth Sound is one of the most fantastic places to sail.  I was always amazed that dingy racing only really got popular with the yacht racers have their Laser series during the winter when the yachts are laid up. 

I don't believe that the turnout is a function of the clubs being spread geographically, as the yacht racers seem to get good numbers all year round with many travelling for a post race drink at RWYC after mooring their boat up the river. 

Could it be that yacht racing is well organised and very accessible?  There are endless series to take part in and great fleets.  Crews can take part for no cost making sailing a very easy access sport.  When I was a student down there, I never considered getting my own dingy - couldn't afford it and got all my sailing through yachts.

Its a shame to travel away from the Sound, but I hear Roadford is a good venue and very welcoming.

It seems to me that the B14's have got it right with the SW Regional series it eases the problem of which club to base at and can only bring more followers in the long run. With fuel costs as they are, this has to be a winner to get competitve fleet racing as local as possible.

Why not open it up to other similar fast classes and push it further ?

I would be happy to come along as I am sure other Roadford members would.

It would obviously need some coordination, and the dificult part of which classes would be eligible/accepted.

The B14 SW Regional Series doesn't actually have any dedicated events- the only B14-only event included in it is also on the National Series circuit. The rest are events with assymetric starts anyway.

So it's really a "paper" series- mainly extracting and compiling the B14 results from the regatta results. The idea is to try and promote and encourage the class specifically in the area.If you want the same sort of thing for a more general assymetric handicap class, why not organise it yourself?

MarkE and Al are right.

We don't want to appear that this is our race series and you can't join in.

The Southwest series is based on highlighted regattas hosted at suitable venues across the Southwest that we are pushing to get a decent B14 turnout, so to get a class start. There is no reason why other boats cannot turn up to race in their own fast fleet handicap start. You can all then watch us as we have a great time, on and off the water. Anyone for Sumo spacehopper challenge - you had to be there.

If you all want to avoid the petrol tax it's time to get your organising thinking caps on and get planning within your own fleets.

RodB

So we bemoan the fact that there is no dinghy racing in the sound but do not want the opportunity to get other classes together but only one fleet.

Maybe I was on the right track originally, stay at an affordable club with sailing available without tidal and launching restrictions and just follow the class open meeting programme and accept the fuel costs. 

FD's needed to join us at Roadford !!!

Brookesy

I don't think I said I didn't want other classes?

If you want to race in Plymouth, the only suitable start is the monthly Sunday Mayflower SC races during the summer, which are open to anyone, turn up pay £5.00 for 2 races back to back. There is also the POP regatta coming up, which I unfortunately can't make, cause it clashes with a B14 TT at Starcross, and the rest of the races are Mon - Wed evenings which I can't get to my boat in time due to work + traffic. 

Apart from that there is nothing suitable for a FD or anyone else in a fast dinghy, which is a huge shame as mentioned previously as the overall sailing conditions favour boats on the faster end of the spectrum. 

Can you broadreach your FD in a force 4-5 with the kite up for 5 to 10 minutes without running out of water at Roadford? On the GPS we're regularly hitting 9 -11 knts upwind and 19 to 21+ knts downwind. Only Plymouth Sound is large enough ( and empty enough ) to enable you to steadily achieve these speeds for minutes at a time.

The Plymouth dinghy scene, has been killed by the overenthusiastic pricing of boat parking and club membership fees.

RodB 

I agree with you wholeheartedly Rod boat parking and membership fees have been instumental in driving away dinghies.

It just seemed an interesting concept to have a SW fast dinghy series but I suppose as you say POP etc may go some way towards that.

Regarding your 10 minute broadreaches I would agree we do not have that much room at Roadford, but I think you underestimate our size all the same,at over 700 acres, Datchet is only a few acres larger, and we do manage to lay some decent courses, certainly our assymetric fleet which includes K6, I14, RS800, laser 5000 Vareo and Buzz seem to stretch themselves. 

I would happily sail from a Plymouth club as I have done in the past but the cost and hassle far outwieghs the advantages at this moment in time, So as I said I will keep my boat where it is and travell when the need takes me. .