Clubs.

I remember sailing on Middle Nene when they still had the gravel bar at the top end of the lake.....

... and a mention here for Middle Nene Sailing Club in Thrapston, Northamptonshire.   Lovely friendly club with a huge grass rigging and launching area and on site camping.  The water area isn't huge, but it's big enough for 6 Javelins to have a lot of fun and has local fleets of Flying Fifteens and RS200s (at least).

Hunts was voted Inland Nationals Venue of the year recently because of the friendly welcome and hospitality and close racing they gave the cvrda and it's well deserved. I'm sorry we have to miss this year's event, but anyone with a pre-1985 boat of a classic class (pre 1965) should go to Hunts for the 2nd and 3rd of May (shameless event plug). If you aren't sure you qualify, contact Nessa (Winging It).

I am a member of Hunts and Grafham.  Hunts is my preferred club for instructing, because the water is safe and rarely gets too breezy for sailing.  I joined Grafham to supposedly race my faster boats and because the size of the water is perfect for training, plus there is supposedly safety cover every day.  My membership is now due and I'm considering not rejoining because the safety cover doesn't live up to expectations when you need it most, and the asymmetric fleet barely ever reaches double figures.

It is the usual story of there being plenty of boats in the boat park, but they are never all on the water at the same time.  They cannot achieve the critical mass which would ensure good turn out every week, and no one seems to have taken any initiative to resolve this.  A shame.

First 505 world qualifiers used to at Grafham there in April and it was always freezing compared to the south coast.
Club was good unless you parked in the wrong place!