Centenary Weekend at Trent Valley Sailing Club - Postponed
by Mike Haynes 29 Jun 2007 09:48 BST
New Date: 4-5 August 2007
The clubhouse building centenary vintage sailing event has been cancelled due to flooding of the River Trent. The event has attracted a large amount of interest and we would not like competitors making an unnecessary trip. The event is now being run on 4th/5th August.
Trent Valley Sailing Club is celebrating the centenary of their clubhouse building with a weekend of vintage sailing down on the river. Located opposite the Navigation Inn at Trent Lock, the sailing club, which is 121 years old this year, has decided to experience a taste of the past in style with the annual summer ball and a centenary vintage sailing weekend.
The weekend will be a rare opportunity to see vintage boats competing on the river, possibly helmed and crewed by competitors in vintage clothes, and sailing to the rules that were in force a hundred years ago. The weekend will also see the regular visitors from the vintage steam boat enthusiasts along with other steam vehicles taking the opportunity of a period outing to the Trent River.
Nearly a century ago, the intrepid members of one of the earliest inland sailing clubs in Britain decided that they needed a more permanent club house than the floating house boat they had used for more than two decades. That same club house, built on timber pile stilts, is still the home for Trent Valley Sailing Club here in the 21st century.
Commodore John Richardson enthuses “The racing sailing is going to be open to boats of 30 or more years in age and from any class of dinghy. To add some special interest the format of the racing will follow the way it was done years ago and even the handicapping will revert to vintage Portsmouth Yardsticks, just because we can.”
Almost every year, at least once a year, but not often on the same date, the river level of the Trent rises inexorably over the landing stages and takes the shortcut across the flood plain, lapping or thundering under the club house. Yet it stands proud nearly a hundred years later and provides the essence of the character of the Trent Valley Sailing Club for its’ members and is a landmark in its own right for river users of the Midlands.
The opportunity to come along to this fabulous venue and enjoy two days of pleasurable and not-to-be-taken-too-seriously vintage racing sailing, along with fine food, fine company and fine ales and wines, is one not to be missed by anyone who can drum up enough of an excuse to be there.
So please, if you have a vintage dinghy, a vintage steam boat, a vintage costume or a vintage attitude, let us know about it and how you would like to take part. The natural welcome of Trent valley Sailing Club is ready to be extended to you. Visit www.trentvalleysc.org for contact details.