Salcombe Yacht Club Regatta toasts new sponsors

Salcombe Gin SYC Regatta © exp!osure

Salcombe Yacht Club has revealed new sponsors for its annual Regatta Week, now in its 121st year, which will this year be named the Salcombe Gin SYC Regatta.

A partnership has been agreed with Salcombe Distilling Company who make the award-winning Salcombe Gin in a purpose-built distillery, on the former site of a boat repair workshop for the Island Cruising Club.

The sponsorship deal will help to raise the profile of the Regatta and add to the atmosphere in the town during Regatta Week, Sunday 13th - Friday 18th August 2017. There will be vibrant social events at the Yacht Club all week alongside the competitive daily races around the stunning Salcombe Estuary. Dinghy fleets being raced include Fast and Asymmetric Handicap, Medium Handicap, Lasers, Junior Handicap, National Twelves, Salcombe Yawls, Fireflys, Solos and Lasers. University students qualify for free entry and compete for the Jack Wills University Cup.

The Salcombe to Kingsbridge Estuary offers some of the most beautiful and safe dinghy sailing in the United Kingdom and a spectacular racing challenge.

Commenting on the new partnership, Howard Davies, co-founder of Salcombe Gin, says: "We are thrilled to sponsor the Salcombe Yacht Club Regatta this year. Sailing is a great passion of ours and therefore a perfect fit for our brand. We are looking forward to welcoming sailors and gin lovers to the Regatta events at the Yacht Club and our Island Street bar where we will be offering special discounts for competitors during the week and of course the opportunity to sample a 'Salcombe and tonic' or one of our popular gin cocktails."

On behalf of Salcombe Yacht Club, Commodore Martin Smout says: "Salcombe Gin is the ideal partner for our Regatta this August. Performance and integrity, with a meticulous attention to detail are key values in sailing, all attributes Salcombe Distilling Co. enjoys. With the new Gin School, distillery and bar, Salcombe Gin provides another draw to the town which has a real buzz during Regatta week and throughout the sailing season."

The social side of Regatta Week will enthusiastically embrace the new partnership with Salcombe Gin shown through a gin and cocktail bar on the Yacht Club terrace all week and a lively gin and jazz event on the Thursday evening. Special events and benefits are being organised for competitors and there will also be prizes of Salcombe Gin and engraved glasses for class winners.

Salcombe Distilling Company launched in July 2016 and has already taken Gold in the World Drinks Awards for its 'Start Point' gin. It was founded by Howard Davies and Angus Lugsdin who met in the 1990s teaching sailing at the Island Cruising Club. Fast forward a decade or two and over a gin and tonic they hit on the idea of making gin, inspired by a little local history...

During the 19th century, locally built, copper-bottomed boats would sail the world bringing back oranges from the Azores and Spain, lemons from Sicily and Italy, pineapples and pomelos from the Bahamas and spices from Barbados, Sri Lanka and beyond. Crewed mainly by Salcombe men, the ships were the fastest cargo-carrying vessels in the country and responsible for 80 per cent of England's citrus imports.

Salcombe Gin is made with some of the very same fruits including grapefruits, lemons and limes. Ten other botanicals used include the finest Macedonian juniper, English coriander seeds and Dartmoor water.

For further information about Salcombe Yacht Club and the Salcombe Gin SYC Regatta visit www.salcombeyc.org.uk.