Fireflys Fired Up for Ronstan Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Firefly Inlands at Chew Valley Lake © Errol Edwards

There is less than 24 hours until the kick off of the 2019 National Firefly Inland Championships (October 5th and 6th), hosted once again by Rutland Sailing Club - home to some legendary Firefly Inlands of the past.

Despite the forecast, around forty boats are expected to battle it out for this weekend's championship honours. For the winner, the honour of lifting one of the legendary Silver Firefly trophies. A tantalising prospect that always draws a number of top Firefly sailors out of hibernation. There are also prizes for top youth, top lady and top institution boat which all promise be hotly contested.

Our generous class partners, leading hardware manufacturer Ronstan, are providing goodies. There's also a cheeky prize from Marlow Ropes, as part of our celebration of 70 years of partnership, for the university that brings the most boats.

Registration will be in the clubhouse from 0900 on Saturday. Entry is only £44 per boat (or £33 for competitors 18 and under and students with a valid student card). This'll give plenty of time to rig before briefing at 10:45 in the wet bar and the warning signal for the first race scheduled for 11:55. The intention is to sail three races back-to-back on both days. The Notice of Race is available here [PDF].

After racing on Saturday the club's new caterers have laid on a pie supper (veggie option available) for the Firefly fleet. Tickets can be purchased at registration. They will also be serving a variety of reasonably priced food and drink on both days. More importantly the bar will be open after sailing on Saturday so the fleet can engage in some Firefly style "rehydration" (shenanigans inevitable).

We might have to tone it down a bit though as apparently the Squibs will also be at Rutland this weekend. No doubt they'll be hoping some of the Firefly's reputation as a class which parties hard, and our success attracting under 35s, will rub off on them. This might be hard though as they're running off to a Turkish restaurant to argue about the colour of their sails!

The Inlands is also to serve as the penultimate stage of the 2019 Vines National Traveller Series. This year has been a successful year for the Vines with over 80 different teams having competed in the series. With only West Oxfordshire still to go - and at least four boats in with a chance of taking home the top prize - many top teams will be looking to consolidate their position or pull ahead at Rutland this weekend.

Don't have a boat yet but want to get involved? There are loads of people looking for crew for this event and for next season, check out the Firefly Association Facebook group for more details.

Firefly Inlands at Chew Valley Lake - photo © Errol Edwards