100 years of Hayling Island Sailing Club

100 Years of HISC © HISC

100 Years of HISC © HISC

100 Years of HISC © HISC

Hayling Island Sailing Club reached a substantial milestone in its history last weekend marking 100 years of history. The club put on an array of events both on and off the water to celebrate this wonderful occasion.

HISC is a unique sailing club due to its location at the entrance of Chichester Harbour, situated on natural sandy spit it enjoys all the best any watersports holiday venue in the Mediterranean can offer, just with slightly less chance of sunburn! The club has a rich sailing history in dinghy racing and cruiser racing but it's longevity and success with membership is also due to the way it has diversified over the years and now has a growing membership of watersports enthusiasts using the club for Windsurfing, Paddleboarding, Wingfoiling and Windsurf-foiling. At a time when membership of sailing clubs is declining the future for HISC looks bright too, with thriving fleets of youth classes which culminated in 240 of our youngest members attending the recent Youth Race Week organised by parents and volunteers.

To recognise and reflect on the rich history of the club some of our most creative members came together four years ago to begin a monumental effort to create a flag for each of the clubs 100 years. The objective of the 'Centenary Flag Project' was to involve as many members as possible in creating a unique decoration for the Club during its Centenary Year.

Regular workshops started in early 2017. The HISC Archive Team provided the subjects and events to be depicted for each year of the Club and where possible relevant photographs. Eighty eight willing and enthusiastic members took up the challenge to design and make the 101 flags. They were free to design their own panel and decide what technique they wanted to use. Every effort was made to ensure historic accuracy. A wide variety of techniques were used including appliqué, embroidery, needlepoint, silk, oil and acrylic painting, marquetry and even felting and metal work! Despite during lockdowns, where we could no longer hold workshops, the flags were all finished by the autumn of 2020 and ready to be hung in the Club's dining room at the start of Club's centenary celebrations. This amazing display shows the wonderfully creative and imaginative talents of Club's members and will become a unique part of the Club's archives.

Alongside this display of creativity the club laid on a weekend of celebrations onshore for all ages including an Opening ceremony with fireworks on the Friday, a Gala Dinner with Live music from DJ Mark Covell on Saturday evening and to round off the celebrations, Afternoon tea with a cake cutting ceremony on the Sunday.

On the water activities were also highly attended and included Cruiser treasure hunts, SUP, Kayak, Windsurf and Fun Dinghy events, Kids beach games and Centenary races including a pursuit race around Chichester Harbour where dinghies of many different fleets could all race together. The weekend was a huge success and will be remembered by all who attended. Huge thanks to the amazing volunteers and contributors who helped mark this wonderful occasion. Here's to the next 100!