Fabulous Fireflys - 79th Tideway supported Nationals already fully booked
by Jason Aldous 27 Mar 2025 11:27 GMT
Firefly sailing © Pauline Rook
The season has already begun with a fabulous outing to Grafham Water for the Ovington Inlands for round one of the Craftinsure supported Vines traveller series. Next up we head to Parkstone Yacht Club over the Easter weekend.
Foremost in our news, we are delighted introduce our headline sponsor for the next two years, Tideway Wealth Management.
No slouch in the field of supporting sailing in the UK, Tideway founder, James Baxter has this to say:
Tideway is proud and pleased to support Sailing in the UK through our support of the Andrew Simpson Foundation and ILCA and J70 class associations. Adding the Firefly class gives me great personal satisfaction having spent many happy hours championship racing and team racing in a Firefly even if it was 40 plus years ago. It seems the attractions of Firefly sailing - keen competition, affordable sailing and great social activities - have helped it stand the test of time and we hope you have some great events this year.
The inclusion of The National Firefly Association in the Tideway stable shows the strength of Firefly sailing around the UK: with our 80th year celebrations coming next year we have a lot to shout about - Fireflys are forever and for everyone!
Financial support from Tideway hugely assists us to raise the profile of our class as a boat with an incredible past and a fabulous future. Through investment in creating content for Social media, a webmaster, event photography and subsidised entertainment, we aim to increase the experience for all Firefly sailors. In addition to Tideway we are hugely grateful for the continued support of our equipment suppliers who assist with prizes year on year - a massive thanks to Marlow, Selden, Hyde Sails, Sailboat trailers, Craftinsure and Ovington.
Did we mention our 80th Birthday... The 2026 Tideway National Championship will be in Abersoch during August and we want the year to be a festival of sailing. There are plenty of boats to beg, borrow or buy! The new Ovington Firefly has had a bit of thwart revamp to give the crews more room and tidy the cockpit... treat yourself, we're only 80 once!
Speaking of Nationals... we're delighted and saddened to say that the entry for the 2025 Tideway National Championship at Lyme Regis are fully booked at this time with 74 entries - we have a waiting list. The event promises to be a spectacularly competitive and fun week of sailing.
Participation at our Nationals is increasing year on year, with this being the largest in 20 years. We're planning on the 80th being no exception! Our stats for this year's competitors are impressive and speak for themselves with 48% female participation, 56% under 40 for all genders and a strong 19% of entries are being helmed by females.
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Check out our 2025 Sailing calendar 2025 calendar.
We have a fantastic season ahead of us - grab yourself a boat and come join the Swarm!