You can find details of our family fun event on the Calendar Family Fun Day

Dates for our August courses can be found here School Holiday Training

The Dorchester Sailing Club Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday 27th February 2022 at 2.30 p.m. at the Clubhouse, Abingdon Road Dorchester on Thames with Zoom access for members.

Details and supporting documents will be sent to members by the 6th Feb. If you have not received them contact the secretary.

December the 19th is our eve popular Christmas pudding race. More details soon.

The NSSA is a national event, where young sailors from all across the country gather to race and have a good time. It is a fantastic place to meet all sorts of people from all sorts of places, as well as build on sailing skills. Both newcomers and old timers alike had an amazing time, and it was great to see so many smiling faces throughout the event.

The quality of sailing was incredible, particularly from Toby Broadbent, Sam Morell and newcomer Alex Harder, who impressed us all with his early successes. And of course a special mention must go to our resident superman Dan Batty, who managed to come first in almost all of his races on top of training to be a coach on the side – quite how he managed that I’ll never know. There was a lot of stiff competition as well.  From my position close to the back of the fleet, I had a remarkable view of what was going on, and was very impressed by what I saw. Having said that, my view was often impeded by the water that filled my eyes whenever I had a capsize or death-roll (or ‘speed wobble’ as the RYA wants us to call them now). The weather conditions were trying to say the least, and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we got our fair share of the lovely Plymouth sea water in our systems – sometimes when I lick my lips I can still taste the salt. On the bright side, we didn’t need to buy any special flavour of crisps, we could just wipe them on our wetsuits, add a little vinegar if we were feeling adventurous and they were good to go. I think you gain a special appreciation for the conditions you are sailing in when you open the news app to find that the storm you have just been out in has a name. However, storm Evert could not best us that easily, and only stopped us on the last day.

The storm also made camping rather difficult, but with the help of the fantastic volunteers at the campsite we had nothing to fear, which would have been useful to know when I woke up to the sides of my tent slapping my face. For the other nights, however, camping was great fun, and a fantastic social setting after a long and tiring day of racing. It was lovely to come back after a hard day on the water to be greeted with a delicious hot meal, supplied by Plymstock Inn. A special thanks must also go to Morrisons, who supplied us with breakfast and lunch, giving us an extremely generous discount on the mountain of food and drink that we bought from them.

The NSSA may be described as a sailing event, but it is more than that. It’s a fantastic way to meet new people and have fun. No two events are the same. From eating enough soreen malt loaves to last a lifetime to watching most of the Shrek saga with the Cambridgeshire team, I personally had a blast, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone else did too. I hope to see many familiar faces, as well as some new ones, next year at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire (event happening July 24 – 30). See you in 2022!

Special thanks to our adult helpers who made this all possible:

• Dave and Fiona Broadbent
• Don Francis
• David Bickerton
• Tom and Elouise White

Representing DSC as part of the Oxfordshire team at the National Schools Sailing Association National Regatta in Plymouth, Dan won the prestigious Laser Radial trophy for the second time in a row. There were strong performances from several other DSC sailors as well. Arranging for a team to attend the event this year was a monumental task. The team was a joint project between several local clubs as usual and this year DSCs Fiona and Dave Broadbent took leading roles in making the apparently impossible possible.

On the weekend of the 12th of June, a team of 4 Dorchester sailors – Benjamin Broadbent, Dan Batty, Eleanor Butler, and Toby Broadbent – headed to Hayling Island Sailing Club to take part in the British Keelboat League.

On the first day of sailing, the Race Committee ran 13 races with us competing in 7 of those. We were first on the RS21’s in the morning, which meant we had to rig the boat and sail out of the lanes of moored yachts to the racecourse. So off we sailed upwind to practice a spinnaker run. Unfortunately, briefly after hoisting, we suddenly stopped dead in the water. We had hit a sandbank. Great start. However, as we waited for the rescue boat, we saw another team speed past on their spinnaker test run, only to spot them equally stuck on a different sandbank after we had been freed. The race committee decided to change the sailing area shortly after.

Our first race was very light winds allowing us to take advantage of being lighter than others with a 3^rd place finish. Then it was back in for us, for a 3-race break. In between our first and second races, the racecourse moved several times with changes in wind. The 3-race break turned into a 2-hour lunch, before we finally headed out into race 4 in some stronger wind. In our second race we came 6^th and got the same result in the 3^rd. However, we improved our sailing, finding more downwind speed with a 5^th place finish in race 7. We had one race off and continued to improve across the afternoon.  Our 5^th race, race 9, saw us finish 4^th followed by a strong 3^rd and another 4^th. We were particularly quick on the downwind legs, picking up places due to being lighter and more competent with the 40m² spinnaker, as well as keeping out of trouble. This placed us 10^th on the first day, our best first day finish. Overall, we were really happy with our racing and looking forward to the second day.

The second day started with stronger winds of around seven or eight knots, allowing the first race of the day to start at around 9:45. Due to being on the 3rd race of the day, we were able to watch some of the racing from the changeover boat whilst waiting to swap in. This allowed us to plan our tactics around the tide by seeing where boats gained advantages. However, the second day did not go to plan. The first start went well due to Benjamin’s ability to find gaps in the line. The problem was that all the other boats were pointing higher than us, and simply rolling over the top. Downwind we matched the angles and speed of the other boats but failed to claw back lost ground. After a frustrating three races coming 6th twice and a 4th, we came in for a 5-race break, to replan and rethink. We switched Dan onto the helm for the next set of races, but unfortunately they still followed the same pattern; good start, point lower, come into the windward mark 5th to 6th, close the gap downwind, but fail to gain places before the finish line. Our final set of races gave us two 6^ths and a 5th. 

Overall we came 12th after sailing 16 races, the most of any club – a slightly disappointing finish after the promising first day. However, the team in 11th was not far ahead and this year was a big improvement over previous years, as we were able to keep with the top teams on the upwind legs. Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the event possible, and to the club for supporting us. We hope to be back to compete again next year.

The club is open to members once more!

Please make sure you have renewed your membership before sailing and read our COVID precautions

Details of the expected restriction are on our Covid-19 page

The club is now closed

See our COVID-19 page for details of restrictions