Spirit of the Sea, Weymouth and Portland’s Maritime Festival, took place from 5^th to 13^th July, with the Henri-Lloyd Regatta forming part of the last four days.  Low-key at first, due to the terrible weather, it built up to quite a spectacle by the last weekend.  Those of you that visited the club will have seen the throngs of people enjoying the Seafood Festival on our side of the harbour, the music in Hope Square and the MarinEx trade exhibition on Customs House Quay.  Some other highlights were the colourful Moving Tides children’s procession on Saturday, the music on the beach from local bands each evening and the Thunder Cats Boat Ballet in Newton’s Cove. The idea is to hold Spirit each year and next year’s event should be even bigger and better. 

Put the date in your diary, 9 to 12 July 2009, with the regatta again taking place over the last four days.

http://www.spiritofthesea.org.uk 

Peter Hopford 

Weymouth Harbour was filled with boats over the Bank Holiday weekend.  The pontoons outside the RDYC were 12 boats deep with spectacular fast racing craft from The Royal Southampton Yacht Club who held their two leg race to Weymouth and back.  Crews enjoyed a meal at WSC on Saturday evening.  The pontoon opposite WSC was full of boats from Poole taking part in a PYRA Pursuit Race to Weymouth.  There were upwards of 100 racing yachts in total.

Weymouth Clubs have a full racing programme with the Saturday 1 series for all classes and the Vice Commodore's Cup - an All in Handicap Average Lap Race - on Bank Holiday Monday.

Richard and Pat Groves have made a generous donation to the YOB's (Youths on Boats).  Friends and relatives who attended their Golden wedding anniversay party clubbed together to make a donation of £300. 

The YOB's will be using the money to purchase a data projector with the money. The projector will be a useful tool in the cadet winter programme and will also be available for Club use.

Thank you very much Richard.

The WSC Handbook signals the start of a new season and club members wait for it with anticipation.  With 700 members currently on the register, sending out the Handbooks is no easy task so a 'stuffing party' of volunteers meet up to sort out the paperwork.  Many hands .... as they say.

Mike and Penny Fenwick in Squib Ghost Rider are on the 2008 cover photographed during their winning trip to the Squib National Championships in Abersoch.  Mike was also responsible for updating the Handbook in his role as Sailing Secretary.  Many thanks also to Chris Olding for recruiting sufficient advertising to cover the cost of printing and mailing and to Lyn Atkins for compiling the Spring Newsletter. 

The Winter Social Programme is now in full swing.  If you have lost your copy download it from the links below.

Many thanks to Sue Ives and Josie Dadds for their work compiling the winter programme and to Lyn Atkins to putting the Newsletter together.

Autumn Newsletter 2007 Winter Programme 1 Winter Programme 2

The Prizegiving Dinner Dance at the Riviera Hotel got the 'thumbs up' from members who enjoyed dancing the night away at the new venue.  The Riviera has been booked again for next year - even more reason to get try to win a trophy in 2008.