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Thursday, 02 February 2012 00:00 |
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The RYA Volvo Dinghy Show, in association with Suzuki and Yachts & Yachting, is the only place to be over the weekend of 3-4 March if you’re into dinghy sailing.
 Showcasing all the very best that the dinghy sailing world has to offer, from kit, boats and gear to expert analysis and insight on the Volvo Main Stage and top tips from some of dinghy sailing’s leading experts and coaches in the Coaching Area.
Held at the magnificent Alexandra Palace, London, it is the only show in the world dedicated to dinghy sailing, with over 200 sailing clubs, classes and associations, chandlers and boat builders and a whole host of exhibitors, all under one roof.
Despite being over 60 years old the show continues to attract new visitors, cutting-edge boats and kit and remains fresh and exciting; whilst maintaining all the original charm and spirit of the very first shows.
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Monday, 16 January 2012 00:00 |
IT IS HERE 2012 and the scene is set for the biggest sporting extravaganza the nation has seen.
What’s more, the sport or pastime that excites us most will be centre stage in terms of expectation of London 2012, despite the fact that Weymouth and Portland is 150 miles away from the main Olympic Village. Nothing unusual in that, sailing, and indeed other boating bits of the Olympics are frequently a tad off piste, especially for those for whom the games are a four year excuse to get knowledgeable about sports that only rarely attract crowds vocal enough to raise the roof.
Despite the fuss, most of the sports are of minority interest in themselves. Sailing certainly is. Tennis and soccer in the Olympic format are hardly mainstream. Even athletics causes little more than a murmur unless household names are chasing historic records.
Yet here we are winding up to a huge and expensive party and looking for a legacy on top.
Forgive me if I am shattering dreams for those who have sweated on tickets in the hugely complicated and equally disappointing booking system. Long ago, I proudly had a gold medal won my by girlfriend’s father around my neck for a few minutes. I remained a passionate supporter of the Olympic dream and worked hard to raise cash to help fi nance the British team until Prime Minister John Major gave us the Lottery and in effect made all elite sports people professional.
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Monday, 16 January 2012 00:00 |
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 I WONDER if you can name the only UK based manufacturer of lifejackets? Bonus points for naming the brand.
I never thought a new sponsorship relationship with Ocean Safety who have generously supplied all of the MCA coded safety equipment for my new wheelchair accessible powerboat would lead to me wheeling around a factory floor in Leven, Scotland, on a bitterly cold winter’s day.
REMPLOY, manufacturers of the KRU brand of lifejacket exclusively for Ocean Safety, are no ordinary business, they employ only disabled people. In fact they employ nearly 3,000 disabled people across their 54 factories in the UK.
But it is their two factories in Fyfe, who make the KRU jackets, in particular, the Leven site which makes more than 100,000 lifejackets a year and has nearly 30 employees, some of whom have worked there for up to forty years.
Reasons for my visit were threefold: to have an opportunity as a disabled yachtsman who actually wears and depends upon their product to see the jackets being made from scratch; to talk through some practical issues which could enhance their existing range for disabled life-jacket wearers and wheelchair users; and to coincide and celebrate the UN backed annual International Day of the Disabled last month.
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Thursday, 08 December 2011 09:57 |
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December has brought a proper touch of seasonal chill, and so it should.
We are in the deep end of winter but, although we hardly notice, the nights start drawing, or is it creeping, out again before Christmas. While we might be in a deep freeze by then, some of us begin to throw off the overcoat of seasonally adjusted gloom and begin to look forward to another thrilling boating season ahead.
It might seem over-optimistic but those of us who are depressed by the dark and dank have to have something to put a smile on our faces.
Boating folk are naturally obsessed with the weather and yet we can be as daft as the rest of the population when we express surprise or even comment on the unexpected.
Remember the spring when there was talk of a barbecue summer? That turned out to be a distinctly damp squib. In the summer, the talk was full of dire predictions of an early winter when we would all be locked in by ice and snow.
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Thursday, 08 December 2011 09:47 |
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 While I was preparing to head out to Key West for the 31st annual Super boat World Championships at the beginning of November, Britain’s speed demons were pushing the boundaries at Coniston Records Week in search of the elusive World Speed Records.
From 31 October to 4 November British Powerboat Racers from all over the country descended on Coniston Water in Cumbria for the 41st annual records week, in a bid to set new national and world speed records. Coniston week is the only event in the powerboat racing calendar to bring together all classes of boat.
Entries ranged from tiny hydroplanes, through inshore circuit racers to the largest offshore boats.
Competitors and officials from all over the country assemble annually for what has been a popular event since its inception in 1970. It is regarded as the grand finale to the racing season.
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