Loughborough Sailing and Windsurfing Club is perfect if you want to learn to sail, perfect your skills or just enjoy leisurely sailing around the reservoir!! The emphasis of our club is having fun and enjoying being on the water!

Sailing happens every Wednesday, most Saturdays and some Sundays for Social Sailing, Tuition, Team Training and Club Fleet Racing.

SOCIAL SAILING

If you want to learn to sail, perfect your skills or sail with different people we regularly go to the reservoir and get the boats out. We have a fleet of different classes for those who are learning to sail for the first time to those who have a bit more experience. The most important part is its fun everyone joins in together; you will come back with a new story every time!

TEAM RACING

The main stay of the university competitions, Team Racing is 3 vs 3 race gaining points for your team depending on where you finish. Very exciting, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to sail the other team out of the race using the rules in your favour!! Team racing is usually staged in a round robin format with several flights of boats. Once the round robin is completed, it is normal for leagues to then be created, thus allowing teams of similar ability to race against each other. These leagues will then lead to finals with the best teams racing each other to be crowned the overall winner!

Nearly every university sailing team has a weekend event (us being no exception!)This involves going away to different uni for a weekend, where you will enjoy a couple of fantastic days sailing against other university teams and there are always some really good socials organised to join in with too! (Sailing is the best hang over cure!)

We compete in the BUCS Team Racing Qualifiers in February. This year we are looking to enter a strong team and get further than ever before! This inter university event involves local universities battle through the regional qualifiers to get directly to the finals or fight it out in the playoffs for the last places for the finals. Last year (10/11) we made it to the playoffs, this year we are looking to strengthen the team and get even further.

FLEET RACING

There is an opportunity to do this every Sunday at our home club against other members. The idea is to race your boat around a course for a number of laps then dependent on the boat you are in they work out where you have come in the race!

Another BUCS competition held on the first weekend in November, the fleet racing championships. It took place at the Queen Mary Reservoir last year instead of the typical Weymouth who knows where it will be this year??

The boats are split into several racing fleets, Laser, Laser II, Firefly and Handicap. We aim to take as many boats as we can! Five races take place over the two days with good banter throughout the day following into the evening!

MATCH RACING

During the year there is a match racing tournament, 2 large keel boats duel, to get first place is all that matters! With the weight limit making it a bit more interesting one year we sent four large people and were 5kgs off the limit having starved ourselves the previous day (no pain no gain!) Fantastic fun and definitely worth going if you get the chance!

YACHTING

For those who love yachting, there is a chance to compete in some of Sunsails finest bath tubs in the Solent; for pride, honour, bragging rights, BUCS points and to be back in the warm first!  Battled over Easter, against some of the finest uni’s in the country! An amazing week if you get the opportunity to go!  A little warning…. SERIOUS SAILING INVOLVED.

SOUTHPORT 24HR

The Southport event is a 24 hour race nonstop through the night in our Enterprise. The Ent takes a crew of two and we changeover every couple of hours so we can have a rest and get some sleep. We arrive on Friday to pitch our tents and then into the marquee for the party. The race starts at midday on Saturday and we leave Sunday afternoon.

A fantastic excuse for meeting up with old and new members just before the new year kicks off! An event not to be missed!