The club sailing activities take place within the beautiful Camel Estuary providing a magnificent backdrop for boats of all sizes and with a combination of protected water, sandy beaches, offshore sailing and guaranteed wind (well, most of the time…). You couldn’t want for a more varied or challenging sailing venue. View Gallery
Sailing
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Overview
RSWSC offers sailing activities for boats of all sizes and with a combination of protected water in the estuary and harbour, sandy beaches and offshore sailing. We even have five fusion dinghies for use by members without boats who have the requisite experience. The beautiful Camel Estuary, and spectacular North Cornwall coast, are a magnificent backdrop. You couldn’t wish for a beautiful and challenging sailing venue!
Races are organised for members throughout the sailing season, and we also hosts popular Open Events for a range of dinghy classes including Lasers, Larks, Phantoms, Europes, Day Boats, 505 Nationals, Fireballs.
Please refer to the sailing programme calendar for a list of all sailing activities over the season. All events attract a competitive fleet of both club members and visitors, who are rewarded with Cups and Trophies.
During the season we have three major regattas:
Junior Camel Week, for under 18’s this competitive event is held during the summer school holidays. It is designed to provide children and young people with varied sailing and fun social events throughout the week.
Camel Week, held in August, is the highlight of the sailing year and is one of the largest menagerie regattas outside Cowes Week. The event attracts a cross-section of classes and abilities and with a combination of Pursuit and Scottish system racing and social events through the week. There is something for everyone.
The Peter Keeling Cup for our fleet of Shrimpers, sometimes known as Shrimper Week, is held at the end of June.
The Shrimpers and Dinghies run series of local club races throughout the year, organised on Whatsapp groups. (Contact Shrimpers on 07789 504110 and Dinghies on 07484 259233)
Other local events during the season include the Spring Fling, Summer Series and the rather leisurely Autumn Fest in September.
The club enjoys hosting National Championship and Open Events. Enquiries should be directed to the Vice Commodore Sailing by email at
We look forward to welcoming you very soon.
Upcoming Sailing Events
Jul 22Dinghy & Shrimper Summer Series B2 RSWSC @ 15:15 - 17:45
Jul 22Youth Sailing RSWSC @ 16:30 - 18:30
Jul 23Joint PSC Dinghy & Shrimper Summer Series B3 RSWSC @ 16:30 - 19:00
Jul 24Dinghy & Shrimper Midweek Series RSWSC @ 17:30 - 19:30
Jul 25Family Paddleboard Event RSWSC @ 18:00 - 20:00
Jul 27Dinghy & Shrimper Summer Series B4 RSWSC @ 08:00 - 10:00
Jul 28Dinghy & Shrimper Summer Series B5 RSWSC @ 08:00 - 10:00
Jul 29Dinghy & Shrimper Summer Series B6 RSWSC @ 08:30 - 10:30
Jul 30Ladies Race & Champagne Race RSWSC @ 09:00 - 11:15
Jul 31Estuary Trophy RSWSC @ 09:45 - 11:45
Club Racing & Results
Click below to view results:
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Open Meetings & Results
Click below to view results:
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Dutyman
Club Fusions
Introduction
The Club Fusions are available to all sailing members for recreational sailing and racing. Anyone who sails a Club Fusion is expected to treat it with care, as if it was their own boat.
The Club currently has five Fusions:
- 3 Standard Fusions equipped with jib and mainsail (PY 1300)
- 2 Fusion Pros equipped with jib, battened mainsail, gennaker and shrouds (PY 1275)
Booking Arrangements
All bookings are to be made with the Club Manager.
The Fusions can be booked out by any sailing member of the Club including:
- family members (for themselves or their children)
- single and student members
- guests of members if formally signed in prior to sailing; note that guests may not take part in sail racing unless they have paid the appropriate fee (for example JCW or CW fee).
Provisional Reservations and Booking Confirmation
Fusions can be reserved in advance by making a “Provisional Reservation”, so that members can confidently make holiday arrangements and plan the day on the water. Provisional Reservations will need to be confirmed one week before sailing. A discretionary donation towards the upkeep of the Fusions would be welcome and a donation to the RSWSC Fusion fund of £20 for each 3 hour session is suggested. If any Provisional Reservations are not confirmed then the boats can be released for use by other members. Provisional reservations shall be limited to two boats per family.
After Sailing
All boats when returned to the quay are to be cleaned, using the hose on the quay, mainsail rolled around the mast and returned to the storage tubes, gennakers neatly retracted and jibs folded, bagged and returned to the crew room.
Any breakages or problems must be reported to the Club Manager. The cost for any significant damage shall be addressed separately.
Competence and Supervision of Juniors
All those sailing in the club boats need to be sufficiently competent for the sailing conditions (typically to RYA level 3 or equivalent).
All junior sailors are to supervised by the adult member who made the booking, and everyone is required to comply with the club rules and sailing instructions.
Youth Sailing
In 2024, we set up a new Youth Sailing division to provide regular recreational sailing opportunities for local children. These children, from both St Minver and Wadebridge Schools, have been sponsored via the Camel Estuary Youth Sailing charity (CEYS). They learn to sail to RYA III at the Camel Sailing School, then join us to enhance their skills and have fun on the water. The hope is that some will gain the confidence and experience to race and join in with our scheduled Junior events. For others, it’s an opportunity to enjoy cruising or messing about in boats.
There are 14 Youth Sailing events scheduled for 2025, and the hope is that this will increase to provide more opportunities for young sailors.
We also hold the ever-popular Junior Camel Week at the beginning of August. Young sailors from around the country compete in a variety of dinghy races and enjoy planned social activities throughout the week.
Race Officer Notes
Objective
The purpose of these notes is to enable members who have never run a race to appreciate that it is not mystical or rocket science. Race Officer (RO) duties are fairly straightforward, there is a procedure to follow, and these guidance notes should help to keep it fairly simple. Numerus members have requested this training via the annual blue forms, so this session is geared to potential first time ROs for normal club races organised on Weekends or on Wednesday evenings.
Note that for races with larger fleets, open meetings and regatta weeks etc. experienced race officers shall be selected and so such events are beyond the scope of these notes.
These notes should be self-explanatory and can be presented at training sessions held at the club or read independently. The supporting diagrams are attached for information.
Once a member is familiar with the RO procedure in theory, then practical experience on Andromeda should follow as an assistant RO to see how it is done and gain knowledge and familiarization to be able to run races next year.
Please note that Committee Boat driving and use of Club VHF radios are covered in separate training sessions.
Course setting
Complete setting the course in the Club House an hour before race time
Check wind direction strength and visibility, if gusting more than force 5 cancel the race, also need to be able to clearly see boats on the other side of the estuary.
Don’t use the navigation buoys and avoid setting marks in the navigation channel. For simple life avoid setting courses in adventurous parts of the estuary, so initially don’t cross the ferry transit, or enter into the ski area or use the outer bay area etc.
Check that rescue boats and crews are in preparation for the race, identify the lead rescue boat driver and note which boat for prime radio contact.
Convention encourages the first leg to windward as this would be a beat which tends to spread out the fleet before approaching the first mark. Running and reaching starts are also OK, but can be tricky particularly if down tide in light airs.
The windward mark is best if set to port (to minimise the risk of collision and protests), and use a yellow buoy for the first mark. Use geographical names for marks to indicate the approximate location, letters or numbers are more appropriate when out at sea where there are few landmarks.
Typical small courses are triangle, square, trapezium, figure of eight, sausage & triangle etc. Specify through the line on each lap. Set plenty of laps for a race of about one hours duration. Note that the race can be shortened but not lengthened.
Put out sign-on sheets and pens, course to be written up on the board in the crew room.
Andromeda
Check starter’s kit in the yellow box, it should contain: Time sheets & Pens, several Stopwatches, also take Flags, Binoculars, VHF Radio, and Andromeda ignition key.
Once afloat on Andromeda drop anchor, a good place is at the starboard end of the start line. Then Communicate with the rescue boats over the radio to position the buoys.
Set the start line (flag) across the wind, a good bit of port bias at the pin end is useful as this can help to spread the fleet along the line. No need to fuss excessively over the precise location of the start line or buoys as starting reasonably on time is more important.
When the course is all set give the “on station” signal (hoot and hoist the orange flag)
Race Control
Starting sequence for 2019 onwards (signals at 5, 4, 1, 0 minutes), use several stop watches!
For Wednesday and Week-End races there are normally only one or two starts in the sequence as shown in the sailing programme, handicap fleet followed by shrimpers (or all in one handicap fleet)
5 min Class flag up - one hoot (general Handicap V, Shrimpers W)
4 min Preparatory flag P up – one hoot
1 min Preparatory flag down – Whistle
Start Class Flag down – one hoot, Next class flag up for a repeat 5,4,1,start sequence
During the race record each boat completing a lap and the time taken
Shortened course S flag up – Two hoots normally signalled when the leading boat commences the final beat. Finishing one hoot when each boat crosses the finish line, note the elapsed time.
Individual Recalls X flag up – one hoot, keep flag up for a minute, if the offenders do not return and restart then disqualify.
General Recall First Substitute flag up – two hoots, remove when boats return to starting area – one hoot, then in multiple starts the recalled fleet goes to the back of the queue.
Race postponed hoist Answering Pennant – two hoots, when lowered – one hoot then commence start sequence I min later
Race Abandoned hoist N flag – Three hoots
Race Time record
Complete the result sheet with finished elapsed times, showing number of laps for “Scottish Handicaps”. Note on the timing sheet whether 5 or 10 minutes are to be deducted to reveal the race durations. Hand the time record to the club of entry on the computer.
Finally check that all boats have signed off or are accounted for safely ashore.
Webcam, Weather & Tides
Webcam
You may see the view from the John Bray webcam , which is sited on the Clubhouse balcony, here.
Weather
Weather charts from the nearby weather station on the St Enodoc Golf Club can be found here by kind permission of the webmaster of St Enodoc Golf Club. It includes a view over the estuary from the course so you can see the current weather conditions. You can access the live weather station data from the National Coastwatch Institution lookout at Stepper Point here . A weather forecast for the estuary for the coming week can be found on the Wind Guru site
Tides
A week’s forecast of the tides in Padstow can be found here.
