Short name | MSC |
---|---|
Founded | 1894 |
Location | Birmingham |
Website | www |
Midland Sailing Club is an amateur sailing club, based at Birmingham in England. It is situated on Edgbaston Reservoir in the centre of Birmingham. The club was founded in 1894. It is an open sailing club for men, women, adults, and children of all abilities. The club actively tries to improve the diversity of the sailing population by engaging with the local community [1] [2]
Midland Sailing Club is an RYA training centre, [3] and courses for both beginners and more advanced sailors are run at regular intervals. Since 2019 this is done through SailBirmingham, [4] an initiative to increase community engagement through watersports. Apart from regular junior training courses and RYA OnBoard sessions, this also includes Stand up paddleboarding. Members of the club take part both in the regular club races on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday evenings (during the summer months), and also in Open meetings across the country. The club regularly sends teams to the Southport 24 Hour Race.
The club burgee is the Swiss flag. This is a reference to the fact that the club was one of the earliest sailing clubs in England which is landlocked, so that it was jokingly compared to the Swiss navy. A letter from the Swiss embassy exists which allows the club to use the white cross on red background as its burgee.[ citation needed ]
Midland Sailing Club was founded on 11 June 1894. Initially, boats hired from Salters of Oxford were used in racing, before the club in 1896 ordered seven boats from Mr Henry Holford of Gloucester.
There were three branches at the beginning, Edgbaston (sailing on Edgbaston Reservoir), Norton (sailing on "Norton Pool"), and Barnt Green (sailing on Upper Bittell Reservoir). This was partly due to lack of effective transport to sail at a central location at the time. The Edgbaston branch was the only one with a record of uninterrupted racing seasons from its foundation until the outbreak of the First World War.
During the war, racing was suspended, and the boats moored at the Norton branch were used as target practice by miners stationed there, who used to throw rocks into them until they sunk, effectively ending sailing there. As there was also no sailing at Barnt Green (until the foundation of Barnt Green Sailing Club in 1918), Midland Sailing Club decided at the AGM in February of 1919 to drop the "Edgbaston Branch" designation and continue as Midland Sailing Club from then onwards.
Team racing, also known as team sailing, is a popular form of dinghy racing and yacht racing. Just 2 teams compete in a race, each team sailing 2, 3, or 4 boats of the same class. The winning team is decided by combining the results of each team's boats. This differs from an inter-club fleet race where boats from 3 or more clubs compete. Then the results of each club's boats are combined to give their club's overall position.
Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls:
A maritime flag is a flag designated for use on ships, boats, and other watercraft. Naval flags are considered important at sea and the rules and regulations for the flying of flags are strictly enforced. The flag flown is related to the country of registration: so much so that the word "flag" is often used symbolically as a metonym for "country of registration".
The Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a term used for a number of related systems of empirical handicapping used primarily in small sailboat racing.
A yacht club is a sports club specifically related to yachting.
Bolton Sailing Club is an inland sailing club located close to the village of Belmont in Lancashire to the north of Bolton, Greater Manchester, in the West Pennine Moors. The club sails on Belmont Reservoir which provides a large area of open water for sailing. Bolton SC was one of the first Clubs in the UK to sign up to the RYA OnBoard Scheme and is also an RYA Sailability Foundation club. In 2009, Bolton SC was awarded RYA Champion Club status.
The Cross-City Line is a commuter rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for 32 mi (51 km) from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New Street, connecting the suburbs of Birmingham in between. Services are operated by West Midlands Trains.
The Bittell Reservoirs are located in Worcestershire between Barnt Green to the south and the Birmingham district of Longbridge to the north. They consist of the Upper and Lower reservoir. They were built to feed the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, which was finished in the 1790s, however, the reservoir was not completed until 1837. The 'Upper' reservoir is to ensure that the level of the canal is kept sufficiently high, even in times of drought. The 'Lower' reservoir(s) are compensatory reservoirs to ensure that the local area does not become parched in dry times.
Edgbaston Reservoir, originally known as Rotton Park Reservoir and referred to in some early maps as Rock Pool Reservoir, is a canal feeder reservoir in Birmingham, England, maintained by the Canal & River Trust. It is situated close to Birmingham City Centre and is a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation.
The Lark is a two-person, non-trapeze sailing dinghy, designed in 1966 by Michael Jackson. All Larks are made of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). The Lark is a one-design class which leads to very close racing.
Barnt Green railway station serves the village of Barnt Green, North Worcestershire, England. It is situated 9+1⁄2 miles (15.3 km) south west of Birmingham New Street. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by West Midlands Trains.
The National Solo class is a racing dinghy designed by Jack Holt in 1956. The Solo is sailed in the United Kingdom, Holland, Portugal and Australia.
A sailing yacht, is a leisure craft that uses sails as its primary means of propulsion. A yacht may be a sail or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, so the term applies here to sailing vessels that have a cabin with amenities that accommodate overnight use. To be termed a "yacht", as opposed to a "boat", such a vessel is likely to be at least 33 feet (10 m) in length and have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities. Sailboats that do not accommodate overnight use or are smaller than 30 feet (9.1 m) are not universally called yachts. Sailing yachts in excess of 130 feet (40 m) are generally considered to be superyachts.
The Splash Dinghy is 3.5 m in length and all boats are identical, thus, as is typical in One-Design classes, the sailor's ability rather than equipment is emphasised fleet racing. The boats employ an un-stayed mono rig with a sail area of 6.3 m2, which makes the class easy to handle by sailors ranging from 45 to 80 kg. This, combined with the low hull weight of 55 kg, allow the class to serve as a stepping stone between the Optimist Dinghy and boats such as the Laser Radial, suiting sailors in the age range from 13 to 21 years.
Bewl Valley Sailing Club was a sailing dinghy and windsurfing club that had approximately 920 full members, but entered into insolvency administration in 2015 and closed. Its former premises at Bewl Water are now occupied by the site's current tenant, the Markerstudy Group.
The Britannia Yacht Club (BYC) is a private social club, yacht club and tennis club based in Britannia, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1887 by a group of cottagers.
The Topaz Omega is a sailing dinghy created by Topper International designed for between 1 and 7 crew members. It is sailed at many clubs around the world and is an ISAF 'Learn to Sail' class.
Sydney Flying Squadron Yacht club was founded in 1891 by Mark Foy in the birthplace of the famous Sydney Harbour sailing skiff classes. It was founded to allow people to enjoy skiff sailing regardless of financial background. The Sydney Flying Squadron, affectionately called The Squaddy by its members and locals, is Australia's oldest open boat sailing club on the shores of Sydney Harbour.
The Huguenot Yacht Club (HYC) is a private yacht club located on Neptune Island along New Rochelle Harbor in the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The club offers a number of boating activities, including yacht racing, frostbiting, one-design sail boat racing, and junior sailing.
Bosham Sailing Club is the oldest sailing club in Chichester Harbour and was founded in 1907 It is located in the historic village of Bosham in West Sussex. Its clubhouse is the Old Mill on Bosham Quay.