The Sun Shone on Solway Yacht Club Annual Open Day 2017

In bright sunshine and a good sailing breeze, the Solway Yacht Club at Kippford, Dumfries and Galloway held its annual Open Day on Sunday 14^th May.

Happy visitors in the sunshine about to set off on a sample trip from Kippford.

Climbing aboard the trimaran “Mingulay” visitors about to sample multihull sailing

Visitors getting kitted out with life-jackets ready to get afloat.

Visitors were given opportunities to sample yachting under sail, power boating, racing dinghy sailing, motor yachting and speed boating, all under the watchful eyes of the Club’s safety boats.

Ross Kennedy, the Solway Yacht Club’s Safety Boat Officer and local lifeboat crewman (centre), takes visitors for an on the water sample of high performance RIB power boating

With visitors coming from all over Dumfries and Galloway, everyone seemed to enjoy the day with many having a go at many different types of boating before joining members for tea and cakes in the Clubhouse.

The Kippford Lifeboat and crew came to join the day with an on the water demonstration. Meanwhile, ashore David Wisdish from RNLI Largs ran a sea safety clinic, including life jacket checks and much good advice.

Both the local Kippford RNLI lifeboat crew and David Wisdish from RNLI Largs also took part, providing both “on the water” demonstrations and, ashore, an expert sea safety advice clinic. This included life jacket checks, vital life-saving equipment for anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves in the water accidentally.

Mingulay at sea with visitors aboard. Meanwhile Lilli Bell (age 12) sails past in her Topper dinghy, one of a number of Solway Yacht Club Cadets giving sailing demonstrations.

At the end of the day the Club had quite a few new members including many cadets, several signing up to learn more during the Club’s popular Cadet Week in July.

You can find out more about Solway Yacht Club HERE