In addition to the club’s all year round Sunday Sailing Programme, Ardleigh Sailing Club operate three very popular Wednesday evening series, the first of these series normally runs from Mid-April, with the last series finishing Mid-October (in total 26 weeks) - with ‘prizes’ awarded for each Series!
Depending on your PY number, the first boats start at 6.00 pm and every boat finishes at 6.45 pm. Still leaving ample time to put the boats away before it get dark. Pursuit racing is an ideal introduction for novices to dinghy racing. The starts are not intimidating but good ones pay dividends. Boats race their own race free from the rough and tumble that can apply to traditional handicap racing, with wind conditions in the evening generally favouring the early starters.
The official start of summer! Sailing on a Wednesday often feels like a mini weekend break in the middle of the week! And although access to the water for members is provided at all times of the week, Wednesdays are often a good time to combine an afternoon sail or maybe a picnic on the lawn with fellow members or family, followed by an early evening race. The plan at the moment is to run pursuit races as it just needs one person to start everyone off (often a Phantom sailer who then has to do a LeMans start as the last to go).
If we have enough interest and commitment we can change to run a handicap series.
This is the final opportunity for a mid-week sail before the clocks change. This final series consists of 8 pursuit races where the first boats initially start at 6.20 pm with every boat finishing at 7.20 pm, however due to the earlier sunset times the final few weeks of this series start slightly earlier at 5.05pm with all boats finish at 6.05 pm.
Ardleigh Reservoir is an ideal location for a number of reasons, in particular as it is sheltered, non-tidal and you are never far from land, compared to coastal sailing clubs.