Latest UKWA News:

Bournemouth Digital Poole Week 2019 day 3 © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.com

After a washout on the open meeting and championship front in 2020, the UK Wayfarer Association is looking forward to 2021 with renewed appetite. A full programme of open meetings, Area and National Championships and various race weeks is in the calendar for this year, and although it remains to be seen how successfully the UK and Ireland will come out of lockdown we are confident that most of the programme will take place. ...read more

There is the usual blend of salt and fresh water events which make up the Craftinsure sponsored National Circuit and Travellers Series. There are nine events this year, one more than usual, just in case any are lost at the beginning of the season. The Series will culminate as usual at Bough Beech SC in November when the trophies and spot prizes will be won.

Wayfarers at Bough Beech – photo © Deborah Maynard

In addition to these, there are a number of other open meetings and sailing weeks where Wayfarers will either have a class start or representation within a handicap fleet.

The highlight of the season for the racers will undoubtedly be the combined UK National and European Championships which will be hosted by Medway YC, 5-8 August. Limited to an entry of 65 boats, competitors are expected from Denmark, Ireland, France and the Netherlands as well as from the mainland UK. Sponsorship from Hartley Boats, Craftinsure, McNamara Sails, Shepherd Neame and Wayfarer Wines together with a strong race team and a challenging race area promise an excellent event on and off the water. All eyes will be on the progress of the roadmap out of lockdown as well as the weather forecast over the next few weeks. The class racing calendar can be found here.

The Wayfarer class look forward to 2021 – photo © Mike Spurgin

Along with all of the open events, Wayfarer sailors will be competing at their Clubs as soon as Boris removes the AP and displays the warning signal. As in 2020, Wayfarers will be raced at Clubs up and down the country, some in handicap fleets, and others in active one design fleets, with a full programme of racing and social activity.

The UK Wayfarer Association has a stand at this weekend’s virtual RYA Dinghy Show. Tickets are available from www.rya.org.uk/dinghy-show/Pages/tickets.aspx. Registration is free and once you have logged in search for the UK Wayfarer Association stand. There you will be able to learn more about this wonderful and classic Ian Proctor design and chat to members of the UKWA (using the “chat” facility) who will be only too happy to answer your questions. You will be able to learn that there is much more to the Wayfarer than racing. Many of the boats are used for cruising, for family sailing and for training. Visit our stand this weekend, click on the image which interests you and find out what the Wayfarer can do for you. We very much look forward to talking to you there.

-Tim Townsend

It was lovely to ‘see’ so many visitors and members, especially those from overseas.

If you feel you missed something; visitors already registered for the Show can re-visit for 30 days from the Show’s close.

We would be delighted if you came back and had a look at all the Documents and Video resources on our stand.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email Sarah, Class Secretary

Visitor Registration | Dinghy Show | RYA – Royal Yachting Association

Details of this summer’s International Rally – to be held in S Brittany in the lovely Golfe du Morbihan – on this poster.

(Click on the image for a full-size view of the poster. The back button or arrow on your browser should return you to this page).

The Notice of Race for the National and European Championships 2021 will be published in the next few days, along with instructions for entry.

(Click on the image for a full-size view of the poster. The back button or arrow on your browser should return you to this page).

Early details here of next year’s Wayfarer Internationals (to be held in the USA).

(Click on the image for a full-size view of the poster. The back button or arrow on your browser should return you to this page).

Dates: August 9th to 13th

Venue: Hayling Island Sailing Club

Online entries are open from the 1st May, with an early-bird discount up to 30 June. In addition to the class starts listed, if there are ten or more boats entered in a class by 31 July then you will get your own class prizes.

https://chichesterharbourraceweek.sailevent.net/

We offer class and handicap racing – it’s a fantastic event with flat water and undisturbed wind in the beautiful surroundings of Chichester harbour. We had 310 boats and 484 competitors last time it was run. With lots of people taking their holidays in the UK it promises to be a bumper year this time around. Should the event be cancelled due to COVID restrictions, then rest assured that a full refund will be given.

It is all laid on for you, with bands, beer and skittles, pub quiz, and the infamous HISC disco.

–Andrew Gould

With the present restrictions around Covid-19 likely to continue for some time UKWA have decided to hold a ‘virtual’ Cruising Conference at the end of March this year. Even if circumstances were to allow us to hold the event face-to-face, it seems inevitable that attendance would be down considerably.

DIARY DATE: March 26th – 28th 2021

Advantages of this approach are that it won’t be influenced by the weather and that participants will be able to join in from further afield.

The event will take place over the weekend of March 26th – 28th, with interactive sessions on ‘Zoom’, and the opportunity – for about a week in advance – to view specially made video presentations via the event’s dedicated website. There will be times during the weekend itself to ask questions and socialise, albeit ‘virtually!’ ...read more

The Toronto Boat Show has gone virtual this year and you can register and attend for free!  The show runs from January 18 – 24, 2021.

The Canadian Wayfarer Association will be involved in a Webinar at 3:00 on Saturday Jan 23.

https://torontoboatshow.com/

With fingers firmly crossed, the Notice of Race document for the Craftinsure National Circuit and Travellers Trophy Series 2021 is linked here.

Please come and join us for our 63rd Annual General Meeting, to be held on Saturday 27 February 2021

As we are sure you can appreciate, due to Covid-19 we will be holding our AGM via Zoom

Meeting begins: 18.00 hrs

Full agenda and papers can be found here

To join the AGM, please email Sarah: [secretary@wayfarer.org.uk]
for an AGM invitation, Meeting ID and Password for the AGM
In doing so, members are understanding and agreeing that these meeting details must not be published or passed on

Here is a link to Tim Townsend’s latest racing report published in Y&Y:

A Wayfarer named Resilient (yachtsandyachting.com)

2021 racing calendar

The racing calendar for 2021 is now posted here. There is a full and varied racing programme organised for next year, all, of course, subject to some normality returning to our lives and the success of vaccine(s) and other measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The racing ranges from the National/European Championships, regional Championships and National Circuit events at one end of the scale to one day relaxed open meetings and family race weeks where Wayfarers compete at the other. There should be something for everybody.

The National Circuit and Travellers Series events are marked on the calendar as NCS FW denoting an inland non-tidal venue or NCS SW denoting an event which will be held in salt water on the sea, a tidal river or estuary. The National Circuit will consist of nine events in 2021 rather than the usual eight. The extra event is to cover the possibility of an event being lost to the pandemic. The Notice of Race for the National Circuit Series will be posted on the website in the next few weeks.

The Racing Calendar is a live document so please keep an eye on it. We will add other events to it as soon as we are notified of them.

–Tim Townsend

In case any of the participants in the 2020 Plymouth Rally have read the latest Wayfarer News and are experiencing symptoms of confusion and/or amnesia, may I reassure you that you were there and the event did in fact take place 😉

2021 will be Waldringfield Sailing Club’s Centenary, which is a wonderful milestone for any club!

In celebration the club will welcome visitors to the following:

• The Centenary Easter Egg open meeting, on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd of April
• The Centenary Cartoon open meeting, on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th of September

Thank you,

John Haile, WSC Wayfarer Captain

New members joining after 1st October will be given membership until 1st April 2022 – now is a great time to join!

We pride ourselves on being a very friendly class association, and are always delighted to welcome new members.

You can join here. ...read more

2021 AGM and Dinghy Show

Many of you may have seen that the RYA Dinghy Show scheduled for 2021 has been cancelled. This has been when we have traditionally held our AGM and for 2021 we propose to do so again, but with a slight difference.

Due to Covid-19, we are planning to hold our 2021 AGM  via a Zoom interface on Saturday 27 February at 4:00pm – as if we had been at the Dinghy Show. We have not worked out any details yet as we are looking for one of you with experience of hosting Zoom meetings to help us out.

Offers of help will be greatly appreciated and if you are in the position of being able to help, please contact Sarah Burgess, [secretary@wayfarer.org.uk] 

Once we have had a trial run through and know how it is going to work we will publish the details in e-news and on our website.

– John Mellor.

It is with considerable regret that we have to announce the cancellation of the last two events in the Craftinsure National Circuit and Travellers Series 2020. Both venues have left it as long as they felt they sensibly could for the Covid-19 situation to improve to the point where they could safely proceed with their open meetings. However, as we all know, the numbers of coronavirus cases are increasing at this time rather than decreasing and the Government is tightening up on its rules and guidelines to try and mitigate the consequences of a second wave. Cancelling the events, ultimately, was the only safe and pragmatic decision. ...read more

The new, 6th edition Wayfarer Book is here!

The Wayfarer book has been brought right up to date and benefits from reworking of the previous content plus additional materials and illustrations.

Now including a stunning new chapter on Family Sailing – and for anyone who does take the family sailing, either young or old, this is a ‘must read’.

The Wayfarer book is now more accessible for those who are new to the boat whilst still providing all the detail that experienced Wayfarer owners and sailors want.

With 112 pages and colour images throughout, it will be an essential companion in the dinghy park and workshop but it won’t be out of place by the bedside or on the coffee table.

Now available from our shop here.