Beer Sailing Club

Small, friendly and efficient - Jim Saltonstall spotlights this club in Lyme Bay

Situated on the Devon coast's Lyme Bay, Beer SC has established itself as one of those relatively small, friendly, very efficient clubs which has organised and run many top national and international events in recent years. Most recently they have hosted both the POW Cup and the International 14 World championships, as well as numerous open meetings for various class associations.

Access to the club is off the A35 south of Axminster. Heading south on the A358, turn right for Colyford on the A3052, then pick up the signs for Seaton and on to Beer. The clubhouse is on top of the cliff, overlooking the race area to the south east and south. The club offers all the required facilities and although it is relatively small, it copes well with the numbers involved whilst hosting a major event - erecting a marquee alongside the clubhouse helps to create the space required for the major events.

Hospitality at the club is great, the inside word is that it is well known for making sure that everyone has a most enjoyable event, never to be forgotten. Maybe this has something to do with the name of the club. Parking at the club is all close to the site, mainly on the roads, the boats are all parked below the club on a large pebble beach with plenty of space. Accommodation in the area is good, with hotels, B&Bs and caravan/camp sites within walking distance of the club. Restaurants and good pub grub are close by in the village, again all within walking distance, so that we don't have too far to stagger home after a good feast.

Launching off the beach can be entertaining, if the wind is in from the east/south-east, plenty of hands are around though to assist launching and recovery, so it is not a problem. The club offers a good competent race committee, who are well experienced at running major open meetings/ national/ international events, rescue boats can also be provided as required for the size of the event acquired locally. The club can also provide a protest committee to sort out those minor differences of opinion as required.

Race Area

The main race area for open meetings and championships is approximately one to two miles to the south of the club in excellent racing waters. The bay is open to a stable wind direction in both strength and direction from 100 degrees through south round to 260 degrees. From the west through north round to the east, we have the offshore wind coming off relatively high land in places.

There are two valleys, one just to the north east of Beer and one just to the west of Seaton which we will address when we talk about the northerly wind, as they do affect the race area in the windward mark area. Also we have Beer Head, which can also have an effect on the race area if the race committee places the race area near it, which again we will look at in more detail when we look at the various wind directions.