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Horning Sailing Club
Horning Sailing Club provides dinghy racing, yacht racing, yacht cruising, motor boating, personal watercraft facilities and is a representative for Broadland inland waterways cruising. HSC is an RYA Training Centre and an RYA Sailability Centre

History
Horning Town Sailing Club was formed in 1910, with its headquarters at the Swan Hotel, Horning. The Club grew until 1938 when an amalgamation of several Clubs took place to form the Norfolk Broads Yacht Club, and the Horning Town Sailing Club ceased to exist as a separate entity. In 1938, the Horning Sailing Club was formed, with an initial membership of 244. By 1953 HSC membership stood at over 700.

Racing takes place on the river at Horning, on Hoveton Little Broad and down river to Thurne and Acle. There is handicap sailing for Allcomers A, B & C and class races for Cruisers and for Reedling, Rebel, Yare & Bure One Design and Yeoman keelboats.

Each year the Club runs the nationally famous Three Rivers Race at the beginning of June and Horning Open Regatta at the beginning of August. The Thursday of Regatta Week sees the Horning Town Open Regatta.

Horning Sailing Club has moorings for dinghies, keelboats and sailing & motor cruisers. HSC is open to new members including young children. From mid-May to mid-September activities and training are organised on Thursday evenings for junior members of the Club. The Club is an RYA Approved Training Centre running courses for members in dinghy and keel boat sailing, power boating and safety boat handling.

HSC's season runs from mid-March to Mid-October. During the winter, the Club's premises are used by Snowflake Sailing Club who run a racing programme through the winter.

An annual prestigious event is the Three Rivers Race which is one of the oldest races remaining on the Broads sailing calendar. Running every year since 1961, usually on the first weekend after the Whitsun Bank Holiday, it is also one of the largest inland yachting races in Europe, encompassing three rivers and two lakes or broads in rural Norfolk. Originally, the plan was to have boats crossing the estuary at Breydon Water with the three rivers being the Bure, Yare and Waveney. From a safety and tide aspect this proved impractical so the northern Broadland rivers of the Bure, Thurne and Ant were used instead, and remain the Three Rivers of the Race to this day.

In 2013 the 3 Rivers Race was listed in the top 10 of the toughest mass-participation events by the Sport and Recreation Alliance.

Moorings
Horning Sailing Club offer boat moorings on the River Bure for cruising and recreation in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, including for those wanting to race or learn to sail.

There are a range of year-round moorings and berths on the island, on the main river and in the mooring pens across the river from the Clubhouse. These are suitable for keelboats, cruisers or motorboats. Many of the river and pen moorings are available for rent.

Craft
Horning Sailing Club caters for a large range of craft from dinghies to river cruisers and keel boats to radio controlled boats. All sailing classes regularly race on both Blackhorse Broad and the River Bure on Sundays during the sailing season, and occasionally race downriver.

Dinghy classes include Optimists, Toppers, Lasers (4.7, Radial and Full rig), Splashes, Feva's and double-handed Enterprises. Racing is done under the Allcomers flags with handicaps.

Horning Sailing Club has a fleet of Rebels, a classic half deck, and one-design gunter rigged keelboat designed by Alan Buchanan in 1949. The majority of Rebels are wooden hulled, however, since 2008 GRP hulls have been produced. There are 16 Rebels at HSC.

The Reedling is a one-design fractional rigged keelboat, designed by Ian Proctor, and built by Reedling Boats (now dissolved) in Horning, Norfolk. Only 11 were built and most are still local to Horning.

The Yeoman is a one-design fractional rigged keelboat. There are over 300 Yeomans built, with a fleet at Horning, Wroxham, Rutland and Lough Erne.

The Yare and Bure is a strict one design classic half deck, gunter rigged keelboat design in 1908. The majority of YBODs are wooden hulled, more recently GRP hulls have been produced. There are over 140 Yare and Bures which are actively raced in Horning, and can be seen most Sundays between March and October.

Motor Boat members of the club compete annually for the Berry Shield during Horning week. The motor boat fleet also support the prestigious Three Rivers Race, by providing guard ships at various points around the course.

HSC have a growing fleet of Radio Controlled (RC) model Lasers. These 1/4 scale boats have a hull length of just over a metre and are nearly 2 metres tall when ashore on their purpose built folding stand. They are a strict 'one design' and boast a UK National class association and international fleets with championships held all over the globe. 4 different sail rigs allow them to sail in winds varying from a light breeze to some 35 knots, and when sailed within the bounds of the RYA yacht racing rules on miniature Olympic style courses, offer close competition for helms young or old, light or heavy.

RYA Training Centre
Training Centre courses run annually from April to October

Sailing & Boating
Horning Sailing Club formed in 1938 with an initial membership of 244 and today racing takes place on the river at Horning, on Hoveton Little/Blackhorse Broad and down river to Thurne and Acle.

Members sail Keelboats, Dinghies and Cruisers, Reedlings, Rebels, Yare and Bure One Designs, Yeoman, Lasers, Toppers, Enterprises, Splashes and Optimists. There is a social programme throughout the year.

HSC is an RYA Recognised Training Centre and part of the RYA OnBoard and Sailability programmes, running courses for members in dinghy and keelboat sailing, power boating and safety boat handling. From mid-May to mid-September activities and training are organised on Thursday evenings.

Youth
Horning Sailing Club provides sailing opportunities for junior and youth sailors, including junior specific courses in the training centre. Events such as the Sundown Series are less formal as well as an annual youth regatta towards the end of the season.

Many HSC young sailors have gone on to compete at regional, national and international events. Horning Sailing Club enters a team each year into the Annual Broadland Youth Regatta.

Regatta Week
Horning Regatta Week occurs in early August and is a week long programme of racing on the River, preceded normally by a Regatta Weekend on the Broad. There is racing for all classes of dinghy, keelboat and cruiser, on for sailors of all levels of experience.

Three Rivers Race
The Three Rivers race was established in 1961 where boats have 24hrs to complete a course. Boats race 80km along three Norfolk rivers: Bure, Thurne and Ant. Over 100 boats enter the race each year.

The Three Rivers Race is one of the oldest races on the Broads sailing calendar and is one of the largest inland yachting races in Europe, encompassing three rivers and two lakes or broads in rural Norfolk.

Helms negotiate a course in the order of 45-50 miles depending on conditions, rounding four buoys located at Ludham Bridge on the Ant, on South Walsham Broad or Fleet Dyke, on Hickling Broad at the top end of the River Thurne and downstream on the River Bure somewhere between Stokesby and Six Mile House heading towards Great Yarmouth, starting and finishing at Horning Sailing Club on the upper Bure. The time limit for this is 24 hours from each boat's start time. There are 4 mast lowerings required on the course to negotiate the pair of bridges at Potter Heigham and also the bridge at Acle both ways. The fastest boats such as Norfolk Punts and visiting Thames A Raters can complete the race in as little as 7 hours given favourable conditions.

All of the boats are tracked at Horning Sailing Club for safety purposes. A team of 10 fixed motor cruiser guardships plus a range of other safety vessels keep an eye out for any problems and report back to base via radio. Progress around the course is tracked using computer software which allows the Race Controller to see in an instant on which stretch of water each competitor was last reported by a guardship.

Boats are started in groups of around 10 boats upstream of the start line at Horning Sailing Club. The first start is at 11am. Once the fleet has reached Thurne Mouth, yachts choose their direction and this decision is probably the most critical one of the whole race, dependant as it is on wind, tide and boat performance. The Three Rivers Race is a test of seamanship over a long period and covering a wide variety of areas from close-quarters boat handling at the start to light airs sailing overnight and control at the bridge zones. Crews travel to Horning from all over the World to take part in a variety of craft, including the impressive Thames A Raters, Norfolk Punts, Half-Deckers, Yeomans, Yare and Bure ODs (White Boats), Reedlings, Rebels, Wayfarers, Enterprises and other dinghies, traditional Broads River Cruisers and Production Cruisers. No single-handed craft are allowed.

Further Information

 * Horning Sailing Club official website
 * HSC Down River camera

Social Media

 * Instagram @horningsc Horning Sailing Club
 * Instagram @hscgalley Horning Sailing Club - Galley
 * Instagram @snowflakesailingclub Snowflake Sailing Club
 * Twitter @horningsc Horning Sailing Club