Llandegfedd Sailing Club are back in the water after being out of action for a year. FRANCESCA GILLET joined them for their first open competition following a £2.5 million investment by Welsh Water in facilities at Llandegfedd Reservoir

“IT WAS as much a meeting of old friends as a sailing competition.”

These were the words to describe last weekend’s racing weekend at Llandegfedd Sailing Club – the club’s first open meeting for 20 months following a major refurbishment and year-long closure.

It was a competition weekend to launch the club’s return to Llandegfedd Reservoir, near Pontypool, after a major investment of more than £2.5 million by Welsh Water.

The club now has a new water sports centre and visitor centre and as the sun shined on Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12, the competition saw 22 entries and the re-launch was declared a success.

In April last year, the sailing club, which was founded in 1968, faced a financial loss of £5,000 from members leaving, fewer grants and other costs after Welsh Water decided to close the reservoir for a year.

The sailing club made an unsuccessful appeal against Welsh Water, who said it had to close the site because of financial constraints and health and safety concerns. They spent the year funding the new build of a water sports and visitor centre at the site, which lies eight miles north of Newport.

It was clear the club was in need of work done; after 10 years without a clubhouse it had been operating out of shipping containers and portable cabins, although they were fearful of the “devastating” effect it could have on them.

Director of the club, Jeremy Symons, said while the reservoir was closed some of the sailing club members went to sail at Tata Steel Sailing Club and Llangorse Sailing Club.

Now complete, the “flagship site” reservoir is one of the top inland sailing spots in the country and is expected to cater for more than 150,000 visitors a year.

Following the meeting last weekend, Commodore Neil Sharratt said: “It’s lovely to have this new building, with warm showers, somewhere to sit down for a chat and a balcony with a view”.

Mr Symons said: “It is good to be back and of course far less travelling for most. Everyone is extremely excited about the reopening and we hope to encourage more sailors to come and join.

“There will now be public access to the site so people can come and watch and hopefully be inspired.”

Andy Howard, long-term member and acting vice commodore – the professional term of a sailing leader – said the club is looking to the future.

“Last year was hard,” he said. “Most people didn’t sail. But we are feeling optimistic now.

“It would be lovely to bring some people to sail at Llandegfedd who have not sailed for a very long time or who have gone elsewhere.

“And now we have got the facilities that Welsh Water have provided it is more family friendly. You can go up there with someone and they do not have to just sit in the rain, people can sit inside and talk to each other after sailing.

“It’s just what a club needs. And it’s a lovely building.”

The club’s sphere of activity is primarily racing and coaching people who already can sail. They can teach people to sail from scratch, but Mr Howard said the new reservoir already has a commercial organisation running courses in teaching people how to sail.

“What we’d rather do and what suits them, we’d rather take on people who can sail and build their confidence and the life that sailing at a club can bring,” said Mr Howard.

“Bill Jackson, the coach, will take people who can sail and develop them further in being able to race and learning how to get better and get past the opposition, that kind of thing.

“That is where we want to concentrate on in the non-racing side of things. We also want to set up a youth squad to that end.

“We have about 15 youths competing in youth events on the South Wales circuit then there’s a few in the Welsh squad.”

The club has around 200 members and for a long time has been recognised by the Royal Yachting Association. This means people who come on courses at Llandegfedd can be issued official certificates which enable people with a Level 2 certificate to hire boats around the world.

The main racing the club does is dinghy racing – the smallest kind of boat which can vary from 12 to 18 feet in length, so “big enough to keep in the garage”, Mr Howard said.

An “old banger” dinghy can be bought for £500 to £600, while the front end of the market can see purchases of around £10,000.

But “you don’t have to spend an awful lot of money on it. If you are just going round with the wind in your face you don’t need a high end one,” said Mr Howard.

The club has some good sailors. Robin Wood who is one of the members has been World Champion five times and they also celebrated a British Youth Champion 20 years ago. Mr Howard himself was a Grand Masters champion which is for those aged 55 to 64 years old.

At the club’s open meetings – meaning when sailors from all over can compete – they usually attract people from far and wide including often the south coast of Britain and right across the midlands.

What makes a good sailor? “Being a good sailor is hard to summarise but it is about awareness,” Mr Howard said.

“It’s about being aware of what the wind is doing. If you’re racing you have to be watching what the other boats are doing. Sitting there and balancing things, when the wind gets hard you have to react.”

Dinghy sailing is fairly physical, he said. “I’m not going to say we are all fit athletes but if you want to do sailing but aren’t fit you can go into the larger boats, you can sail yachts.

“I tell people it’s like driving a motorbike compared to a lorry. Driving a lorry is not instant physical movement and you have got a bit longer, so that’s more like a boat. With the smallest boats you do have to be a bit fitter. And unlike other sports, sailing is competed equally with men and women racing against each other. The club certainly has women, Mr Howard said, emphasising that sailing is a family sport.

“You can sail with your family. 20 years ago most people learned to sail with their family. But less now because we have got better sailing schemes.

“I have got two children who used to sail together, and I’ve seen husband and wife sailing teams.”

For the members of Llandegfedd Sailing Club, this summer is looking brighter than ever after the new clubhouse and long-awaited reopening of the reservoir. But the vice commodore wants more for the “small but high-powered club”.

“We are an average-size club but it really needs to be bigger,” he said. “It would be lovely to see more members join.”

The new water sports centre and visitor centre is now open to the public, while finishing touches are being carried out ready for the grand opening at the end of May.

Full details of the club and its activities are available at llandegfedd.org.uk.