Category Archives: Events

Events, Regattas

WSSYSA Regatta 2026 @ Felpham SC

West Sussex Schools & Youth Sailing Association Regatta to be hosted by Felpham Sailing Club – September 2026

Felpham Sailing Club (FSC) will host the 32nd annual West Sussex Schools & Youth Sailing Association (WSSYSA) Regatta in September 2026. This event attracts teams of young people from across Sussex to compete in the sport of dinghy racing on the sea, in a weekend regatta.

WSSYSA Regatta 2019 at Felpham
WSSYSA Regatta 2019 at Felpham

We are expecting 150 youth participants from over 12 clubs and schools from across Sussex. We will host a series of events and speakers that will be inspirational for all participants and their families, and some fun stuff too.

The event is for sailors aged under 19 on the last day of the event. We will have three race areas and four racing fleets (Fast, Medium, & Slow handicap, and a Rookie Fleet). The Rookie Fleet is aimed at encouraging youngsters into the sport of dinghy racing by making it fun and exciting.

Programme

Thursday 17th September (7pm) – a talk & video presentation by the Sussex Underwater team about the wealth of sea life in the sea off Bognor Regis

Friday 18th September (7.30pm) – talks by Jazz Turner (award winning para sailor) about her sailing round Britain solo record in 2025, and Hannah Mountain about her participation in the 2025 Fastnet race on the yacht Boracic.

Saturday 19th September – Regatta Day 1 –
Racing starts at 11am followed by evening karaoke from 7pm

Sunday 20th September – Regatta Day 2 –
Racing starts at 11am, with prize giving hosted by Jess Breach as soon as possible after racing finishes.
Jess is England Ladies Red Roses Rugby World Cup top try scorer in the 2025 Womens’ Rugby World Cup, and former member of Felpham Sailing Club.

Besides the coaching & Regatta racing we hope to inspire the youngsters through several talks and activities.

On Thursday 17th September, Sussex Underwater, led by Bognor resident Eric Smith, will give a presentation with video informing and inspiring our young people about life underwater on the Bognor Rocks, just off our beach. Eric lobbied for many years to create the Sussex in-shore trawling ban. This has created a resurgence of sea life and kelp right in our playground. Eric was featured in David Attenborough’s 2025 film and book “Ocean”. Their video gives an amazing insight into what is below the waves, out of sight for most. https://sussexunderwater.uk/

On Friday 18th September there will be a talk given by Jazz Turner. Jazz is a world recognised para-inclusive sailor, having sailed around the UK singlehanded in June 2025, and in doing so became the first female solo disabled wheelchair-bound sailor to achieve this feat. She was recently nominated for the Rolex World Sailor Award. In February 2026 Jazz was awarded the Yachtsman of the Year award for 2025 by the Yachting Journalist Association. Her story is both humbling and inspirational.

Also, on that evening, Hannah Mountain (Felpham Sailing Club member) will tell us about her exciting and exhausting experience taking part in the 100th Fastnet race in 2025.

Over the Regatta weekend, a team of national race coaches will be offering race coaching, free to participants, using video recording of racing action, and delivering feedback on a large screen. By providing coaching at the Regatta we aim to inspire and develop dinghy racing skills.

This is a community event with visiting clubs and volunteers participating to make the event happen. To ensure safety we will need a fleet of at least 12 safety boats. Felpham SC has four. The Felpham Sea Scouts will help by bringing two, and the balance will come from visiting clubs bringing a further six crewed powerboats.

To help support the event, and such a large group of people (many families will come along supporting their children), we will erect a marquee at the Sailing Club. This will form the focal point of land side activity.

The talks by Jazz, Hannah and Sussex Underwater will be held in the marquee. We anticipate well over 300 people attending.

The event will be a huge effort by club members volunteering to ensure that it is safe and fun.

On the Saturday there will be a free karaoke evening for all.

After racing each day all participants will receive free, a pot of hot pasta and cakes to refresh tired bodies.

This event is planned to inspire participants and be a celebration of youth sailing. Each participant will receive a medal, a certificate and a branded gift (a baseball cap). There will be about 60 trophies to present. Jess Breach will present the prizes at the Prize giving on Sunday. Jess is a former youth sailor at Felpham SC and was a regular WSSYSA Regatta participant. She plays rugby for Saracens & England Ladies Red Roses team playing every match for England in the recent Rugby World Cup (September 2025), and was the top try scorer in the victorious team. She has 57 caps for England and is currently the all-time joint third top try scorer for England.

This plan of course depends on good weather. In the event of adverse weather preventing sailing we will offer, on the day(s) lost to sailing, Plan B. Rather than abandoning the day(s) and the event, Plan B will offer shoreside competitions such as relay races, team games, beach games and individual challenges, as well as board games, quizzes, treasure hunts and non-competitive activities.

Offering Plan B has never been done before in the history of this regatta, in fact this approach to any sailing regatta is unique.

Whatever the weather visiting families can enjoy crazy golf, tennis courts, and self-cook BBQ on the adjacent council run facilities, as well as enjoying the facilities of the club, its hospitality and a wonderful beach. Refreshments will be available from the

Club and neighbouring cafes including Boathouse, Lobster Pot and Beachcroft Hotel.

Events, Regattas

Slow handicap regatta beats weather at Pagham

The forecast didn’t bode well, but despite the promise of strong wind and rain 15 young sailors from four different clubs joined together at Pagham Yacht Club on Saturday 15th June for a new event in the WSSYSA Calendar – a Slow Handicap Regatta.

With experienced weather watchers at Arun and Felpham the verdict was “no chance of sailing”. But at Pagham just a few miles west the conditions were excellent for racing! A good breeze but certainly manageable, even without a reef for most.

So, after a race briefing by the race officer, Ross Fisher from Felpham SC, the four safety teams set off to lay the trapezoid course with a start line off the club. The mixed fleet of Laser 4.7s, Teras, Toppers, Fevas and a Pico all launched successfully with the help of an experienced beach team and all was ready for the first race. Then during the five minutes to the start a sudden squall came through that tested sailors and safety crew alike. Visibility from the race office ashore plunged to very little, with comments being raised about the lack of wipers blades on the windows! By the time the first Laser (Miles Vidler from Crawley Mariners YC) had reached the first mark the squall had passed but both Chloe Robinson (Pagham YC) and Samson Cross (Crawley Mariners YC) in Toppers and Anna Collins and Joe Markworth in a Feva struggled and subsequently retired from the first race. After just that one squall the wind gods behaved themselves and the rain held off sufficiently long for four races to be completed.

Miles proved to be the one to beat showing mastery of his Laser 4.7 both on the upwind leg and on the awesome reaches. He achieved bullets in every race with the two following 4.7s of Jack Goodland and Zak Smith (both from Pagham YC) constantly vying for position, perhaps losing ground against Miles by chasing each other around the course — they certainly had a great day testing each other to see who could be fastest.

In the second race Mia Gray (Tera Sport) and Josh James (Topper 4.2), both of Felpham SC, were both over the start line by a huge margin. A prompt from a safety boat encouraged them to turn back from half way up the first beat to re-cross the line. Josh did this and went on the post a sixth place but Mia didn’t quite back track far enough so did not conform with the correct starting procedure. Rules is rules so she posted a DSQ on Race 2. Meanwhile the Laser trio blasted through to take the top three places closely followed by Edwin Cross (Crawley Mariners YC) with the best result of his day in fourth place.

Race 3 saw a rested Samson in his Topper bravely get back sailing after his DNF (with downwind shore recovery) and DNS in Race 2. Well done, Samson!

The first three races were timed to be around 30 minutes for the lead dinghy, but the last race was reduced to two laps and 20 mins as the weather was closing in.

One factor affecting all racers was the strong tidal flow east to west. Many competitors made a huge arc in going from mark 3 to mark 4 having not taken sufficient account of the effect of the flow. Only one racer (Josh) made a consistent straight track between these marks. A learning point for everyone else!

Four races completed on a decidedly grotty day was quite an achievement, so a big thanks to the race officer and his team, safety crews and the beach team for a smoothly run and fun day. The kitchen crew were also busy supplying hot drinks and hot food.

A big thanks to Vicky Collins (Rear Commodore Sailing, Pagham YC) for organising the event and to Pagham YC for hosting it. And big thanks too to the parents who hauled their children and dinghies over to Pagham.

The prizes were awarded in two age groups as follows:

Seniors
1st – Miles Vidler, Laser 4.7 (Crawley Mariners YC)
2nd – Zak Smith, Laser 4.7 (Pagham YC)
3rd – Jack Goodland, Laser 4.7 (Pagham YC)

Juniors:
1st – Joshua James, Topper 4.2 (Felpham SC)
2nd – Edwin Cross, Topper (Crawley Mariners YC)
3rd – Mia Gray, Tera Sport (Felpham SC)

Events

Team Race Taster Success

The winning Bosham team racers!

A team racing event hosted by WSSYSA at Bosham SC combined coaching and racing to give over 30 sailors and coaches a taste of a popular alternative to club fleet racing.

The event, which took place at Bosham SC on Monday 6th May, drew teams from Worthing SC, Crawley Mariners YC, Thorney Island SC and the hosts to battle it out in a two Fevas vs two Fevas format with the team whose boat finishes last losing.

Matt Wright from WSSYSA was on hand to provide coaching on boat speed and handling, and visiting coach and team racer Paul Kameen provided tactical coaching and on-the-water feedback. Event Director, Nick Rusbridge, provided sailors and attending coaches with  an overview of event management and an introduction to on-the-water umpiring.

With a fair wind and plenty of help from the team supporters, the teams completed a round robin and went on to sail seven races against opposition. Medals for podium places were awarded to: 1st, Bosham; 2nd, Crawley Mariners; 3rd, Worthing.

Many thanks are due to the teams attending for providing equipment and their time and helping to make it happen. Feedback from the teams was positive, and WSSYSA is looking to run a similar event towards the end of the year.