Littleton Sailing Club

MOST people associate the sport of sailing with warm summer days or breezy spring evenings with eager crews hanging out over the sides of their racing dinghies as they hurtle through calm, clear water.

But for the true devotees of the sport, the real challenges come throughout the year when helms and crews have to learn to deal with a wide variety of wind strengths and water conditions.

Locally, one club which offers these kind of challenges all year round is Littleton Sailing Club based on Littleton Lane (known to some simply as Snakey Lane) between Shepperton and Chertsey Bridge.

The club is part of the Civil Service Sailing Association and, when it was established in 1958, it was the association’s first active club. Littleton SC has the exclusive sailing use of a picturesque 80 acre lake, surrounded by wooded shores.

Littleton offers competitive sailing every weekend throughout the year and on Thursday evenings during the summer months.

The size of the lake means that given a decent wind, conditions can be challenging at times but then whether helming or simply crewing, learning how to sail in different conditions is a must for the serious sailor. At other times, with nothing more than light airs, the lake provides a serious test of initiative for skippers to keep their boats moving.

The club has a number of class fleets including Lasers, RS200s, Optimists, Solos and sailboards but there are also a number of cruisers, which regularly take to the water.

Although the club was set up through the Civil Service, membership is open to all and, with nearly 400 active members, the club also offers a thriving social side if that’s your bag. Membership is split into two categories – civil servants (which includes members of the armed forces, BT employees, the Post Office and the Metopolitan Police) and non civil servants (which is basically everyone else). For civil service members there is a joining fee of £50 for singles or £80 for a family and annual membership fees for civil servants range from £32 for a single (£16 if you a retired) up to £62 for a family membership with a non-sailing partner.

For non civil service members, the joining fees are the same but annual membership subscriptions range from £117 for single retired people up to £166 for family membership with a non-sailing partner.

Social memberships are also available. Learning to sail safely and efficiently is an important consideration for anyone thinking of taking to the water and here, too, Littleton SC is ideally equipped to help.

The club offers a range of Royal Yachting Association (RYA) courses from beginners to advanced.

Indeed, the lower level courses are a terrific introduction to the basics of dinghy sailing while more advanced courses act as an introduction to racing, using spinnakers, etc.

Usefully, the club also offers a boat hire facility so it’s not even essential to own your own boat when you join.

For more information, visit the club’s website at www.littletonsc.co.uk.