THE Portland Yacht Club’s summer has only just begun, after being delayed for the usual reasons earlier this year.

With racing on Sundays, social gatherings on Fridays and beginner programs during the week, the club is already quite busy.

New members are growing the club’s numbers every week, and Commodore Andrew Hays is determined to grow the club.

He arrived midway through last season, and got back into sailing after an extensive hiatus, joining the club after his kids participated in the ‘Tackers’ program during the Christmas period.

“It’s been a really good start (to the season),” Hays said.

“Obviously it was delayed a bit due to COVID, but we’ve had a really good turnout so far.

“We do Better Sailing in the (Sunday) morning, which is a program to teach kids to sail, and we’ve had five or six boats on the water each time, with up to 17 kids, so that’s been a really good start.

“With the racing, we’ve had a really good turnout as well, we’ve had four or five keelboats every day that we’ve raced, and we’ve also had upwards of six or seven Lasers and two or three Pacers, as well as Rod (Barker’s) Tasar every time we’ve raced as well.

“(Numbers) are increasing, we’ve got more kids coming down which is really good, we’re attracting more interest from the kids, and we’ve had four or five new members nominate so far this season.

“There’s a bit of interest from the community to get out on the water.

“We’ve got a She Sails program, which is designed to introduce women into sailing, they sail every Tuesday afternoon.

“If anyone, just generally, wants to come down, they’re always welcome to come down to the club and we’ll find a boat for them to go on.

“There’s always someone who’s willing to take someone on and give them a start.”