Sailing is at the core of all we do. We offer sailing for all sorts of levels of expertise in many types of boat and at both our locations: Seaford beach and Piddinghoe lake.
Most sailors want to own their own boat but you can hire sailing boats at Piddinghoe and for racing at Seaford in the sea. We have Optimists, Toppers, Fevas, Picos and Lasers for hire at Piddinghoe and usually have a variety available at Seaford, including catamarans.
Our racing programme is all year round: on the sea at Seaford from Spring to Autumn and at Piddinghoe over winter. We race almost every Sunday, usually starting at 10:30, and on a Wednesday evening in the summer when the light permits starting at 7:15pm.
We have some fleets of boats plus a “menagerie” fleet for boats that don’t fit into the existing fleets. Racing is to RYA handicapping (adapted for our conditions) so everyone stands the same chance.
Our current fleets are Lasers, Catamarans and Menagerie, but these can come and go as boats gain and lose popularity. Catamarans are particularly popular for the sea (they’re too large for Piddinghoe lake) and constitute our largest sea fleet.
We have changing rooms and showers available at both our sites. At Piddinghoe, our galley (run by volunteers) sometimes serves food for Sunday racing in the winter. At Seaford sailors can use our café (Papachino’s At The Galley) with discounts, before and after racing. At times when we race, Papachino’s At The Galley is reserved for members only.
Each summer we hold a Sailing Week at Seaford. Many sailors and their families camp at Seaford for Sailing Week. There are races on the sea mornings and afternoons and social events in the evenings. We finish the week with a prize-giving dinner, where we award various prizes for the competitions held in the week.
Near the end of the year we have our annual Prizegiving Dinner. This celebrates what the club has achieved during the year, and awards our many cups and trophies.
Sailing in the club is for all ages. Our cadets frequently participate in the adult racing and some of them are amongst our best sailors, while we have sailors in their seventies still winning cups.
If you’re an experienced sailor wanting to join in with racing, contact our sailing secretary: sailingsecnssc@nssc.org.uk.
If you’re new to sailing and want to learn, go to our Learning With NSSC pages.
