Bala Sailing Club

In 1976. Al Stewart sang about "The year of the CAT", but 2024 and 2025 for Bala SC was truly "The Year of the Cat" as the Multihull fleet took a resurgence, mainly due to our (then) smaller contingent of multihull members running annual taster days, allowing members to have a go at this exciting class under the watchful eye of an experienced helm.

We now have a very very active fleet comprising on Dart 15's, 16's and 18's, Spitfire and Hurricanes and Catapults and at the end of last year we had our first junior join the fleet with his Topaz 12x. (sorry if I have missed any classes guys......).

A few of our members have actually completed their RYA Learn to Sail and then have jumped straight into multihull with a little bit of extra 1-2-1 coaching from our fleet rep and supporting team!

We also embrace those who want an extra.. extra hull with a Weta adorning our foreshore.

For 2026 we will probably run another taster day and we have the Multihull Open running on the 18th & 19th July.

https://www.balasc.co.uk/event/1272687

If you are interested in knowing more about this exciting class why not get in contact....

Bala Sailing Club With Bala Lake previously having a separate Sailing Club and Catamaran Club at opposite ends of the lake, the joining of the "Cat Club" to the Bala Sailing Club bought an increased interest in Multihulls. With almost 4 miles of lake and 3/4 mile wide in places, it is a natural home for Multihulls to...

Don't forget that 22nd March is the opening event at Bala SC as we hit the ground running with "The Massacre".
Last year it was won by Steve Pooley in his K1 and he is part of the 9 entries already in. We also have our first junior helm entered in an Optimist plus a couple of Multihulls.
This 2-3 hour Pursuit race is a great way to start the season so get your entries in now...

Bala Sailing Club This pursuit event was originally named as it fell around the time of the "St Valentines Day Massacre" but in later years, the name "Massacre" probably was more apt due the the general conditions in March as well as what has been "high retirements" in some seasons. 

Counting day the "days" not weeks now...
Just 19 left until we re-open the club for our 2026 season.

Our standard club opens of the Massacre, Long Distance, Multihull Open and 2 Regatta's are set in the calendar as well as a number of fleets joining us.

We have a massive weekend in August with the RYA OnBoard and the Waspz joining us.
Add to that, 25 weekends of club racing, a number of cruiser events and some exciting paddling opportunities as well as known University rowing club hosting a 3 day training event with us, its a great year to be part of Bala SC.

See you all out on the water soon!

2026 will continue to be a year that maintains the focus of the committee as we continue to drive a strategy that safeguards the future of our club.
For me data is everything and looking at our membership figures it is clear that whilst we have a nice gender balance in our young people, once we hit the late teens, we have a gap in the young adult to 40's age range.
We have done a few things to drive this forward, the key one is creating a new membership class of "young adult". Previously, once you hit 18 you immediately jumped from £59 to £196 which once you write it down you realise is not attractive, so for 2026 we have launched a Young Adult Membership which runs from 18 to 24 and offers full sailing membership for £98.
We have also re-confirmed that anyone taking part in our Learn to Sail courses in 2026, as well as getting that years membership included in the course fees, are also eligible for the "Year 1 discount" in their second year of sailing.
As a volunteer ran club we continue to balance best value to our members with generating enough revenue to keep us ticking over.
If you are new to sailing and looking to learn to sail or if you have sailing experience and are thinking about joining us as Bala Sailing Club, it would be great to chat to you about what you are after.
A few links to our membership fees and sailing courses are below
https://www.balasc.co.uk/page/membership
https://www.balasc.co.uk/training-1/training

Membership : Bala Sailing Club Below are the 2026 membership fees and details of how to become a member. Bala SC is a seasonal club run by volunteers, with facilities available from Early March to Late October. We welcome new members for sailing, windsurfing, kayaking, paddle boarding and social members. We have boat parking avai...

We are only 5 weeks away from the club opening up. It is always a welcome countdown as members prepare their boats ready for the upcoming season. The team have been busy starting to prepare the foreshore with out tree team maintaining the site in line with NRW and ENP direction.
As a SSSI site, we have a duty to work within strict guidelines and cannot prune or remove any tree or branch system without approval.
Huge thanks to the regular tree pruning volunteers Les, Mark, Helen, Rhys, Toddy and Rob Hyde

Only about 7 weeks until we re-open. So time to hit the workshop and have a go at fixing the daggerboard runners on Nellie (the Catapult). What have the rest of you been up to to get ready for the season?

Hot off the press, the sailing challenges for 2026 are now finalised.

We will be running the highly popular 5-4-1 again as well as putting some energy back behind the Long Distance Challenge.

Dont forget that these are open to all members and all boat types...

To give you a taster of what to aim for, Top times for the 5-4-1 in 2025 were:
Monohull - Andy Todd (RS100) - Elapsed = 11:26 Corrected = 11:03 (Conditions SW 14 knots)
Multihull - Dave Ansell & Andy Bovington (Dart 16 no kite) - Elapsed = 10:09 Corrected = 11:24 (Conditions SW 13 knots)
Junior in helm position - Tom McIntyre (RS Tera Sport) - Elapsed 17:40 Corrected 12:14 (Conditions SW 12 knots)

Bala Sailing Club A few people have messaged me to ask if we are continuing the sailing challenges into 2026 and of course the answer is YES....

If you follow us on Facebook, please hop over and join us on Instagram as well.
New content being posted in multiple channels...

Bala Sailing Club (@bala_sc) • Instagram photos and videos 169 Followers, 11 Following, 271 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Bala Sailing Club ()

Well its a wrap! the 2025 season is over and a huge thank you to our members for not only supporting the club this year but also for clearing the foreshore and moorings of boats by the requested weekend.
The committee are now working on the 2026 program and I look forward to seeing you all out on the water in 2026....

2017 saw the RS Aeros descend on the club (not sure what the event was?) A great fleet sharing what looked like great weather!

The August Regatta has always been a standard calendar event and with such a great stretch of water if normally attracts competitors from all over the country in a great range of boats.

2017 was no exception with what looks like (from these pictures), really nice conditions.

The RYA "On Board" event has been a staple part of club life with a great relationship between Bala SC and RYA Cymru meaning we have have the opportunity to host this most years.

2017 saw a mixed set of experiences and classes including windsurfers complimenting the dinghies.

It is always great to see the future of Welsh sailing at a grass roots level enjoying developing their skills and taking part in very close competition.

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