Welcome to Dittisham Sailing Club 
If
you are
viewing this
website with
Microsoft
Internet
Explorer v8
drop-down
menus may
not display
correctly.
If this is
the case,
please
reconfigure
your browser
by choosing
'Compatibility
View'
under the 'Tools'
menu of your
browser.
Previous
versions of
Microsoft
Internet
Explorer and
other
browsers
such as
Mozilla
Firefox
should be
unaffected
by this
compatibility
problem.
We apologise
for any
inconvenience
and are
working on
the site to
view
correctly in
MS IE8.
Scroll down to read a report of the opening of our new clubhouse on 11th July 2009
Dittisham Regatta
Saturday 15th August 2009
Dartmouth Royal Regatta 2009 Dingy Racing at Dittisham
23rd-26th August 2009
Spring 2009 Newsletter
Latest D.S.C. Race Results
2009 Race Programme
B.B.C. Weather
Weather at Froward Point
Tides (Greenaway Quay 23a)
How to find Dittisham Sailing Club.
Get onto the A381 Dartmouth to Totnes road. Take the turn off to Dittisham at the Sportsman’s Arms public house. (Roughly 3 miles from Dartmouth or 7 from Totnes) After about two miles you arrive in the middle of the village with the Red Lion pub and the village shop on your right. Turn right here just after the shop into Riverside Road. Just a couple of hundred yards later turn right again at the sign for the car park. (At both these right turns watch out for the arrows with DSC on them!). Drive down to the Ham car park, leave the car, and someone will direct you the last few yards along the foreshore to the Club.
Map
Money grants on the ebb so sailors heave-too and build Clubhouse themselves.
For most people it would have been a washout but for the sailing fraternity it was business as usual when about 100 people endured the pouring rain to witness the official opening of the new Dittisham Sailing Club Boathouse on Saturday 11th July 2009. This was conducted by Mike Kelsey President of Royal Dart Yacht Club and the ribbon was cut by Anthea Weeks, wife of Jonathan the present Commodore of D.S.C. who, by general assent has been the driving force behind the building project and has devoted endless time and effort in organising the whole project.
Despite the weather, guests from neighbouring clubs attended, including the Royal Dart, Paignton Sailing Club Totnes Boating Association and representatives from the RYA.
The opening was followed by a celebratory feast consisting of a wonderful array of interesting and tasty dishes provided by members.
In the clubhouse were two displays. One gave the early history of the club and the other detailed and illustrated the gradual transformation of the small single boatshed into the present magnificent Clubhouse.
The club dates from 1950 when it was founded by Arthur Hancock, a farmer from Somerset who retired to Dit’sum to enjoy sailing in the Dart. He was aided by Angus Primrose who later became famous in the Yachting world for designing racing yachts but in the 1950s owned and worked the Dolphin boat yard at Galmpton. Also in at the beginning were 2 shipwrights from Dittisham, Bill Quick and Ted Cox who built and raced the wooden dinghies which Angus designed. All the early racing was organised from a small wooden hut until in the early 1990s a single story boat shed was built with a lottery grant and funding from Sport England
This shed housed the 2 safety boats but had no toilet or showers and only the “barest” changing facilities. Planning permission for an extended clubhouse with a second story was granted in 2006 but the estimated cost to have it built was £143.000.This was much too expensive for members and so, with considerable trepidation, they decided to build it themselves which has resulted in a saving of almost £100.000. Construction took place in 2007-8-9 with work parties organised on most Sundays during the non-sailing season, and parties of semi-retired members working as many as 3 days a week to complete the various tasks required. The club is lucky in having some members with specialist expertise in such crafts as building, carpentry, electrics tile laying etc and these members gave unstintingly of their time and advice.
The display in the clubhouse explained the various stages of the construction and had some dramatic pictures showing the eventual raising of the roof using only 3 trolley jacks and 200 fencing posts used as jenga blocks. It has been an epic project and a remarkable achievement for members who are better qualified for sailing than building and they are very proud of the Clubhouse which has a lecture room, changing rooms with toilets and showers, a kitchen and a members lounge and balcony with a wonderful view across the river
As the aim of the club is to encourage more people, and especially the young to enjoy the delights of sailing, we hope our new facilities may be used by schools and Sport partnerships to encourage even more young people in the area to take to the water.
