All,
Thanks for the various updates and I have added everyone to the booking for Saturday's meal.
For those interested in using a campervan at the Sailing Academy, they are setup for this because they have people staying in campervans when they host national sailing events, etc. There are electric hookups and the academy building has showers, loos and a cafe, etc. The campervans are parked on a hard standing, not a nice grassy area, but they are in among all the boats so you are very much "on the spot". Cost is £18/night. I thought that was quite expensive given that we're already a customer of the academy and will have bought temporary membership and launching fees, etc, but I don't think I will be able to negotiate them down. If you want to use a campervan then you have to book online. You can do that via the following link and that also provides more information for campervans:
http://www.wpnsa.org.uk/overnight-campervaning/I will post full details about location and timings nearer to the 4th July. As things stand we have a number of boats arriving on the Friday, most of the rest on Saturday and one joining us just for the day on Sunday. I will let you all have the code for the Academy's security gates but if you arrive during office hours then it's best to go to reception first and check-in with them before going in to the "compound".
I don't have any firm ideas about where to sail and I suggest we see what the weather's doing and what we all fancy. Again, I'll update this before the sailing weekend once the weather forecast is known. At that time I'll also confirm exact timings and meetings places, etc. I'll put all that information in the first post of this forum topic and also add a new post to let you know I've made those updates.
Some peple have asked about using the marina (
http://www.deanreddyhoff.co.uk/portland-marina/). Launch and recovery is very easy at the Sailing Academy so I suspect most of you will want to do that each day. But the marina is immediately next door and recommended if you want to avoid daily recovery or want to sleep in your boat on the water (both of which apply to me). Cost is £1.95/m/day all-in. If you're undecided then that's not a problem because you can just ask for a visitor berth on the day and they should have something - just call them on 08454 302012 or VHF channel 80.
Finally, I promised I would check out Swallows' Rest camp site and I will do that this week and post here what we find.
I think that covers everything. I will post detailed information nearer the time but please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions in the meantime.