Flocks of visitors including George Clark, Chairman of the Royal Yachting Association, turned out today for the official opening of the new Relling One Design sail loft and one-stop dinghy racing centre at Portland in Weymouth.

This new race performance set-up, which is situated right in the heart of the Portland Sailing Academy in Portland harbour, is the mastermind of Adam Bowers, respected dinghy racing sailor and 470 Olympic coach. Bowers, who’s been racing dinghies and coaching for more years than he’d like to admit, believes that by running the sail loft in conjunction with a dinghy repair yard, chandlery and race-training centre, he’ll be able to offer dinghy racers a super-efficient facility. “Our aim,” said Bowers, “Is to provide dinghy sailors, whether they be club dinghy sailors or top Olympic champions, with a one-stop dinghy centre. We’ve brought in the expertise of Linton Jenkins who’s renowned for building quality racing dinghies, to run the boat yard, the sail loft, will continue to produce race winning sails, the chandlery will stock all the race-winning essentials including O-three, Gill, Musto sailing clothing, Holt, Harken and Ronstan fittings, and Superspar and Proctor masts, and I’ll be ensuring the coaching side of the centre runs smoothly.”

Bowers has already established himself as one of country’s top racing coaches. As well as his full time work with the RYA as 470 Olympic Racing coach, he finds time to do one-to-one coaching with club and national champion level sailors who want to improve their skills on the racecourse. And having already had some positive interest from classes such as the Scorpion, Fireball and Osprey, he is keen to run training workshops for other class associations.

The Splash class is currently running its world championship here at Weymouth and already with one day to go before the start of the first race, the team in the sail loft are drawing in the repairs. “It’s a windy day today,” commented Lee Newton, head sailmaker, and many of the overseas visitors are out training so it’s inevitable they will be some damage. Anyone who comes in with a sail repair today can join in the ‘Opening Party’ which will be running all day. Cheers!”