The M.J. Quinn UK Firefighters Sailing Challenge - Preview
by Eddie Winter 13 Apr 2011 08:20 BST
26-28 April 2011
The increasingly popular UK Fire fighters Sailing Challenge will be run for the 8th consectutive year on 26th, 27th and 28th April in the testing waters of the Solent.
National electrical contractors MJ Quinn Integrated Services Ltd have kindly come onboard as our platinum and title sponsor. They will be entering a yacht and competing for the sponsors trophy. Boddingtons Electrical and Inspecfire, as silver sponsors, also have boats entered in the event.
The event is known as the ‘friendly’ regatta where skippers are encouraged not to be too aggressive in their racing tactics on the water and to bring along inexperienced crew to give them a taste of yacht racing. Several novice crew members from earlier events have gone on to become qualified as skippers and now enter their own boat.
As the event has become more well known and respected, invitations have been extended to the other emergency services and there are now Police services, ambulance services and mountain rescue service entries as well as entries from UK fire Services. This makes the event, probably, the only 999 sports event in the country. At the time of this report there are 26 boats entered.
The event provides a platform to raise money for deserving charities and has raised well over £20,000 in the past 5 years. This year the charities benefiting from the event will be The Fire Fighters Charity and the RNLI.
The event committee are very grateful to the many local and national companies who have generously donated prizes for the raffles and auctions that raise much of the money that will be donated, including our charter company Sunsail.
Event dinners will be held at the Cowes Event Centre on the nights of the 27th and 28th and we are delighted that comedian Miles Crawford will once again be entertaining competitor at our dinners.
More details of the event may be found on our website at www.ukfsc.org.uk