WOULD-be sailors flocked to Killington Reservoir to try their hand at half-a-dozen different kinds of sailing dinghy as Killington Sailing Association held a special event to both raise its profile and also make money for Sailability - the charity which promotes disabled sailing.

Getting disabled people afloat is something which is not new to KSA, as part of the National Lottery funding which helped it create a fine new clubhouse on the lake shore was used to create a special hoist on the jetty to help disabled people in and out of boats.

Sunday's Try A Sail day was intended to fulfill a second condition of lottery funding - to make sailing more widely available - and to do that the association wants to expand beyond its present 140 individual members and associated organisations such as the Sea Scouts, Bendrigg Lodge and Killington Windsurfers.

One way of doing that was to encourage membership by people who did not have a boat of their own, said dinghy park steward Chris Bell.

KSA owns several types of dinghy, from lively Laser Picos to family boats such as Wayfarers, which members can hire for a very reasonable £5 for two hours. With family membership costing just £60, plus an additional £40 one-off joining fee, that makes it a very affordable way to get in to a sport which is too often regarded as the preserve of the well off.

Facilities at the club are available every day except in the very depths of winter and the Laser fleet have even been known to race in the dark with torches strapped to the front of their boats.

More conventionally, the club holds regular handicap racing to cater for the whole spectrum of dinghies.

Anyone interested in joining the association can contact Myles Ripley on 015396-21101, or via: Myles@ripley.demon.co.uk