Tideway Dinghy Derby - sailing on the Thames to the Houses of Parliament!

On Saturday 20th June in London, 80 dinghies raced ten miles up and down the River Thames as part of the Tideway Dinghy Derby supported by Laing O'Rourke, celebrating a cleaner tidal Thames and supporting a life-changing sailing programme for young people. It's been a long, long time since this race was last held. 1977 in fact when 300 boats took part during the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Many more would have liked to race this year, but the Thames is a far busier place nowadays, and getting this event off the ground has been a gargantuan effort by Ranelagh Sailing Club with an immense amount of support and goodwill from the Port of London Authority. It's not often British megaprojects are lauded, but the Thames Tideway Tunnel really is astounding. The network of tunnels underneath London is already complex enough with the various underground trains and much more besides, so finding the space for a 25 kilometre long tunnel, big enough to fit three double-decker buses side by side, has been challenging to say the least. Couple that with the fact that it goes directly under some of the best-known landmarks in the world, such as Tower Bridge, and the geology changes continually, and it has to be regarded as a modern engineering marvel. The reason it's less celebrated than many more visible projects is that it's actually a sewer - not the most glamorous subject, and definitely something people would prefer to ignore. The upside is that the River Thames is now cleaner than it has been for hundreds of years, making it a habitat once again for marine life like seals and porpoises and also for sailing. In its first year of operation the Tideway Tunnel has diverted over 18 million tonnes of storm sewage away from the River Thames. The overall results were dominated by the Fireflys, taking nine of the top ten places, with Angus Cook and Lucie Hopkins taking the overall win, then Roger and Amy Morris second, followed by Nigel Wakefield and Emily Saunderson third. It was fantastic to see Greig City Academy's Corneille Leprince finishing ninth overall in his ILCA 6, also winning the High Handicap group and the youth sailor prize. Corneille is one of the many protégés of the sailing programme set up by inspirational teacher Jon Holt, who has turned an inner city school into a hotbed of sailing talent. In a breakthrough moment for diversity in sailing, Corneille has recently been selected for the British Sailing Youth Team. We were joined on the water by Fleur Anderson, MP for Putney, who was so inspired by the race and the young Greig City Academy sailors taking part that she is now actively looking at supporting schools in her constituency to get out on the water and follow the lead that Jon and the Scaramouche sailors have set. Prizes were handed out by Vendée Globe star Pip Hare, who also sailed in the race with Elayra from the Greig City Academy girl's team in a 2000. For Pip it was her first dinghy race in 15 years! With thanks to Loreto Rodriguez of Greig City Academy and the Scaramouche Sailing Trust, who filmed on the water and conducted many of the interviews. If you are inspired by the work of the Scaramouche Sailing Trust then please do visit https://scaramouchesailing.org.uk/ and, if you can, donate via https://www.justgiving.com/page/ranelaghdinghyderby #sailing #riverthames #scaramouche