A new yacht club is being launched in the Cotswolds town of Chipping Norton , despite being over 100km from the nearest sailable coastline.

The landlocked Oxfordshire town seems an unlikely candidate for a yacht club but organisers say that local residents have given the idea a warm reception.

“We may be on a hill miles from the sea, lack moorings, have no dinghy park or river frontage but in the Cotswolds there are hundreds of people with a keen interest in boats and sailing,” says Trevor Taylor, whose idea it was to form the club.

“Many Cotswold locals sail on the south, east and west coasts or overseas but, until now, there’s been no local yacht club where those interested in boating can meet without having to embark on a two-hour journey to the Solent or longer to east or west coast ports.”

The Chipping Norton Yacht Club (CNYC) hopes to officially launch early this year and have contacted the RYA with a view to affiliate membership.

The club is open to all with an interest in both sailing and power boating and will offer talks on key topics, hopes to provide RYA-approved training courses and discounts from selected suppliers.

For more information see the CNYC website www.cnyc.co.uk or email yachtbreeze@gmail.com

Picture of Chipping Norton by Reading Tom