Nockamixon Sail Club (NSC) has a fleet to accommodate racing by any type of boat. The Portsmouth Fleet provides racing to any member of the club and NSC guest every day we hold racing events on the lake. The fleet uses the US Sailing, Portsmouth Yardstick handicapping program for all racing. The fleet Racing Series are held on club event dates, May through October.
The fleet dates back to 1974 when the club was formed and has provided many skippers the chance to try racing. The Portsmouth fleet has One Design and other boats ranging from Laser, Lightning, Impulse 21, Santana 2023R, GP14, Catalina 22, Precision, Hunters, O-Day … If you want to try racing, NSC is the place to be for your first racing experience. The Portsmouth fleet gives any skipper an open invitation to ‘sail the marks’ and race against the best on Lake Nockamixon.
Come Race with Us!
The Nockamixon Sail Club supports a Portsmouth fleet that allows any type of boat to compete fairly against any other type of boat using a rating system. The Portsmouth fleet uses dates from the NSC racing schedule to host a Saturday and Regatta Series for sailboat racing. The club also hosts seven Invitational Regattas and other special events to give a skipper many options to sail on Lake Nockamixon – see Come Race with Us to read more.
Racing 101 the Basics: Sailing can be more fun when you race. The basics for racing can be broken down into sailing itself, the start, the race course, the finish and sailing rules. The Nockamixon Sail Club holds races on Lake Nockamixon and uses the area in front of the marina for most races. Some races use larger areas of the lake. The Coves Challenge use the lake from the Haycock area to the Lake House Point. Races are conducted by the club following two documents – Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions. These documents are made available for a skipper to review prior to an event – see Portsmouth Fleet Basic Racing Handout to read more
RYA Portsmouth Yardstick: The Nockamixon Sail Club supports a Portsmouth fleet that uses the RYA Portsmouth Yardstick, a handicap system that allows any type of boat to compete fairly against any other type of boat – see Portsmouth Ratings to read more.
Race Courses: The Portsmouth fleet uses two areas of the lake for courses – marina area for buoy racing and the marina area to the Fishing Pier for long distance courses – see Portsmouth Race Courses to read more.
Racing Signal Flags: The races held by the Nockamixon Sail Club use visual racing signals (flags) and sounds (horn) to help communicate instructions from the Race Committee (RC) to the skipper before, during, and after a race – see Signal Flags to read more.
Sailing Instructions – Exceptions to Portsmouth Rating Rules: To encourage participation by all members, friends, and families, there will be no restriction on the number of crew in any boat. Scoring is for the registered skipper for the day — the helmsperson may change between races or even within a race – see SI and NOR for the Portsmouth Fleet to read more.
Come on out, we would love to see you on the water!