The club was originaly formed about 30 years ago. Although based in Milton Keynes, its members come from a large catchment area, ranging from Leighton Buzzard to Bedford. For sailing, we have exclusive use of Little Willow Lake in Newton Leys, Milton Keynes.
The club meets one evening a month in a local hostelry with sailing, weather permitting, on the Sunday following that meeting. We attend various model boat shows, places of maritime interest and also local events, where we also exhibit.
The prime purpose of our meetings is to provide help and advice to members when they are building their boats. Frequently, part-built models or sections of a model are brought to meetings, either to show what they have done, or to seek help. We have also had guest speakers attend to give talks on modelling techniques.
The club members mostly build and sail scale model boats, either from kits or more often scratch built. You can also sail ready made, off the shelf models. There is no limit as to what type of vessel you have. We have even had radio-controlled ducks and hippos on the water. Once ducklings followed the model duck much to the annoyance of the real Mallard hen! The lake we use only permits sail or electric power on the water, although members have built steam and i.c. motor powered models.
There is no specific age limit to being a member, but because of insurance limitations, the minimum age for sailing without adult supervision is 16. Regulations also stipulate, for safety, that there has to be more than one adult lakeside at any one time. Membership skills vary from the absolute novice, to those who have won trophies and other awards at national shows. Even if you just buy a ready built model and want to sail it, you are welcome to join us. We are a small club, but very friendly.