Club History

In 1910 the Horning Town Sailing Club was formed, with its Headquarters at the Swan Hotel, Horning. The Club grew and prospered until 1938 when an amalgamation of several Clubs took place to form the Norfolk Broads Yacht Club, and the Horning Town Sailing Club ceased to exist as a separate entity.

It was apparent that there was still a need for a sailing club based in Horning. Accordingly, in 1938, the Horning Sailing Club was formed, with an initial membership of 244. Today, the Club is one of the largest in the area. Racing takes place on the river at Horning, on Hoveton Little Broad and down river to Thurne and Acle. There is handicap sailing for Allcomers A, B & C and class races for Cruisers and for Reedling, Rebel, Yare & Bure One Design and Yeoman keelboats.

Each year the Club also runs the nationally famous Three Rivers Race at the beginning of June and Horning Open Regatta at the beginning of August. The Thursday of Regatta Week sees the Horning Town Open Regatta, with its cost supported by the efforts of the Regatta President and Vice-Presidents.

There is an active social programme throughout the year. The Club has moorings for dinghies, keelboats and sailing and motor cruisers. HSC welcomes new members, particularly young ones. From mid-May to mid-September activities and training are organised on Thursday evenings for junior members of the Club. The Club is an RYA Approved Training Centre running courses for members in dinghy and keel boat sailing, power boating and safety boat handling.

HSC's season runs from mid-March to Mid-October. During the winter, the Club's premises are used by Snowflake Sailing Club who run a racing programme through the winter.

The Three Rivers Race is one of the oldest remaining on the Broads sailing calendar. Running every year since 1961, usually on the first weekend after the Whitsun Bank Holiday, it is also one of the largest inland yachting races in Europe, encompassing three rivers and two lakes or broads in rural Norfolk. Originally, the plan was to have boats crossing the estuary at Breydon Water with the three rivers being the Bure, Yare and Waveney. However, from a safety and tide aspect this proved impractical so the northern Broadland rivers of the Bure, Thurne and Ant were used instead, and remain the Three Rivers of the Race to this day.

In 2013 the 3 Rivers Race was listed in the top 10 of the toughest mass-participation events by the Sport and Recreation Alliance.