A RECORD number of boats for a race on the Forth this year took to the water for Aberdour Boat Club's annual regatta on Saturday.

The 143rd running of the event saw 18 vessels from seven clubs around the Forth compete in two races, for fast handicap yachts and slow handicap boats respectively.

On a sun-kissed afternoon, the course took those taking part west through Mortimer's Deep and around Inchcolm Island, east to a buoy near Inchkeith and back via Silver Sands, with a brisk wind providing close racing.

Dave Stewart, commodore of Aberdour Boat Club, was delighted with the event's success and believes they are reversing a trend of declining membership within boating and sailing clubs.

"We had 18 boats and I believe that is a Forth record for this year," he said.

"It was a good regatta and we have been coming up over the last year or two. If you look back in history, we used to have 100 boats at every regatta but we are bucking the trend in terms of coming up again.

"I had a meeting with the commodores from other clubs around the Forth, and I've discovered they're having the same problems, so I'm trying different ways to increase interest.

"Since I've been working on the boat club, what I think we have needed is the social scene to increase, and that seems to be working. We have seen an improvement; when I took over as commodore, it was in the doldrums and there wasn't much activity.

"We've got the membership up – we've now got 115 members – so things are going in the right direction.

"The regatta is our big event of the year but we do have small club races, and we're getting a lot more boats at that too."

Anyone interested in giving sailing a go will have the opportunity to do so at this year's Aberdour Festival.

The event, which runs from July 27 to August 5, has a packed programme of comedy, music and literature lined-up, as well as regular family favourites like the Donkey Brae run, raft races and harbour races.

On Saturday July 28, when the raft and harbour races take place, the club will be running a 'try a sail' programme throughout the day.

For more information, visit www.aberdourboatclub.co.uk.