The First Circumnavigation

Published 01:00 on 20 May 2025

The First Rutland Circumnavigation has been designed in honour of the famous Three Rivers Race, run by Horning Sailing Club, which covers 50 miles of the rivers Bure, Ant and Thurne. This year it takes place 31st May - 1st June and several boats from Rutland Sailing Club will be taking part.

I've called it the Two Rivers Race because Rutland Water was built in two river valleys. The North Arm was the River Eg and the South Arm was the River Gwash (I've added the names to the chart).

The wind is forecast to be from the West on Saturday, which would be a downwind start from Horning so that's what we'll do (but probably with more room to manoeuvre than on the rived Bure!). The River runs South but we can't do that so our course is a sort of mirror image, running North East to the Ferry Inn (which, in this case, is the Normanton Hotel).

From there the River runs East until it reaches the River Ant, so we will go West - probably a beat or tight reach - until the mouth of the Ant (which in our case is the River Eg at the end of the North Arm)

The Bure runs on South East until it reaches the Thurne entrance (which in our case is the Whitwell Entrance at the mouth of the North Arm). It then turns South to reach Acle and so do we but our Acle is the Outer Finish Line which, like Acle, is not far from the pub and cafe!

For larger, faster boats the course should take around 1 ½ hours and for smaller boats like the Sailfish it should take just over 2 hours.

Last updated 09:59 on 21 May 2025