THIS weekend sees the return of Barry Yacht Club's annual Highlight Race, as the competition enters its 49th consecutive year.

Those looking out across the Bristol Channel on Saturday from around 1pm will be able to see the yachts in this year's race, which is being sponsored by Barry building firm Highlight Building and Property Maintenance.

The race began life in 1968 when the then Vice-Commodore, Geoff Winter, negotiated with the BBC for sponsorship and the transmission of action film from a race for cruising vessels organised by Barry Yacht Club. Known as the BBC TV Race, it was an immediate success, aided by the free entry which was unusual in those days.

The first race attracted an entry of 56 vessels, with viewers glued to their TV sets on the Monday evening when a very short glimpse of the racing appeared on the Welsh news programme.

The BBC continued to support the race for some 20 years, with the club eventually able to obtain some of the film that had been cut from TV broadcasts. This is now available on a CD and has been re-shown on a number of occasions at the Club.

The event has traditionally been run as an end of season fun race with boats coming to Barry from all parts of the Bristol Channel. The number of entries has increased considerably since its inauguration and in 1971 exceeded 100 for the first time, later going on to reach as many as 130.

After a number of sponsors and TV broadcasting contracts came and went with varying degrees of success, the number of entries had dropped to 50 by 1996. Brains Brewery then took over and were involved, off and on, for some 14 years, before Highlight Building and Property Maintenance began supporting the race in 2010.

As ever attendees at the race will depend on the weather in the Channel but in the last few years boats from Porlock Weir, Portishead, Weston and Cardiff have taken part and the event has become as much a social occasion as a sailing one.

If you’d like more information on Barry Yacht Club, contact: bycsecretary@hotmail.co.uk, or call 01446 735511. Alternatively, they can be found on Facebook at Barry Yacht Club, or on Twitter: @BarryYacht.