Cardiff Sailing Centre ( cy, Canolfan Hwylio Caerdydd) is a

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Cyngor Sir Dinas a Sir Caerdydd) is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...

run watersports facility based on

Cardiff Bay Barrage Cardiff Bay Barrage ( cy, Morglawdd Bae Caerdydd) lies across the mouth of Cardiff Bay, Wales between Queen Alexandra Dock and Penarth Head. It was one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe during construction in the 1990s. Hist ...

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...

. The centre runs

dinghy A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open wat ...

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

powerboat A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...

and other shore-based courses.

History

The centre opened in 1968 as Llanishen Sailing Centre and was based at

Llanishen Reservoir Llanishen Reservoir ( cy, Cronfa Ddŵr Llanisien) is a Victorian reservoir in North Cardiff in Wales. The reservoir is one of the reservoirs constructed as part of the Taff Fawr scheme for supplying water to Cardiff and was completed in 1886. I ...

in North Cardiff. It was rebranded in 2010 when the centre was forced to relocate to Cardiff Bay due to the draining of the reservoir but is still one of the major watersports centre's in Wales. The centre has produced a number of Welsh national, GB National and international sailors over the years, including Olympic Gold & Silver medallist

Hannah Mills Hannah Louise Mills, (born 29 February 1988) is a British competitive sailor and two-time world champion in the Women's 470 class, having won in 2012 and 2019. Mills won a silver medal for Team GB with her crew Saskia Clark in the 2012 Olymp ...

MBE who started sailing at the centre in 1996 and won the Silver Medal at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in Weymouth and the Gold Medal at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. A number of regional, national and international events have been held at the centre over the years, including the 2001 Summer Games of the Special Olympics UK and recently facilitating the hosting of the

Extreme Sailing Series The Extreme Sailing Series (ESS) (formerly the iShares Cup) was an annual global racing series, organised by OC Sport, which ran from 2007 to 2018. The series started in 2007 with its main attraction being the stadium racing which puts the race ...

since 2011 and the 2017–18 Volvo Ocean Race.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.cbwac.com
Cardiff Sailing Centre's Council webpage
Sports venues in Cardiff Water sports in Wales Sailing in Wales Tourism in Wales Organizations established in 1974 1974 establishments in Wales Sports clubs and teams in Wales