With less than two weeks out to the start of Bangor Town Regatta we caught up with event Chairman Gavin Watson to get his pre-event thoughts.

Aside from the usual stresses and strains of running a major regatta we are all ready to go for kick off on the 23rd of this month. The infrastructure is now being set up this week to welcome some 650 competitors to Bangor and Royal Ulster Yacht Club.

On the water we are especially delighted to have three excellent Race Officers under the control of Conn Murphy, so we are in a good place to provide some excellent on the water competition.

We currently have 60+ entrants with a few more expected over the next week. We are especially pleased with the support from the RC35 Class which will have the largest entrants for BTR22 with boats coming from Scotland, Strangford Lough and of course Belfast Lough.

The class has gone from strength to strength over the last number of years and we are pleased to be a “counting" regatta to the RC35 Celtic Cup Overall Championship.

With recent success in the Wave Regatta for Final Call II, John Minnis will certainly know the competition within The RC35 Class from J109’s and the likes of Stuart Cranston’s Ker 32 Hijacker, Storm and Animal to name but a few.

We are delighted with the overall entry list, and we wish to use this return to sailing as a foundation to build Bangor Town Regatta for the future. It is important to support all sailing events as we have seen this year how lack of support, volunteers and entries can leave events exposed.

With entries from Scotland, England, Strangford Lough and the Isle of Man we are so thankful for their support and that of our volunteers.