A catamaran is put onto the water at Queenborough

Queenborough Yacht Club were forced to abandon racing on Saturday due to the unexpected popularity of their open day.

Club members and skippers were overwhelmed by the interest in the sport as people flocked to the coast to experience action on the water.

Because of the numbers wishing to try the sport, the club decided to scrap plans for racing.

The club’s rear commodore Eddie Johnson was delighted to see the club and the sport of sailing get so much attention.

"We had a few sign up on the day and a lot of people took application forms away," he said.

"The idea of taking people out was to let them have a go and show people who haven’t done the sport before that sailing is accessible, not just to people with boats, and to dispel the myth about it being a sport that is too expensive to get involved with.

"There was no way we could stop to get the boats out for racing. We took 70 people out on Saturday and it was beyond what we expected. If the weather had been better, I’m sure even more people would have wanted to go out, so there was no way we could do it.

"We anticipated about 50 people going through the club but not 70. It was a higher than expected number.

"The event exceeded our hopes and the skippers on the boats didn’t have a break all day. Everyone had a great time."