• Home
• Racing and Sailing
• Cadets and Families
• Training
• Membership
• News
• About
• Contact

• Latest news
• Subscribe to News Alerts by Email or Social Media

Club News

Prosper Art Project update - Helicopter aerial photography

Posted: Wednesday, 12 December, 2012

The Prosper Arts Project will be taking photographs of Whitstable Yacht Club and the last race of the season from a helicopter this Sunday! After success of the aerial photography from a plane on 18th November, the project wants to maximise the opportunity to capture aerial photography of the last race in the season on Sunday 16th December by hiring a JetRanger helicopter (and pilot) to fly from Manston to Whitstable harbour. The aircraft will be on task at 13:55 and fly not less than 600 feet altitude and remain over the beach or close inshore for 45 minutes. The aim is to follow the race and then return safely to Manston, with a total flight time of 1 hour 10 minutes. Please come and make the last race a good one, with as many boats on the water as possible, and members who aren't sailing on the beach for a great photo opportunity!

The hire of the helicopter will be dependant on weather conditions on Sunday afternoon, but the weather forecast is looking good at the moment!

As part of the Canterbury Festival project called PROSPER Whitstable Yacht Club has been working with local artists Tracey Falcon and Andy Evans. One of the aims of the project is to encourage new collaborations between local artists and communities in Kent. WYC bid for funding with Tracey and Andy to be included in an experimental phase of the Prosper project known as White Horses.

The project will explore a number of ideas where art, sailing and local communities meet. Members of WYC (whose engagement in the project is led by the clubs sailing development officer Richard Earland) are key participants. In October the partnership had planned to use an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle – UAV (or small drone) but this had to be postponed for technical reasons. Not to be put off, members of the club rallied round. One of its members, Howard Patterson (a former Commodore of the club) generously offered the use of his private aeroplane to plug the gap left by the grounded UAV. From this vantage point all was ready to film one of the Winter Sunday race series on 18th November. An unusual November weather pattern (bright sunlight and no wind) required another change to the plan as the Prosper team took to the air. There wasn’t enough wind for the yacht race to take place. The clubs safety boat crews led by the Honorary Bosun, Ian Embry, came to the rescue (more metaphorically than usual). A combination of a pre-planned exercise with Whitstable Life Boat manoeuvring at speed and some close formation action with the clubs Rigid Inflatable Boats – or RIBs set the scene. This made for some exciting video and still photography from the cockpit of Howard’s light aircraft.

For the next phase of the experiment, the hire of a helicopter will be funded by a combination of the Prosper arts budget and a generous contribution from a benefactor (who wishes to remain anonymous) - there is no cost to the club. To find out more about Prosper go to www.traceyfalcon.co.uk, and for more information on this Sunday’s event contact Richard Earland