SAILORS are urging holidaymakers and residents to plan ahead for the 2012 Games next summer.

Members of the Weymouth Sailing Club, including Paralympian Megan Pascoe and New Zealand Olympic-class windsurfer Natalia Kosinska, posed with a 2.4mR keelboat at Victoria Square to mark the start of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) advertising campaign.

In just over a year the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy will host the sailing events for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games between July and September 2012.

An ODA spokesman said the borough’s role in 2012 was expected to double the usual number of summer visitors to 60,000 a day and have a ‘significant impact on the local transport network, residents, holidaymakers and local businesses.’ The advertising campaign urges potential holidaymakers ‘to plan well in advance’, and includes a link to www.

dorsetforyou.com/London2012 for more information about transport during the Games, while residents and businesses are advised to reconsider their normal travel arrangements.

Jane Buckle, Olympic liaison officer at the Weymouth Sailing Club, said: “Having the sailing here in Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour is fantastic for us, the locals and the holidaymakers.

“With events happening both on and off the water, it’s a very exciting time for everyone involved.

“Inevitably, there will be a lot more people in the area, so it is not only the holidaymakers who have to plan ahead when it comes to next summer.

“As a local business, we have to prepare carefully for the Games – we have already started thinking and planning ahead when it comes to deliveries and logistics. We want to ensure that our members have a thoroughly enjoyable 2012 Games.”

Club member Ernie Lee, aged 86, was living in London when the last home London Games were held.

He said: “I remember it was just after the war and the country was in a dreadful state after the Blitz and bombing.

“There was still evidence of devastation but the 1948 Games took our minds off what had gone past.”

Portland Paralympic rising star Megan, 24, said: “It’s great for Weymouth Sailing Club to be part of the Olympics.

“It’s a very integral part of the community, like all the clubs are in Weymouth.”

Games hopeful Natalia, aged 30, an honorary member of the club, said she ‘loved the town and its shops’ and was hoping to be selected to represent New Zealand.