CASTLE Cove Sailing Club is awash with excitement as it hosts the Wetsuit Outlet International Moth UK National Championships this week.

Twelve races are planned, spread over four days, with the event concluding on Sunday, September 15. The host club has food and social events over the three nights of the event.

Castle Cove is a popular location for the Moths – they last visited in 2013 and the 75-entry list was closed within five days of it being released in July.

This event is seen by competitors as an excellent preparation for the World Championships, to be held in these waters next September, hosted by the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.

The Moth is a development class of boat, meaning there is more freedom to designers and constructors by controlling fewer dimensions of the dinghies.

Moths have existed for many years, with the first boats made in the late 1920s and a British Moth Class was formed in the 1930s.

In recent years the class has grown rapidly in popularity thanks to the introduction of hydrofoils. The foiling boats are extremely fast with speeds up to 30 knots, which makes them thrilling to sail and exciting to watch.