STOUR Sailing Club are getting set to host their annual rowing festival.

Racing will start from around 11am on both Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, from the sailing club hard, in Quay Street, Manningtree.

This year the club are celebrating the 25th birthday of their Claydon Skiffs.

On the first day, they will be holding short sprint races with their local crews.

They have also invited local businesses and organisations to put up crews to race in the boats.

To celebrate the anniversary, the club are in touch with members of some of the crews that rowed the boats in the early 1990s, when they were built to be raced by the tugmen of Alexandra and Felixarc companies at Felixstowe and boatmen and shore staff of Harwich Haven Authority.

They are hoping some of them will also take part in the day.

On the Sunday, organisers will be holding the traditional 7+ mile race from Manningtree to Wrabness and back.

This is always a hotly-contested race, with the fastest boats completing the course in around one hour and 15 minutes in good conditions.

The race usually attracts many boats and crews from rowing clubs around the Essex coast, as well as from further afield. Coastal rowing is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country and Essex is no exception.