WITH Mersea's favourite daughter, Saskia Clarke about to scoop gold at the Olympics, what better time to celebrate sailing than at this weekend's Mersea Regatta.

It takes place this Saturday, August 20, all along the waterfront with the first races starting early at 9am.

Once again there should be more than 200 boats taking part, split into 13 different classes, ranging from smacks, racing yachts and classic yachts, to fisherman's open boats and dinghy classes.

With the racing over and done with the watersports get underway in the afternoon, with a variety of rowing races, swimming competitions and the ever popular final event Walking The Greasy Pole, which is rigged over the side of the Thames Barge Committee Boat.

There's also plenty of on shore attractions including the Bocking Concert Brass Band, Bert Stock's Fair as well as refreshments and RNLI Souvenirs at the Old Lifeboat Station.

There's a grand firework display rounds the whole day off at dusk and later on in the evening there's the regular 'Coast Road Evening' social event held in Peter Clarke's Shed with the Poachers playing classic Sixties tunes.

The popular band, who once beat Pink Floyd in a battle of the bands competition, celebrated they're 50th anniversary back in 2014. Originally a four-piece with Eric Hames, Richard Taylor, Steve Conway, and Tony Smith, and now a six-piece with the addition of Derek Hollick and Trevor Cook, the band are still as popular as ever, continuing to gig all over the area raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity.

Tide times for the big day are low tide at 8.19am with a depth of 0.71metres and a high tide of 5.55metres at around 2.30pm.

For more information go to www.mersearegatta.org.uk