Her winning entry is below:

Thank you to all who entered: there were a lot of excellent entries and it was great to see such enthusiasm for the project.

We are now tendering for a website for Folkestone Sea Sports, please email enquiries@folkestoneseafront.com for further information.

Over the three days it attracted over 500 visitors to the exhibition and 180 to the two presentations held on December 9th at the Quarterhouse.

For those of you who were not able to make it, the presentations were filmed and will be made available for viewing early in the New Year. Likewise the boards from the exhibition will also be uploaded.

Powerboat racing competitors returned to Folkestone last weekend for the first time in twenty years for the British National Powerboat Championships as part of the drive to rebuild the excitement of the Folkestone seafront.

The races provided the opportunity for nearly 60 competitors to showcase their skills to the watching crowds. The amalgam of Thundercat racing with Offshore classes in Folkestone offered diversity of size and style thereby satisfying excitement and curiosity levels for all those watching.

Despite a last minute course relocation due to rough seas and high winds, the white cliffs offered enough protection for racing, but the first day’s sea was steep and awkward.

The weekend’s racing in Kent acted as a precursor to the upcoming World 3B Championship being held in Torquay between the 1^st and 4th September.

The OCR Phantom 19 boat of Dan Priestly and Sam Brewster won in spectacular style whilst Sharon Atlee, in the ‘Pirates Cave’ Tintorera revelled in the conditions and led Offshore B class from the start, holding off Neil Ives in his Barracuda 18.

Graham Reeder drove his ex-World Championship winning 3C Mannerfelt  ‘Ananab’ into first place after NWJ racing was time-penalised for missing a mark.

The second days calmer, but not benign seas, allowed the spectators to be thrilled by the V8 roar of Mark Brewster’s leading V24, echoing off the Harbour wall at 70mph.

Brian Peedell led the Offshore Class 3C, hotly pursued by Jeremy Gibson’s OCR Phantom. The all girl team of Sharon Atlee and Sian Williams in ‘Pirates Cave’ delivered a rough water driving lesson to the rest of the 3B fleet, with the Norwegian designed monohull making light of the testing conditions.

British National Powerboat Championships

Folkestone Harbour welcomes the British National Powerboat Championships on the 13th and 14th August.

Racing 10am to 4pm both days with commentary from Sky Sports presenter Peter Butler. Free entry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=bDxjX0w3FCg

Folkestone Triennial ‘A Million Miles From Home’

The second Folkestone Triennial began on 25th June. Building on the success of 2008, 19 international artists have been commissioned to create new works for the Folkestone Triennial which will continue until 25 September 2011.

The selected artists have been invited to develop works for Folkestone’s streets, squares, beaches and historic buildings to create a cutting-edge contemporary art exhibition in the public domain.

Andrea Schlieker conceived and curated the inaugural exhibition in 2008 and is directing the second Folkestone Triennial, ‘A Million Miles from Home’.

Participating artists are: Tonico Lemos Auad, Charles Avery, CAMP, Martin Creed, Smadar Dreyfus, Hala Elkoussy, Ruth Ewan, Spencer Finch, Hamish Fulton, Cristina Iglesias, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, Hew Locke, Cornelia Parker, Olivia Plender, Zineb Sedira, Erzen Shkololli, Strange Cargo and Paloma Varga Weisz.

The Triennial is managed by The Creative Foundation, and is an integral part of the steps that are being taken to establish Folkestone as a major creative centre. For more information please visit the website www.folkestonetriennial.org.uk.

Sea sports for the Seafront and new sporting calendar

Would you like to see new water sports facilities in Folkestone? Do you have an interest or expertise in a particular type of water sport? Do you have ideas for how to improve water sports in Folkestone?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then we would love to hear from you.

Proposals to improve Folkestone Seafront will be put forward for a new and final round of public consultation later this year, with one of the priorities being water and sea sports. So we invite anyone with ideas, expertise or just an interest in these areas to help us.

Response to last summer’s consultation demonstrated that there was a clear appetite to see provision for beach and water sports included in the plans, and we want to be sure that as many different points of view and interests are incorporated into our planning. The development of the seafront offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to include some really exciting ideas that could establish Folkestone as a first class centre for water and beach sports, but to realise this we shall need to work closely with motivated individuals and enthusiastic sports clubs.

This is your chance to get involved from the very start and be part of a bright new future for Folkestone seafront. If you are interested in getting involved please contact us at enquiries@folkestoneseafront.com.

In addition to possible new sports facilities we’d like to introduce a new sporting calendar for Folkestone. Sports consultants, Smaller World have been recruited to help devise a programme that will help to animate the seafront and harbour and establish Folkestone seafront as a major location and venue for water sports activities. A programme of events has been scheduled for summer 2011 to ‘test the water’.

Managing Director of Smaller World Paddy Herlihy said: “We are looking forward to being part of such an exciting project. We are now examining the potential for the site in other ways, such as staging major sporting events, which will help bring the area to life, encourage local people to watch and then try new sports, and ultimately help to put Folkestone on the international map.” Events that have already been scheduled include the British Water Ski Open, to be held in conjunction with Folkestone Harbour Festival on the 16th and 17th July, and the British National Powerboat Championships to be held on the 13th and 14th of August. (See poster for details).