The Upstairs Bar (Commodore's Lounge) will be open to non-members during the festival (3.00pm to 10.00pm, Friday to Sunday). Rooms are also available for hire. The manager, telephone 820503 or 821029, is happy to provide more information.

The Newport Boat Club offers the kind of welcoming environment, with magnificent views over the estuary and out to sea, that make it a delight to visit. The club is an attractive mix of those who love the sea whether they want to sail, row, kayak or canoe or just look out over the waves while enjoying a pint of beer. Under imaginative leadership from the Commodore and his colleagues, combined with their hard and voluntary work, the club has attracted so many kayaking and rowing enthusiasts, that they now outnumber those who sail.

The boat club attracts those who come to Newport on holiday. With an egalitarian ethos, which offers a distinctive if somewhat unusual appeal for a boat club, this attraction continues to grow. The appeal of the club is already bringing sailors and rowers (Dragon Boats) from as far away as Vancouver Island, Canada, who plan to return this coming summer. "I enjoyed the club and I look forward to my next visit," says Bob Hall an experienced sailor from Canada who has a particular interest in ships famous in history. "I was thrilled to be able to buy a framed photograph of the estuary, with the glow of the setting sun spreading over the sea, which is identical to the view I enjoyed from the boat club on my last evening there."