THE Altona Yacht Club will celebrate 56 years of sea races and sailing when a book about the group’s history is launched on Saturday.

Altona Yacht Club: a history of community sailing, will be released over the Labour Day weekend.

The book-launch will be held in conjunction with the Taipan and Capricorn Victorian State Titles, which the club will also be hosting over the weekend.

Members of the sailing group commissioned historian Dr Fay Woodhouse to put the book together to document the club’s past five-and-a-half decades, beginning with its establishment in 1953.

Commodore of Altona Yacht Club Brad Carver said everyone at the club was excited to see the finished manuscript.

“The plan is to keep going for another 50 years and then release another book.”

Commodore Carver became involved with the club in 1968.

“In our day, everyone wore cut-off jeans and woollen jumpers, not wetsuits, but the equipment is better these days.”

Altona Yacht Club members, Dr Woodhouse, a representative from the Altona Historical Society, the president of Yachting Victoria and Cr Tony Briffa will attend the book’s launch at the club’s Seaholme headquarters on Saturday.

The club’s captain Peter Foxcroft said the Altona Historical Society helped Dr Woodhouse research the book, which would also include photos collected from past and present members.

As well as the book launch, the club will host the state sailing championships for taipan and capricorn sea vessels from Saturday through to Monday (6-8 March).

“Taipans and capricorns are a class of catamaran designed and built by Australian High Performance Catamarans in Bendigo,” Mr Foxcroft said.

The club expects up to 50 competitors in the racing weekend, some from as far away as Queensland.