HUNDREDS of unsung heroes are working tirelessly on and off the water for free to make the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta run smoothly.

A total of 370 volunteers are taking part in the world-class sailing event, helping on committee boats, as mark layers and safety boat drivers as well as the shore-based people assisting on reception, with the media, race tracking and with parking.

Firefighter Alun Morgan, of Bridport, has been co-ordinating the car park stewards.

He said: “I’ve done a bit of work with the Dorchester Volunteer Bureau and gone through Team Dorset training.

“We’ve got 29 car park stewards helping with the car parking here from 8am until mid-day.

“Volunteers have been working hard, parking more than 1,000 cars each day, sometimes in the rain but we kept smiling. We’ve had a core team of people and others dropping in and out when they can.

“For us it’s important just for people who can give the time to volunteer even if its just a couple of hours because it takes a bit of the pressure off the rest of us.”

Morgun, 46, said his wife Sue, a teacher at Colfox school, was among the volunteers as were people from Portland and Dorchester.

He added: “I’m also a safety boat driver for the academy. I’m just supporting the academy while it prepares for 2012.”

Eleanor Black, RYA competition co-ordinator who looks after the volunteers, said most of their 370 helpers had registered on the RYA website in the build-up to the event.

She said: “Out on the water we’ve got race teams on all the different courses – committee boats, mark layers and safety boats – every day.

“We’ve also got shore-based people on the bridge, helping with the media, on the door, doing race tracking, on the docks and helping with parking. We couldn’t run it without them.”

Eleanor said 350 rooms had been provided for volunteers at the Hotel Rembrandt, The Lodge and The Venue which was formerly known as The Portland Spa Hotel, while other local helpers commuted from home.

Peter Baldwin, 54, of Cheshire is volunteering at his second Sail for Gold, helping the race management of the boat tracking system TracTrac to track half of the competition’s record 703 boats each day.

He said his job involved long hours – sometimes getting to the site by 7am and not leaving until 9pm – but that the experience was expanding his skills to become a national race officer.

He said: “I’m doing this partly out of enjoyment and partly because of wishing to volunteer at the 2012 Olympic sailing events.

“I’ve been sailing for a number of years myself and my wife and I have always volunteered – training people to start sailing and then helping with race management.”

He added: “2012 is just a unique opportunity. It’s a one-off probably in my lifetime or anybody’s lifetime that the Olympics is going to come to the UK.”