|
G |
reetings
everyone. Once again, despite good intentions, I am compiling and editing the
Wagtale at the last minute!
Many
thanks to all those who have contributed to this issue. It’s great to read of
the sailing adventures that members have had outside the club over the last
year.
I
have had a disappointing sailing year so I am looking forward to some good
coastal sailing this coming year. If I do I’ll write about it for next year’s
Wagtale – and so should you. Keep a log (as all good mariners should) of your
sailing adventures – with pictures - and send them to me for the Wagtale 2009
issue.
Membership
has been steady this year. Some old friends have left and new faces have become
friends (& challengers on the water!).
The
club house and grounds are in reasonable order and we have kept on top of
essential maintenance despite disappointing turn-outs at the working parties.
The
big challenge for 2008 will be the construction of the balcony extension. This
will give us a good elevated outside seating area in the sun, views over the
whole lake and with direct access to the bar! Any offers of practical help and
support with fund raising will be most welcome.
Anyway – enough of this – have a
great new year, enjoy your sailing – and enjoy a good read………………….
Richard Crook -
Editor & Club Secretary
From the Commodore:-
So
as to my first year of being Commodore, what has happened?
We
have had an exhibition stand at the kingfisher shopping centre followed by our
annual open day, although both were poorly attended we did managed to fill our
two training courses which were very successful and we did get some new members
joining the club.
Also we had a trip to Bala lake and a
chance to sail on a big open water in the local club’s regatta over the August
bank holiday – that I just managed to get to (much to my wife disapproval). As
the regatta started on the Saturday morning at 10:00 I was still on holiday
with my wife and kids in Normandy in the North of France and did not get back
on to British soil until 2:30 and that was in Portsmouth I still had to go home
empty the car, load up my van, pick up the dog, Pick up some food supplies
before I can leave on a three an a half hour journey to Bala. Finally arriving
there at
We have had some wonderful social do’s
organized by our vice commodore and her social team who work so hard behind the
scenes planning, organizing, decorating and cooking for our enjoyment for
nothing more than a thank you, they really do us proud, so once again on behalf
of us all I thank you all who have been involved. Special thanks should go to
our unsung hero, who week after week turns up and serves us tea, coffee beer
and sound advice!
Finally, I am delighted that we now
have planning permission for our balcony extension scheme so we can go ahead
with enthusiasm to raise the funds for
it’s construction. To start with we are planning a large raffle with a mounting
bike as first prize, so please dig deep and help raise the money for the
benefit of us all at our sailing club.
Happy
new year to all of you and good sailing!
Sailing Master
Class 1– METEOROLOGY
An attempt, in
words, to give a better understanding of matters surrounding our sport of
sailing.
What is FOG?
There are 2 main
types of FOG, which will normally be associated with our spring or autumn
seasons. But first of all, let’s consider just what fog is. I’m sure you all
know, but fog is essentially condensation.
Air contains moisture,
but warmer air can hold more moisture than colder air, so when warmer air cools
down, it has to give up some of that moisture in the form of condensation (warm
breath hitting a cold glass window, for instance).
So, on to our 2
types of fog.
a) Advection Fog
When the sea is
colder than the air blowing over it and that air contains moisture, then close
to the surface of the cold sea the moisture will condense to form fog. This is
most likely to happen earlier in the season before the sea around our shores
has warmed up and when a warm moist airflow arrives from the prevailing
southwest. It is not improved by the sun coming out, but is actually made worse
as the warmer air is able to carry more moisture. It can frequently persist all
day and is only cleared by a change in wind direction of the type that occurs
when a cold front comes through.
b) Radiation Fog
Late in the season
when we have had a clear night with little wind, by the morning heat will have
radiated off the surface of the cooling land and inland water leaving much
colder air next to the surface. The moisture in the air quickly condenses and
forms a surface fog in rivers and estuaries. If visibility is such that you can
see to leave harbour then immediately clear of land the chances are the fog
will not have formed or will soon be dispersed by the sun. This type of fog
will be dispersed by the sun warming up the air.
So, if you
experience fog at sea in the spring, the chances are it will not clear quickly,
whereas in autumn, a sea fog is less likely, and would normally disperse during
the day.
Happy New Year.
A SOUTH IONIAN
ADVENTURE
Finally
the long wait was over and 51 weeks after leaving the Jaguar 27 Nereus behind
the Smith clan were bound for
We
arrived at the picturesque
The
taxi dropped us just off the quay, a mere 100 yards away lay Anastasia, a
Gibsea 302, our home for the next week. Between us and our yacht were several
Tavernas one of which was being frequented by three of the crews from our last
holiday. So three beers later the bags made it onboard.
The first
evening passed at a lazy pace catching up with the other three crews we met
previously and meeting our lead crew for the week before a family meal and then
the adults relaxing in the cockpit of Anastasia with a Metexa or two.
The
morning dawned bright and warm. After a
briefing on the day’s planned route and an induction to the various controls on
the yacht we set sail for Little Vathi on
A
steady force three with bright sunshine and all sails drawing on a close reach
was basically it for the first three hours. A light lunch just north of Arkudi
island coincided with a loss of wind and some cloud cover so the youngest
member of the crew went to bed! One of the crew was asked to throw the bucket
over to get some water to sluice away the bread crumbs from lunch, so he did.
When you’re 10 years old it’s easy to forget what you learnt a year before like
remembering to hold onto the rope tied to the bucket which duly sank!
The wind
continued to be fickle for the next hour or so but the sun returned and
Anastasia dropped anchor in 8 meters of crystal clear azure water just 15
metres from the beach in a cove half a mile from that night’s port.
The
evening was drifting by in the familiar food and pleasant company way when
there was suddenly a burst of activity at the far end of the tables; it soon
passed so it was on with the socializing. About 15 minutes later the reason for
the activity became clear as one of the kids on another boat came and told me
Nathan had fallen into the harbour!
During
the night a storm moved in that would confine us to another day in the same
port, it was tranquil in our cove but a 4 metre swell was running out at
sea! The day was passed swimming,
fishing, swimming again and watching “George” the taverna owner catch and
tenderise an octopus that was duly placed on the evening’s menu.
The
next morning the swell had dropped, the sun had returned and there was a steady
force 4 blowing from the North West, the briefing informed us we were going to
Sivota a mere 8 miles away. The more experienced crews (with the permission of
the lead skipper) filed a passage plan of some 37 miles to include the
circumnavigation of three islands to make up for the lost day and were off. A
superb day’s sailing was had with the obligatory lunchtime swim before setting
off at around 3.30pm for a 14 mile beat to Sivota that was planned (rather
optimistically) to get us in at the requested time of 5.30pm. The wind veered,
the swell rose and the motor was required for the first 90 minutes to punch
into the sea to get to a point where we could sail the final few miles at some
speed to Sivota. We sheepishly crept into the cove that forms the port at
A
slow breakfast and some sore limbs greeted the next day, winching in foresails
on a family cruiser is a little different to pulling in your average dinghy jib
or genoa.
Frikes
on the east coast of the
We
reefed early, rigged the bimini and decided to take the shorter direct route to
Frikes, the wind arrived and it was all rather exciting for half an hour with
white top waves forming, then the rain came and the wind went away; bimini’s
make fine rain shelters. The sea was quickly flattened by the rain; we started
the engine to keep away from the lee shore of Atoko and continued on our way.
The front soon blew through leaving us with a steadier force 4 wind and a warm
but watery sun, this made for a very pleasant sail down to Frikes.
It
soon became apparent that this was not going to be the most comfortable
anchorage, we were rafted four deep with many mooring lines but still the ferry
wakes tossed us about as they rolled into the bay. There is a floating pontoon
that the harbour guide says to avoid as it becomes a violent jumping snake of a
thing, the two Sunsail boats that moored there evidently did not know this, the
waves came and it was very, very scary. I was certain they were going to end up
on top of the pontoon! Our lead crew
suddenly changed from the laid back easy going Aussies to incredibly
professional mariners, they spent the entire night watching all of the
boats in port adjusting fenders and mooring lines as required to keep us all
safe. A couple of brand new 37 foot yachts on independent charter from Sunsail
picked up gouged gel coats, bent stanchions and scrapped toe rails; without the
interaction of our lead crew things would have been much worse. At least we had a good meal!
Morning
came and with it the news that we were bound for Ay Eufimia the setting of the
film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, again clear skies and a warm sun greeted
us. We sailed a fair way off the coast
before gybing and heading south for the southern tip of Ithica, this really was
wonderful sailing, we were able to sail goose winged for over an hour.
A
lunch time stop in a sheltered cove with many colourful fish who wanted to
share both lunch and our swimming area flashed by.
We
departed the cove and were soon surging across the
The
last sail was a windy affair with a good blow coming straight at us leaving
some 10 miles of the Ithaca channel to be sailed beating against the wind. The
combination of good wind, blue skies and the knowledge that this was the end
meant that all of the boats were late with the lead skipper becoming ever more
anxious as he watched the anchorage fill up.
Eventually all
of the boats were secured and scrubbed ready for departure making the beach the
obvious place for everyone to gather.
Nathan
chose this evening to be the occasion for his second fall from the boarding
plank and did so just prior to the evening meal, again no harm done but not
much left in the way of clean clothes.
The
last meal was enjoyable although rather pricey with the lead crew making awards
to the various crews to commemorate individual high points of the week. Nathan was awarded a replica gang plank with
which he was rather pleased. A crew of
secondary school teachers were less than impressed with the replica sail board
they received for losing the full size version and taking two days to tell
anyone! Thus ended our second flotilla holiday. Did we enjoy it? Well the third
one was booked within a month of our return so the answer was an overwhelming
yes!
Martin Smith
Sailing Master Class-2
– SEA BREEZES -
Whenever there is
a differential in the sea temperature and the adjacent land there is the
potential for a wind to be established. If the sea is cold and the land is
being warmed by the sun, the air on land will start to rise. Colder air is
pulled in from the sea to replace the rising air and a sea breeze is
established. A rotating cell is formed with the rising air eventually cooling
and falling back to the surface of the sea.
In the afternoon
of a particularly warm day in the season, i.e. before the sea has warmed up,
this effect can be experienced as much as 15 miles out to sea.
It should be
appreciated that in the evening the surface of the land will cool faster than
the sea and it is not unusual for the reverse process to take place, with a
land breeze heading out to sea, starting about sunset and lasting for up to a
couple of hours.
This
year we decided to return to Bala to sail in their August bank holiday
regatta. A notice was put up early to
enable booking of campsites. In total we
had over 20 people on the weekend. The
group included sailors and non-sailors.
We
were spread across the campsite in tents and caravans. Many thanks to those people who let the
‘tentless’ crash and impose on their good will.
Dave Stephens went ‘posh’ and stayed in a B&B, James and Paul B went
‘downmarket’ and stayed in the van at the sailing club.
Bala
sailing club welcomed us all and everyone was very friendly. Most of the
In
the slow handicap racing the competition was high, the
Thanks
must also be given to the day trippers who turned up to support the sailors.
It
is interesting to note that racing was postponed on Monday to allow the wind to
fill in, there would have been enough wind for
Special
praise should also be given to Sam Smith and Dan Morgan. They both took their Toppers out for a couple
of hours to play. They both coped very
well in winds that far exceeded anything they have encountered at
The
whole weekend was enjoyed by all and the sailors have all gained confidence in
their abilities.
Elaine
Herlihy
The Merlin Rocket
After
the success and fun had at the Bala August regatta
The
Merlin Rocket class association organises a variety of open meets to include
National Championships, Inland Championships, Salcombe week, The Silver Tiller
series in addition to other regional circuits, we chose the open at Bartley
sailing club in Birmingham, it was local, was a regional circuit event and
therefore unlikely to attract a huge entry for our first event.
The
day came and armed with all we would need we arrived at Bartley, it’s worth
mentioning at this point that the wind also arrived lots of it!
Twelve
boats entered with 3190 Finlandia the oldest by several years, we were made to
feel welcome from the start with the other crews happy to chat and also being
inquisitives to who we were, “where are you from” and “is that Tony Lanes old
boat?”
The
OOD gave his briefing and it was on to the water in a steady force 4, the
course was a revelation to me. After the beat came a run followed by another
beat then a reach followed by a huge broad reach the length and breadth of
Bartley reservoir, all these spinnaker legs! Are courses supposed to be like
this then?
We
were thrilled to have four boats behind us at the windward mark and it stayed
like this for the first lap with the five of us changing places around the
course. On starting the second lap it was apparent there was much more wind
with really quite big waves with white horses and spray. Finlandia was also
becoming quite hard to keep upright.
We
rounded the windward mark still with a boat behind us and almost touching the
transom of the boat in front, a flurry of activity saw spinnakers launched and
we were off! The second beat completed
and up went the spinnakers again, this time I dropped the tiller, splash we
were swimming.
At
A
spot of lunch followed then out for race two which was even windier, boats were
planing back and forth behind the start line, three boats failed to start and
another gave up a short distance up the first beat.
We
carried on and were rewarded with a fantastic sail; insanely some crews flew
spinnakers on the reaches. We were both getting back as far as possible almost
sitting on the transom, from my hiking position I could see the leading edge of
the centre board! Spray was everywhere and the entire race was sailed to the
accompanying gurgle of suction bailers doing their thing.
A
reception committee of the retired crews was waiting to help us all land and
assist us in recovering the boats as the third race was cancelled due to the excess
wind, our first event was over no damage suffered to the boat and we had not
come last, result!
Next
up was Blithfield in Staffordshire, another reservoir event, two weeks prior to
the event the Inland National Championships at Queen Mary Sailing club were
cancelled due to the foot and mouth outbreak, Blithfield was promoted from
circuit event to the Inland Nationals!
We
arrived early on the Saturday and started rigging the boat; we were to be
joined at this event by 37 other boats including all of the current stars
within the class. Once again people stopped to chat and ask about the boat and
where we were from.
The
wind at this event was the complete opposite of Bartley with a force 2 being
the highest wind speed recorded of the weekend, at least it was fairly
constant.
Race
one started and here I gained my first experience of a general recall, this was
something I would know well by the end of the weekend together with the
associated Black Flags that go with them. Eventually a clean start took place
and we were off, well sort of given the lack of wind! We learnt a lot during
this weekend, watching other crews and picked boats to try to compete against
including the Class Association chairman.
Saturday
night’s entertainment consisted of
locally brewed ale (300 pints consumed not all by me!) a pig roast and
Rugby World Cup Semi Final. Saturday night was spent in a tent with Sunday
arriving as windless as Saturday, I was sure I had heard wind during the night!
Sunday
comprised 3 races and each time we were getting closer and closer to our
target, at the wind ward mark of the fourth race we had no fewer than 9 boats
behind us including the chairman! Sadly most of them got back past us, usually
downwind, undoubtedly the new rules spinnakers helping their boat speed with
the much larger sail being carried on 2.3m poles, Finlandia only has 1.8m
spinnaker poles.
We
finished 33rd out of the 38 entrants and were quite delighted with
our result again having avoided last place in any race, we were even awarded a
prize for having completed every single race the value of that being more than
our entry fee!
The
final open of the year was at Midland Sailing Club at Edgbaston in
Three
races were planned with lunch somewhere in between, once again we were battling
with the same boats we had met at Bartley and Blithfield only this time we were
not proving quite so easy to leave behind. Again there were lots of spinnaker
legs and I have to say we are getting much better at raising and lowering the
spinnaker. Most Merlin Rockets are equipped with a twin pole Spinnaker system
and this makes gybing the spinnaker much easier to do, again we are improving
at this too.
Back
to the racing and despite comfortably beating one of our targets in the first two races only to
get thrashed by them in the third, our target of beating the Chairman was
achieved.
Once
again we had not finished last at the event and our three results had given us
16th place on the Midland Circuit out of nearly 50 boats that had
sailed one or more of the 8 events.
I
have learnt a lot from these three events, in no particular order these include
greater knowledge of the rules, better boat handling skills, greater tactical
awareness if not the ability to put this into practice!
You
can have as much fun in the rear third of a fleet as you can at the front by
identifying your own challenges and boats to beat.
I
have got to thank Karen for coming out to play and Heidi for letting me go!
Next
years events are now being arranged and our plans are under way, there are lots
of second hand Merlin’s around at the moment from £650 to £9995 for a race
ready boat why not come and join us?
Martin Smith
LEADER 445
We
have a Leader dinghy that belonged to a Redditch SC member who recently passed
away; his widow has given us the dinghy to sell.
The
Dinghy is constructed in wood with a wood mast and is Bermudan rigged, It has
been stored in a garage and is in good condition. The hull has been primed but
it does need a finishing coat of paint. The deck is varnished and needs no
work. It has two wooden masts that need a coat of varnish.
The
sails, both the jib and main, are in good condition with no holes or tears.
It
has a set of oars and a paddle and TWO
NEW BUOYANCY BAGS!
At
the moment the boat is stripped down however all the standing rigging and metal
fitments appear to be present as are the jib and main sheets.
There
appear to be only two items that will need to be repaired or replaced, the
cover, which has a few holes and the centre-board slot strips.
There
is no launching trolley but it does come with a road trailer.
Dave Stephens
Since
the last report we have been very busy again.
Last years Christmas meal was loud and chaotic, particularly the
tombola. We were given so many prizes
for this it took over the whole afternoon.
The
next event was the ‘Burns Do’ with haggis (uugh) and whiskey. The skittles at Studley was well attended and
again very loud.
April
saw the appointment of a new Vice Commodore in Debbie Eaves. The change over went smoothly as we had
already organised most of the events for the year and Debbie had been involved
in this.
Tuesday
nights food rota filled up with ‘willing’ volunteers, 18 weeks of good food at
low cost.
The
first event with Deb at the helm was the summer ball, and what a success. A change this year to the format with hot
pork rolls (Elaine never wants to see pork again) and a singer (Katie King) as
well as the usual disco. Thank you to
everyone for their hard work.
The
usual BBQ for the open day with lots of burgers and sausages sold. Closely followed by the fun day/BBQ just
before the children returned to school.
The enterprise open followed.
End
of October saw the dark race
Bonfire
night saw the usual BBQ thanks to the fellas for cooking (sure they offered as
the best way to keep warm).
The
impromptu Christmas party was a real success.
Big thanks to Angie and Chris for the marvellous food and to everyone
who helped tidy/wash up both on the night and the next day. Thanks also to the ‘girls’ for the wonderful
decorations.
We
now have now reached the time for the dinner again. Lets hope this is at least as successful as
last year. Lastly, thank you to all of
the volunteers over the year, the small things people do to help as well as
helping at big events, without whom the social team could not manage.
Elaine Herlihy
For
those who hadn’t noticed - we have a large range of clothing available with the
club logo. Martin Smith is taking orders from a catalogue of good quality casual
clothing. There is a wide choice from the dark blue and red colour ranges –
please see Martin to place your order.
When you the wind dies and the race is not going
to plan and your eye wanders, enjoy, instead the bird life around
I think you all recognise the Canada goose and
the mute swan (if you see one with a yellow bill, that’s more special. That’s a
whooper swan), and our island is now a very special place being the nesting
place of 3 pairs of herons who we often see fishing from the clubhouse bank.
When we look up, we are mostly likely to see black headed gulls (their black
head changes to a black dot behind the eye in Winter). The gulls that sit on
the marks and jeer at us are mostly Lesser Black Backed gulls (The Greater
Black Backed gulls are BIG). Camouflaged by the gulls are the Terns. These are
for more graceful and elegant and almost dance in flight as opposed to the
gulls who mostly glide in circles, unless actually diving for a fish. Take a
closer look at the ducks and you will see they are not all the same. The most
common is the Mallard – dad has a green head from late Winter on but moults to
brown in Autumn. Mum is speckled brown. The tail feathers of both are quite
beautiful. There are other ducks with green heads but not very common on Arrow
valley. Look out for the brown heads. These are either teal, wigeon or pochard (see if you can work out the
differences!) Another two to mix up are
the coot and the moorhen. Both small and black but the grown up coots have a
big white splodge painted on their foreheads and bills whilst the moorhen have
orange beaks and bright red legs and feet. They both indignantly yell “COOOT”
if you get too close. My two favourites are the Kingfisher which just
occasionally flits across the lake in a flash of amazingly bright blue, and the
great crested Grebes which you will often see diving for fish, orangey brown
backs and very pretty orange and white heads with the crest elegantly sticking
up, even just after a dive! Watch out for their courting dances in Feb /March.
They’re sweetly romantic.
Around
the edges, because we have some great trees and shrubs for cover and food we
have Robins (Yes I know they’re a pain when they nest in your boat but they
wouldn’t do it if you sailed more often!), Sparrows (sorry no picture, but all
brown and a bit smaller than the Robin), Chiff chaffs which sing their name in
Spring to Summer, the occasional wren (tiny with a sticking up tail), great tits
which have a black stripe on their tummies and blue tits with a yellow tummy
and blue head, Reed warblers and reed buntings, hiding in the reeds – you’re
more likely to hear these than see them as they are quite shy, are both small
brown birds and quite hard to spot. Around the waters edge you will see pied
wagtails and yellow wagtails, and if you are lucky grey wagtails – the
difference is in the colour of the head, not the body, and they all wag their
tails up and down so you will know this one as soon as you see it. Chaffinches
and bullfinches will be seen in the trees and hedges. The bullfinch is very
red, and special now as there are very few left. We are privileged to still
have a pair living in our park. The chaffinch has a more pinky colour and a very
sweet and pure voice, although sometimes all it bothers to sing is “Pink”. Some
bigger birds you might see hopping around on the grass are magpies (black and
white), crows (all black, but look more carefully and you will see rainbows in
their feathers), jays (pink and blue, very flashy), wood pigeons with the
vicars collars and collared doves whose collar is dark grey, and green
woodpeckers red caps above a green jacket and very keen on eating ants. I’m
afraid I’m running out of room, but aswell as the middle sized blackbirds with
their bright yellow beaks (the ladies are boring brown), keep an eye out for
the same size bird but brown with speckled grey chests, singing all their songs
twice – these are thrushes and are also becoming rarer. Another couple of birds
very like the thrush but with a tinge of red, especially in Autumn, are
redwings or fieldfares who, I think, come especially for the English apples and
hawthorn berries as this is where I always see them first.
Enjoy
and admire and if you meet some other strangers, run home and check them out in
the bird book and you will meet them as friends next time you see them.
Margot
Bish
FACT OVER FICTION:-
…….following
a particularly windy RS800 open meeting at a south coast sailing club, the nice
man from Noble Insurance opened his e-mails the Monday morning after to find a
claim from two brothers describing in detail an incident that had resulted in a
broken centerboard AND a broken mast!
The
next email he received was the club event report …….describing how the unlucky
brothers had missed TWO days sailing – one from breaking their board on
SATURDAY and the other from snapping their mast on SUNDAY.
The
nice man from Noble quickly realized that something didn’t add up………and a day
later the sly sailors received a rather large bill for the excess.
THAT’LL
TEACH THEM!
How
lucky, I thought, to be able to escape on a Sunsail adventure with my keen
sailor friend Lesley, while my husband spends the week putting a few balls
around a golf course! … Well, whatever floats your boat!
I
had spent a fabulous family holiday at the Perili resort in Turkey two years
earlier and had enthused about the weather conditions, dinghy clinics and
social agenda to just about anyone who would listen.
This
May, my return visit lived up to all expectations. Lesley and I sailed every
day from
The
punch night and Turkish dancing night, organised by the entertainment team,
encouraged socialising between holiday makers. We soon made several firm
friends and spent tea and cakes time (
As
the week wore on, and the punch night hangover wore off, regatta day loomed
nearer and the wind speed began to pick up. We widened our experience by sailing
in the outer bay in a good force 4. We practiced a simple course, laid out
daily by the water sports team and felt confident enough by Thursday to compete
in the Laser race.
I
then had the chance to attempt hovering on the start line (with a boat!) a
practice not often seen at
The
experience was invaluable and will give me confidence to compete in a Comet
open in this country one day.
Our
last day’s sailing was eventful. The wind was initially a light force 2 – 3. We
set off to the outer bay in full rig Lasers with one of our new friends, who
intended to teach us rudderless sailing. However, within 15 minutes, the wind
gusted to a force 5. Instead we practiced capsize drill several times on the
way back to shore. A storm ensued with little warning and, sadly, all the
Sunsail boats blew along the beach like sticks and landed in a pile at the far
end … perhaps that was a good day to leave!
We
spent the rest of the afternoon discussing where to go next on our travels …
maybe a holiday with “Wild Wind” or “Menorca Sailing” would be fun!
Izzy
Langman
Overheard!
We
hear that a chap at a local sailing club had completed the day’s racing and
afterwards his car wouldn’t start – due to a flat battery. He ignored offers to
drive to nearby homes to get jump leads – instead he claimed that he could
jump-start his car down a nearby slope……five minutes later he was on the phone
to Green Flag – it hadn’t worked.
A
mechanic would be with him in half-an-hour he was told. He replied; “you had
better tell the chap to bring his waders”.
YEP!
Our hero had tried to jump-start his car down the slipway – and ran out of dry
slope!
I hope everybody has enjoyed the sailing in 2007.
My recollections are of extremes of weather: either with races being abandoned
because half the fleet were capsized on the start line, or desperately
searching for the faintest of breezes. Is it me or do certain people always
seem to have their own personal wind (I mean sailing wind!)? Don’t worry though
– we are pressurising some to give a Master Class on the
The Duty Crews did sterling work again this year
with most people turning up for their duty (thanks for those that stood in). We
now put an empty duty sheet on the board for the next series 2 months before
the end of the current series so people can volunteer for a duty date that
suites them. So go on, put your name down, you know you are going to be
allocated a duty so better to pick a date you know you can do.
There is now the official OOD Manual. This is
located in the Race Hut and contains all the information necessary to run the
races along with blank race sheets, etc. One important sheet is the Duty Log.
This is used to report any type of problem encountered during the duty such as
equipment failures, health & safety incidents etc. It only takes a few
seconds to fill in. Could all OOD please
ensure they complete a Duty Log at the end of their session and leave it in the
front of the OOD Manual.
Talking of health & safety, we had to for the
first time in years call out an ambulance for a sailing incident which
fortunately turned out not to be serious. It did highlight one issue: if you do
call out the emergency services
please send somebody to
open the height barrier down the drive (key is behind the bar). The sight of a topless ambulance/fire-engine does
not instil confidence in casualties!
Finally we have introduced a new finishing
procedure for the pursuit races (i.e. Sunday morning 1st race,
Tuesday evenings):
1) All boats are finished at
the same time (normally 80 minutes).
2) One sound signal will be
issued from the race hut to signify end of race.
3) At this signal, boats
should stop racing and note their relative position to other boats. They should
then continue sailing around the course maintaining their relative position to
the other boats.
4) The OOD will motor back
from the lead boat through the fleet recording the boat positions in “on the
water” order
5) As boats are recorded,
the OOD will instruct them to make to shore.
6) Then back on shore, from
the race sheet the OOD will allocate positions based on laps completed.
The reasons for
introducing this are because handicaps/start times are worked out on a set
racing time (80 mins), and it also stops the Safety Boat haring around the lake
trying to finish boats causing bank erosion with the wash.
Happy sailing for 2008
and if you have any ideas to improve the sailing at
John Noakes - Rear commodore
Subscriptions 2008
It
is time to pull out your cheque books again! The Committee has agreed that subscriptions
are to be held at the same level as 2007.
Note that Full Memebership entitles you to keep one boat at the
Club. If you have a second boat then
this needs to be paid for at £60 per year