Please renew your membership NOW

Don’t forget to renew your Membership for 2023-24

Membership renewal emails were sent out at the end of last week (2nd March) to renew your membership and boat fees by 1st April. Thank you to everyone who has renewed already.

Please let us know if you are not-renewing (use the link in your renewal email) as we don’t assume you’re leaving just because we haven’t heard from you. It will save us trying to contact you later.

If you can’t find your renewal email, need help, have a question – please contact our membership secretary Contact Rosie: membership@chewvalleysailing.org.uk

Car Parking

We are very fortunate that in the past Bristol Water have agreed to the use of Woodford Lodge car parking when we host large events. Use is specifically agreed only for a small number of those very large events, it is not something that is a right nor normally available.

It has been drawn to my attention that a small number of sailors have been using the car parking during ‘normal’ club days. This is not permissible, would the culprits please desist from doing so with immediate effect.

While on the subject of parking please can I remind all members to park considerately in the club car park, in particular please do not park on the road side in the dinghy park.

Upcoming Events (from James Williams, Sailing Sec)

The next month is the start of some busy months at the club, particularly at the weekends with team racing, club coaching and powerboat instructor days alongside the usual general sailing and racing.

In particular:

  • Bath Uni hold their annual ‘Bath Robe’ event over the weekend of the 11th / 12th March and their smaller scale alumni event on Saturday 25th March
  • Both the Toppers and the club Laser/ILCA fleet are running training sessions on Saturday 18th March
  • The powerboat instructors have a revalidation day with the RYA on Sunday 26th March
  • The first open event of the year is for the Scorpions / Fireballs on 1st / 2nd April. There is no formal club racing on the Sunday, although there should be plenty of space for less informal racing if fleets wish to organise it themselves.
  • Looking further ahead, the Wednesday evening practise race is on 5th April and the first Lake and Cake & Lunch on the Lake sessions are on Saturday 8th April.

Member travels

There have been limited events to travel to over February, but Rosie & Susie Sheahan competed at the highly competitive 420 Winter Championships at WPNSA.

Duties for 2023/24 (from Tom Skailes, Duties Sec)

Please can members that are not intending to renew their membership let us know ASAP as I will imminently be rostering a chunk of duties into the new season.

Instead of my usual approach where I roster a chunk of 2 or 3 months’ duties, I plan to roster everyone that’s eligible for duties for a first duty in the new season – I reckon this will constitute around 5 months of duties. A few members have already self-selected their duty dates for the new season by using the ‘Volunteer for a duty’ button in Dutyman and will be excluded from the process – so now is the time to do that if you want to choose your duty dates and roles. The aim is that this approach will give people more swap options.

I will roster another big chunk of duties later in the year to bring everyone up to the minimum of 2 general sailing duties, and pick up new joiners, fill in the gaps etc. Inevitably, some members will end up being rostered for 3 duties across the season as that’s how the maths works out.

Wednesday evening Duties

The Wednesday Evening Race series duties will also be going up, so some members will get a general duty and one or two Wednesday Evening duties if they competed in last seasons’ series. A quick reminder that Wednesday Evening duties are not counted towards the annual duty tally, and are not intended as an alternative to undertaking general sailing duties.

Similarly to last year there we not enough individual entrants to roster this year with only 1 duty each, so a small selection of the most frequent racers have a 2nd duty I’m afraid.

Lake and Cake 2023 (from Jo Cudmore)

Our first Lake and Cake day is April 8th and I am hoping for the lovely
sunshine and gentle breeze we have today!
Time will tell!
Meet as usual at 13:45 changed and boats rigged if possible and don’t forget to bring some scrumptious goodies to share and a £1 coin for your tea!
Looking forward to seeing you all after our winter break!

Call for Pay & Play Helms

I hope you have heard of, or are familiar with, the club’s popular “Pay & Play” scheme. This is a really popular scheme with significant demand, particularly for taster sessions for non-members and lapsed sailors, increasing as the season gets underway and peaks towards summer.

We generally do try to ensure P&P sessions are delivered by instructors but the sessions are not regarded as RYA Training and no instruction is offered or expected, so an instructing qualification is therefore not necessary for helms.

The General Committee has agreed that experienced members can volunteer to help deliver P&P taster sessions. This allows us to manage any waiting list of potential sailors and potential members desperately keen to get out on the water.
Instructors and helms can claim a flat £35 fee for delivering a session, which is paid by the attending sailor and not by the membership.

If you feel you could and would like to help the club promote the sport and the benefits of club membership as a P&P helm, please let me know. Contact details below.

If your own boat is suitable for these sessions you may prefer to take people out in it. Alternatively, the club Quests can be used. I can arrange a rigging/reefing familiarisation session for you if you’d like one.

Dave Orme training.cvlsc@gmail.com 0773 4815271

Radio Sailing – have a go!!

The enthusiastic Radio sailing group have continued their activities over the winter, with racing on most Thursdays, visits to other clubs for open meetings, discussions about rig choices and how best to navigate their boats about the race course, and much more besides.

They are keen to help other members experience the thrill of their mini version of our sport (mini in size, not in any other respect!) so if this is something that you fancy trying, they would be delighted to sort a go out for you. Simply contact our club President, John Smalley to have a go!

Green /Blue Initiative

Finally, below is the latest initiative in The Green Blue environmental awareness programme from Bristol University

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT AT CHEW VALLEY LAKE: Cleaning your boat

The products used to clean boat hulls can have a huge impact on our environment.
• Ingredients like microplastics, chlorine, ammonia, potassium hydroxide and solvents can all be poisonous to aquatic wildlife.
• Detergents containing phosphates can cause algal blooms and oxygen depletion, suffocating the wildlife.
• Degreasers can remove the natural oils that are required for fish gills to function properly.

Some tips from The Green Blue about cleaning your boat:
• Wherever you can, use fresh water and a good scrubbing brush.
• Avoid bleach and see The Green Blue’s business directory for environmentally friendlier cleaning products at https://thegreenblue.org.uk/green-blue-business-directory/products/
• Watch out for products containing polyethylene, as these are microplastics which can enter the food chain. Instead try to find cleaners with natural abrasives like apricot seeds.

For more information, please see The Green Blue website

Andy Jones
Commodore