There are a lot of important news items in this copy, so please do take the time to have a careful read through 🙂

Duties Update

Thank you to all those who have selected duties by volunteering through Dutyman. On behalf of fellow members and the club, thank you to the vast majority of members who have turned up for, and completed, their duties.
In the 6 months from 01-Apr-24 to 31-Oct-24, 33 people missed their duty (8% of duties). This has reduced from 11% in the previous 6 months.

Missed duties puts pressure on other members of the duty team. A complete duty team is safer and more enjoyable.
When attending for duties, please bear in mind that for a variety of reasons you may be asked to fulfil a different duty role (you will only be asked to do one that you are experienced / trained for, or one where no training or experience is necessary), so please ensure you have adequate protective sailing kit to go on the water.

In order to try and further reduce the number of missed duties, please consider / take note of the following:

  • If you have not received any emails from Dutyman in the preceeding 6 months, it is possible that they are going into your spam box. Please therefore log in to Dutyman and click on the last box on the lower right side “make sure you receive emails” and it will suggest a few actions.
  • Please check that your contact details in Dutyman are correct (email and mobile) as well as your preferred duty type, preferred duty days, and who you would like to do duties with.
  • Consider selecting your preferred duties and dates by volunteering for duties through Dutyman. These count towards your annual duty requirement of 2-3 duties per membership year.
  • When you volunteer for or are allocated a duty, please confirm on Dutyman that you can do it as soon as possible.
  • If you can’t do a duty, please try and swap it as soon as possible as the more notice that is given, the higher likelihood of being able to swap.
  • If you still can’t do your duty and haven’t been able to swap, then please contact me with at least 4 weeks’ notice and I will try and find a replacement or look for volunteers through the club facebook page.
  • If you are able to volunteer for a duty at short notice, then this is greatly appreciated, and the duty counts as one of your annual required duties. Please let me know if you are happy to be contacted to see if you available at short notice for duties.
  • If you are not planning to renew your membership next year (i.e. from 01-Apr-25) then please let me and the membership secretary know. You are still required to do any duties allocated until your membership expires on 31-Mar-25
  • Members who repeatedly miss their duties will be brought to the attention of the General Committee.

Mark Dinwoodie
Duties Secretary Duties@chewvalleysailing.org.uk

Focus on Health & Safety

Like all environments, our sailing club is not immune from the risks of an accident, either on the water or on land, and we all have a role to play in helping to keep everyone safe.

Recent enhancements reflecting some risks recently addressed have seen the addition of matting to the grassy area around the RIB pontoon to try to reduce the chance of a slip, and just recently the installation of the new remotely operated doors to the garage (photo below) to reduce the risk of getting fingers trapped in the doors or mechanism.

There are a couple of other areas that we want to now highlight for all members to be aware of:

Head Protection

A bang on the head while sailing can not only be painful but may also result in a case of concussion, as was recently the case for a sailor at Chew.

While it remains a matter of personal choice, more people are choosing to wear head protection, particularly when relatively inexperienced or in very fast boats or on windy days, (and was compulsory for our wing foiling trial).

The RYA has an excellent article discussing this subject and all members are encouraged to read the article and consider this based on their own circumstances:

https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge/safety/look-after-yourself/sailing-helmets

Club Defibrillator

Defibrillators are now common place around the country and have proven on many occasions to be a life saver. They are designed to be simple and easy to use by anyone in an emergency. The following update to our duties book now includes guidance for use on an infant/child, and so is important for those doing duties at the club and for all members to please read:

The club has a defibrillator and this is located on the wall above the duties desk as shown below

Our defibrillator is a Philips Heartstart FRx device. This is a semi-automated machine designed for use by people with no medical experience.

An excellent educational video is present on Youtube (at the time of writing – December 2024) providing insight into its operation. The video is published by the manufacturer, Philips.

Please note that the video may not necessarily reflect current UK resuscitation guidelines but it does offer clear information regarding the placement of pads and the action of the device

The Infant/Child Key

The Infant/Child key is an important additional component which accompanies the main device – the key is needed to reset the machine for use with children or infants. Use of the key is shown very clearly on the video above (at c 3.27minutes playtime).

This key is inserted into the main device. It is a separate component but should be kept with the main machine at all times.

Duty teams should please check the defibrillator at the start of a duty to be sure it is present and that you are comfortable in understanding how the key is inserted into the main device if required. The key switches the device to deliver the correct shock and commentary for a child under 25Kg in weight.

Club Security

Please can I remind everyone that the gate onto Wally Court Road must always be closed and locked when you leave the club. Please do not be tempted to leave it open unless there is an immediate following car that has agreed to close and lock it.

There are a few occasions on event days when the gate may not need to be locked (subject to agreement by a flag officer) but even then, the gate must always be closed.

If you do not have a club key to open/lock it then please contact our membership secretary who can provide one (subject to the normal £50 deposit).

Powerboat Courses 2025

All the powerboat courses for 2025 have now been agreed and are on the Club calendar.

The RYA PB2 course is the basic course required to helm the Clubs RIBs. A two day course, the only requirement is you must be a club member and 16 years old or over. Please book and pay via your Webcollect account.

It is the aim of the Club that all rescue helms will in addition to the PB2 course will either hold the RYA Safety boat certificate or have completed our in house ARHSC (Advanced rescue helm safety course) It is NOT a RYA course, it is one day and it is free and will train you in all the methods needed to recover a person from the water and to right a variety of craft. To book email Jeff.

Saturday 5th April 2025 – ARHSC 1

Saturday 12th April 2025 – PB2 1(1)
Saturday 19th April 2025 – PB2 1(2)

Saturday 31st May 2025 – PB2 2(1)
Sunday 1st June 2025 – PB2 2(2)

Saturday 21st June 2025 – ARHSC 2

Saturday 5th July 2025 – PB2 3(1)
Saturday 12th July 2025 – PB2 3(2)

Saturday 9th August 2025 – ARHSC 3

Saturday 23rd August 2025 – PB2 4(1)
Saturday 30th August 2025 – PB2 4(2)

Saturday 13th September 2025 – ARHSC 4

Saturday 27th September 2025 – PB2 5(1)
Sunday 28th September 2025 – PB2 5(2)

Saturday 18th October 2025 – ARHSC 5

We now have a team of11 RYA Powerboat Instructors and we are here to help. We also offer introduction sessions if you did your PB2 elsewhere, introduction to our electric boats, refresher sessions we are not a commercial centre. If you want to know something please ask.

We also have another RYA first aid course on Saturday 19th April 2025 at the Club, a requirement for all instructors but I would recommend it to all of you. Still only £30 please book via your Webcollect account.

Jeff.
Chief PowerboatInstructor on behalf of the PBI team.

Cruising News – New for 2025 from Simon Conway

I have been chatting with Poole Yacht Club over the Winter and they have agreed to allow CVLSC members access to their slipway, car park and club facilities on a day-by-day basis.

This means that anyone wanting to pop down to the South Coast for a day sail can do so without the hassle of expensive car parks and the associated difficulties of finding spaces and decent slipways.

It also means that for those wishing to experience an overnight stay on their boats can do so without worrying about car/trailer safety and again, expensive overnight parking charges. (Rockley Point charge £75 per night! And Baiter Park don\t allow overnight parking at all.)

For just under £13 per day, as a CVLSC member, you will have access to their cub – booking via Simon Conway (for now). ’AJ’ is the contact at PYC and their email is training@pooleyc.co.uk

You will need to book ahead of your intended visit day so they/I can give you access details, they have electronic gate entry.

So thanks to Richard McAvoy and Jo MacGregor, of Poole Yacht Club, for their time and effort in setting this up for us.

Race Officers by PRO Adam Broughton

Current Race Officers if you have not received an email regarding duties for 2025/26 please get in contact. We now have in place a volunteering system for you to choose your Race Officer Day that is working well, but will close for this year on 23-Feb-25. After this date I will allocate remaining Race Officer duties to those that have not chosen a preferred date(s)

Calendar change and RO Refresher

John Smalley and club PRO Adam Broughton (along with some distinguished others) are running a club Race Officer afternoon on Sunday 2nd March. This has meant that the Class Race Day originally planned has been swapped with Frostbite Points 15 & 16 the following weekend (Sunday 9th March) to allow attendance without having to miss any club racing.

The Club Calendar has been updated to reflect this change and notices will be posted on the noticeboards in the Declaration Room and Main Club Room at the next opportunity.

The refresher will cover (amongst others):

Racing procedures at the club
General guidance on setting courses, taking results etc
What to do when things don’t go as planned
Changes to the racing rules (2025-2028)
Launching, recovering and using the committee boat

Current club Race Officers and prospective recruits have been contacted about the refresher afternoon. If you think you would like to join the ranks of club Race Officers and haven’t been contacted, then send Adam an email at pro@chewvalleysailing.org.uk.

Club racing update from James Williams

After persistent terrible weather before Christmas, the start of 2025 has generally been much more fruitful for our organised activities. Although the forecast put many off the Resolution Trophy on New Year’s Day and Class Race Day last weekend was blown off, we have otherwise managed to run every planned race in the Frostbite Series. This has allowed a range of classes and experiences to blow the festive cobwebs off, including some welcome visitors who have joined us for the winter. Please do help visitors with the Chew starting sequences / courses etc if they need it!

The Sailing Committee would love to see more sailors giving club racing a go, or perhaps the less regular attendees joining us more often. Remember for those new to racing we will be running our Thursday Improvers and Start Racing sessions on Thursday evenings in May and June as a relaxed way of developing skills.

Member Travels

The winter months are always quiet for open events and travelling sailors, although not to be put off Ollie Houseman has sailed at two of the Sailjuice Winter Series events in the last month. In his National 18 he managed to persist to a finish in an extremely light Bloody Mary, ahead of a top 15 finish from well over 100 boats at this weekend’s equally prestigious Tiger Trophy at Rutland (no report as yet).

Andy Jones
Commodore