Solo Winters by Errol Edwards

Sailing Club News – 01-Mar-19

The past fortnight has seen the clubhouse busy, first with a multitude of students and then a host of Solo sailors. The un-seasonally gorgeous spell of weather worked its magic! It should also have the beneficial effect of encouraging you all to be rushing to renew your membership for 2019/20 – more details from Rosie below.

Membership Renewals

Yes, it’s that time of year again and your Membership renewal Emails are being sent out. Please can you help the volunteers who manage your memberships by renewing as soon as possible.
There is a link in your renewal Email to your WebCollect account. Do check your personal information and boat details are correct when renewing – the Email gives guidance on how to make changes.
Should you need help renewing and can visit the club on Saturday 16th March, our Membership secretary Rosie Bowers will be in the main club room of the clubhouse from 11am-2pm to assist. (Please bring your Webcollect details – email address and password).
For more advice, Rosie can be contacted on – membership@chewvalleysailing.org.uk

BUSA South West Team Racing trials

16 university teams battled it out over the 2nd/3rd February weekend to select the South West’s entrants into the BUSA finals to be held at Easter. This meant a schedule of over 100 races had to be sailed over the weekend – daunting, but with a decent wind forecast, they finished in good time on Sunday afternoon.

Class Race Day 5

The warm sunshine coupled with a tasty breeze meant a good turnout of racers rigged up on Sunday 3rd. We shared the lake with the students above, but with the wind from the South East, there was plenty of room afloat for all of us. Race Officer Pete Sherwin got in three great races.
The 8 strong Handicap fleet saw Tim Johnson in his Devoti D1 defy the PY numbers and win the first race on the water! ‘Normal’ order was restored in the afternoon with Winter visitor Jason Rickard winning both races to take top spot sailing a Musto Skiff.
Keith Harris and Claire won all three races in his Flying Fifteen, and Chris Goldhawk did the same to the Solo fleet. Most closely contested was the Laser fleet with Jason Probert beating Simon Cummins after a tie break.

Quiz night Wednesday 20-Feb-19

After enjoying another of Rob’s tasty supper offerings, six teams were created to answer the questions set by John Kelly and Ruth Kenyon. Our team, having decided to play our joker on the Day Skipper round, encouraged by Andy Bones (who, with hindsight, should be re-checking his Yachtmaster qualification!), were surprised to find that ‘yacht provisioning’ featured strongly in the questioning! Quite what spotting the Irish whiskey from a list of malts had to with ‘Day Skipper’ I will leave you to guess… Suffice to say we didn’t win! In fact the winners turned out to be a team including Derian Scott and Bill Chard, narrowly defeating our brainy Commodore’s team. It was a relaxing, fun evening and I hope our quizmasters may be encouraged to reprieve their double act next winter.

Quiz Masters

Solo Winter Championships – Saturday 23-Feb-19

With a forecast of 10 – 15mph wind and warm sunshine (yes, we had to use sun-screen!), an incredible 60 Solos turned up to compete – and all but one finished every race! Jeff Stratford and his police team were once again magnificent getting everyone parked, and after a short postponement for the wind to settle, racing got going at 11.30.
Our relatively small race team worked hard as the wind shifted back and forth. Charlie Cumbly from Warsash won overall with two first places, closely followed by Tom Gillard from Sheffield Viking who won the third race. Chew had 9 boats in the fray (sadly not including Chris Goldhawk with a damaged back), and the biggest ‘home crowd’ cheer at the prizegiving was for our own Tim Johnson who finished 7th. It was another great day of advertisement for the Club.

A Good Start

Read the excellent, full account of the day in the Yachts and Yachting report, or open the link below to see Errol Edwards amazing photos

Race Officer Update evening – Wednesday 27-Feb-19

Just under half of the race officers on Chew’s rota came along last night to a presentation from Keith Harris and Chris Goldhawk. We heard about the new arrangements for displaying flags and courses on the committee boat, changes to our club’s marks and flags, changes to the racing rules and the newly re-written Club Sailing Instructions.

Chris took time to patiently explain how our Sailwave results programme works – an effort that I am sure will be appreciated by his successor, Bill Chard, who should not have any post-race problems to resolve in future!

The intention is that the rest of the race officer team will come to the second evening on Wednesday 27-Mar-19  6.30 for 7.00pm start – Rob will have supper ready for 6.30. If there are any keen Assistant Race Officers who would like to better understand what you will be facing when your duty comes around, please do come along – you will be most welcome. Please let me know beforehand – vice-commodore@chewvalleysailing.org.uk

Looking Forward

Saturday 02-Mar-19 – First Aid course – Jeff Stratford still has one place available on this training day starting at 9.00am. To join, please email him at – jeffstratford@btinternet.com

Saturday 02-Mar-19 ‘Star party’ – run by Bristol Astronomical Society at the Club starting from 7pm. There will be star gazing if the sky is clear, or very interesting talks if its cloudy.
5 free places for club members – if you’d like to go please let Helen know by Friday 1st March, so that I can pass your names to the organisers.
commodore@chewvalleysailing.org.uk
(I am sorry for the short notice on this)

Wednesday Winter Warmer 3 – Wednesday 20-Mar-19 – 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
Dave Curno from the RYA Environmental team is going to come and talk about “Environmental Issues for Sailors”.
Whilst his usual talk is largely marine based, he has promised to concentrate on the freshwater aspects.
Rob will have the Galley running from 6.30pm and the Bar will be open, aiming for a 7pm start.
This evening is free so please come along and support it – everyone is welcome.

Need for a Sailboard for the Advanced Rescue Helm courses –
Jeff Stratford has asked me to pass on a plea for anyone who may have an old, unloved windsurfer, (the board and sail, not the guy who once sailed it!) kicking about in their garage, shed or loft that they no longer need please. (They intend to use this for the ARH course).
jeffstratford@btinternet.com

Frostbite Series – This will continue throughout each weekend in March.

And finally – Friday 15-Mar-19 heralds the end of our Windsurfing season – it must also mean Summer has begun!

John Smalley – vice-commodore@chewvalleysailing.org.uk