Paul and Gabs Nichols
Sailing Club News – Monday 03-Aug-20
Those that were at the Club this weekend enjoyed some sparkling sailing conditions. The racing session on Sunday morning saw a rather fickle, gusty, shifty S.West breeze and there were over 40 boats taking part. Many thanks to Keith and Claire for running three consecutive racing Sundays – it is over to the rest of us now so volunteers, please form an orderly queue…
Fun Thursdays 3 and 4
I apologise for this mail following on so quickly from the last one, but it contains some good news; the two Fun Thursdays scheduled in our programme (can you remember where you last saw the programme or where you have put it?!) are going to go ahead. These will happen this Thursday the 06-Aug-20 and 27-Aug-20.
What is involved?
Our Police sailing section will man the safety RIBs and act as OOD between 3pm and 8pm. This not only gives their own members a chance to enjoy an afternoon/evening sail, but also lets our members get in on the fun.
The days usually end with a couple of simple, fun races run by Hugh Whatley around a triangular course. These start approximately at 6pm.
Rob will have a burger/sausage BBQ waiting for everyone as they come ashore.
These sessions need to be booked in the usual way, and the numbers will be restricted because the police group want to sail themselves.
Some general sailing advice
- Water levels are dropping – beware Little Denny. Best to stay north and west of a line between mark 4 and 3and south of a line between mark 4 and 5.
- Blue-green algae levels are still at “moderate risk” – wash hands and face as soon as possible and rinse kit when you get home.
“Covid secure” reminders
- Take care please at the outer gate – use the sanitiser and wipes now placed there.
- Aim to stick to the times you are booked to sail, arriving and departing on time.
- Are you still checking the most recent instructions to members? They are regularly updated
- The whole club house and undercover boat store remain closed.
- On shore group size remains a maximum of 6 from different households.
- Rob Hatherell now has the galley running on most sailing days. Remember your face covering when you go to buy food and drink.
- Thank you again for continuing to be careful and doing your bit to keep everyone safe.
An update on Club sailing duties during the ‘Return to Sailing’ period
As the lockdown started to ease, Return to Sailing activities at the club commenced at the end of May, initially with Duty cover provided by a pool of volunteers. Since then, over 220 memberships have booked to sail, facilitated by 102 members filling the duty slots on the roster to the end of July, with a few doing 2 or 3 duties over that time. The rostering of duties to the end of August has been undertaken by John Smalley [our Vice Commodore] to date. It has been very pleasant to have a break from having to find the names to fill around 70 standard duties a month, however it’s time for me to rescue John from his purgatory, and so I will be undertaking the rostering for September onwards. For the time being, we anticipate that the current duty team format will remain the same, comprising an OOD and two Rescue Helms (plus Rescue Crew only if from the same household as the helm), with ‘early’ and ‘late’ teams for Wednesdays and Sundays, and a single team for Saturdays. Two rescue boats are put on the water but these are only launched in emergencies.
For the rostering more recently and going forwards, I will be using the list of people that have successfully booked sailing slots as my best guide to those members that are willing/able to attend the club currently, and therefore I will be using this list as my source list for candidates for the duty roster – be aware that this list includes people that booked but didn’t turn up to sail. As usual, I will be doing my best to keep the numbers of duties allocated evenly across the range of members, but as I will be selecting from a reduced pool, as time goes on I may not be able to limit member’s duties to the typical duty count of 2-3 in a year, but will try my best! The reduced duty team format also means that members who typically do Race Officer, ARO or Rescue Crew duties, and who are not trained to drive a Rescue Boat, will be rostered as OOD, however the two Rescue Helms will more than likely be available onshore to provide advice/support to anyone new to the role. I trust that you will accept such niggles with good grace and as a necessary trade-off for being able to sail!
As per ‘normal’ times, the duty roster is now uploaded onto Dutyman, and therefore all duty swaps should be sought and arranged via Dutyman, and duty queries should be raised with me at duties@chewvalleysailing.org.uk – I will be rostering the September duties in the next couple of weeks and have uploaded the empty duty slots to Dutyman so that anyone that wishes to volunteer into a slot is able to.
Tom Skailes
07809877591
Finally, once again
I would encourage you to make the most of the opportunities to sail – the Fun Thursdays give us more options. Our site is outdoors and as covid-secure as it can reasonably be made. Sailing has to be one of the safest sporting activities from a cross infection perspective. Looking at our original sailing calendar, we would already be at Wednesday Evening series number 16 with only two more to complete the series! All too soon the days will be getting shorter….
I hope to see you enjoying the lake over the coming August weeks.
John Smalley – vice-commodore@chewvalleysailing.co.uk
Our Leader! (Stood still for a moment!)
Rob Higgywig in a far too fast Ferrari red RS700
The slime green Cherub!
Spot Rosie in her yankee doodle machine!
The racing Cudmores in Europes
That slippery Cherub again