Welcome to this months news, a bumper edition with lots thats happened, and lots to come…

Your Club needs YOU!

Heading into this year’s AGM we are on the search for a new Club Secretary. The role is a great way to get involved in the activity of the club and to help shape our direction going forward – please do let me know if you may like to get involved either with this role, or indeed if you are able to assist in any other way

Low water – thats nothing!!

If you thought that the water level is currently low check out the images below that John Bone captured in 1976 – someone definitely pulled the plug out then!

Barts Bash

winners Matt & Jemima (photo credit: Errol Edwards)

Thanks to Rob Mitchell and all the race team for organising this years Barts Bash, raising £155 for the Andrew Simpson foundation.

Special well done to winners Matt and 5 year old Jemima Greenfield who was competing in her first race, what a ⭐️

Junior regatta

On the 18-Sep-22 we ran a Junior Regatta attracting 14 junior sailors in a variety of boats for some friendly racing!

Lovely warm sun and 12 knots of breeze allowed for very good racing with the full complement of 3 races completed. Considering it was lots of the competitors first ever races / regatta, there was some very tight racing, with the top 3 tied for points and CVLSC member Giovanni Bianchi taking the win on countback.

Due to the succes of the races, we look to run a similar event next year with even more time to organise.”

Mikey Denis (Youth Coordinator)

Fab new Video initiative

One of the things talked about for a while has been the creation of some simple videos to help support people on “how to” do things around the club. The idea is that these will be a quick visual refresher for people doing duties they may only do occasionally or be unfamiliar with.

So Damian Gardner Thorpe decided to grasp the nettle and in his role of Executive Producer, Director and cameraman signed up some well known actors on multi million pound deals to put words into action  – the videos already cover for example ‘how to refuel a RIB’, and ‘how to rig a club quest’, and more. Click here to see them

With more videos in the pipeline please do feedback on what would be useful….and keep a look out for the CVLSC Oscar nominations in the future!!

RIB Crew

Please be aware that on calm days laying stern to the wind for a while while on RIB duty may risk you sitting in a mist of exhaust fumes. This was highlighted recently by a member who felt unwell after doing RIB duty – please let us know if you also experience this and RIB helms avoid the same by sitting bow into the wind and/or avoiding staying stationary for too long.

Windsurfing Season

With Summer Sailing over we are now in the close season (mid-September 2022 to mid-March 2023) and Sailboarding is allowed on the lake until 17 March 2023. Available to members who register and sail a dinghy at the club sailboards can remain on club premises during sailboard season and must be kept in the owners boat space. The sailboard fee is £47 and a sticker ordered through your WebCollect account (under ‘Boats & Keys).

Rosie: membership@chewvalleysailing.org.uk

Visitors day

Don’t forget it is our Visitors day soon – please spread the work around your networks, it would be great to show off our club to lots of visitors and while our water levels are low, at some inland clubs they are not able to sail at all 🙁

RYA Training – restriction on hire of club Quests on 22/23-Oct-22

We are running an RYA Level 3 (Better Sailing) course over the weekend 22/23-Oct-22, so apologies but 3 of the 4 club Quests will not be available for general hire on those days.

RYA Training – update on other training activity

RYA Level 3 (Better Sailing) Course
https://www.rya.org.uk/training/courses/dinghy-level-3-better-sailing-dlevel3
If you’ve been sailing at Level 2 standard or higher for more than a season and would like to spend a weekend improving your sailing skills to RYA Level 3 we are planning to run a course over the weekend 22/23-Oct-22. We can take a maximum of 6 candidates, and places can now be booked on Webcollect.

Dinghy Instructors Course
It’s great that I’ve had several enquiries over the summer from members keen to get their DI ticket. Sadly, we don’t have the in-house capability to run a DI course at the club, but I’m in touch with the RYA about securing their help to run a course next spring. It’s early days and dates, location(s) and costs have yet to be agreed. At this stage, if you are interested and haven’t already done so, let me know and I’ll send you any news as it happens.

Assistant Dinghy Instructor Course
https://www.rya.org.uk/training/teaching/dinghy
I’m equally pleased I’ve been asked about the possibility of running an Assistant Instructor course at the club. We can run that ourselves, so could plan to take advantage of that interest sometime this autumn. This would be a weekend course, and would cost £100.
At the moment, however, the expressions of interest haven’t fed through into more than one member registering their interest in the course. We’d need a minimum of 4 candidates to make it viable.
To progress, I need to know if you’re interested and which weekends in October and November would be OK for you.

Dave Orme
CVLSC RYA Principal
training.cvlsc@gmail.com

Cruising Update

It has been a busy end of season for dinghy cruising starting with an invite to join the 26th International Wayfarer Rally in Brittany ( see separate report by John Kelly )

Less than 24 hours after returning from that SKISMO and I spent 3 out of 5 days sailing in Poole harbour, which is deceptively vast and offers plenty of interesting dinghy cruising locations. It has a rare double high tide which encourages careful passage planning or you could end up with not enough water to stay afloat! This was followed immediately by yet another trip North to the beautiful landscapes of the Lake District. Lots of non-tidal water to choose from with great secluded nooks and crannies in which to explore. Derwentwater, Coniston water and Windermere were fantastic playgrounds as well as the surrounding landscapes which never fail to amaze me.

If this is the kind of dinghy sailing that interests you then keep a look out for the next newsletter where I shall be inviting interested parties to have their say and get involved.

Simon

26th International Wayfarer Rally, Brittany

Simon Conway, Mike Higgins, Kate O’Brien, John Kelly and Phil Pemberton and two Wayfarers from the club travelled to the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany for the 26th Wayfarer International Rally. Participants were mainly from the UK but there were sailors from France, Belgium, the Netherlands – a big Wayfarer stronghold – and from the United States. Sailing to one or other of the many islands in the Gulf was interspersed with oyster tasting and eating the local speciality – crepes.

John Kelly has written a fabulous report of the event – please click here to read more

GP14 and Dragonflite 95 aficionado Simon also produced a video of the event which can be seen in his Sailing Skismo site on YouTube

Poole Harbour Trip

Not to be outdone, Alice Semenenko wrote this trip report following her cruise around Poole harbour – apologies I omitted this in error from the September news Alice. Please click here to read more

Police v CLADS Topper Omega Class Day – a totally unbiased report of the racing

Saturday the 17-Sep-22 was the most important annual event of the international sailing calendar; the CVLSC Topper Omega Class day, an event bigger even than the modern day Americas Cup with a trophy to match.

In keeping with a long tradition (that started in 2021) the Police Group at CVLSC and CLADS have agreed to hold an annual Class day event for the Topper Omega Class. This event is strictly limited to 2 of the world most famous Omega’s. One representing CLADS with Steve Nash on the helm and who ever he can kidnap for a few ours to rig his boat, act as crew; and right the boat in the event of capsize (this year it was Martin). The other boat representing the Police Group was Jeff and Mallcom; I don’t think either of them knew which one was really helming! There was the usual build to the prestigious event in the proceeding weeks that consisted of insults and threats to sabotage each opponents vessel. Order was maintained to some degree by our very experienced and diplomatic Race Officer John Smalley.

Conditions on the day were slightly better than last year in that we had wind for most of the race; although it was very light and changeable. The first lap was close with CLADS overtaking the Police on the first mark. Later the Police caught up towards about the fourth mark. CLADS were trailing close through the gate on the first lap, as the first lap was quite quick; John Smalley ordered us to take a second lap. Once through the gate the Police decided to deploy their Gennaker; so we followed suit. As CLADS were closer to the shore their Gennaker didn’t catch the wind and they lost some ground so decided to take the Gennaker down. CLADS were able to get back on course. Whilst CLADS were regaining ground; the Police seemed to be doing strange things, they seemed to be sailing the wrong way. CLADS observed the Police boats behaviour and took it easy, making sure they kept on course. As CLADS approached the final mark it looked like the Police finally got back on course, maybe they woke up from their afternoon nap? CLADS went through the final gate after various tack’s due to wind shifts and headed to the slipway to come ashore and de-rig. Eventually the Police made it through the gate and Jeff came ashore to congratulate CLADS and add Steve and Martin’s name to the Gaunlet attached to the piece of wood on the wall next to the shower in the undercover boat store.

Apparently the Police picked up a load of weed on their centre board; so their story goes.

So CLADS (Steve & Martin) are the clear winners of the 2022 CVLSC Topper Omega Class day. Because of this prestigious international event please respect their privacy and don’t harass them for photographs and autographs when they are at the club. They are available for media interviews subtract to contract negotiations. Anon

On the road

Plenty more members have been travelling to events all over the country in September:

  • Rosie and Susie Sheahan attended a 50 boat 420 nationals at Lymington (report), following up by sailing at the Autumn Champs at Torbay, including a top 10 result in the opening race (report).
  • Paul Croote continued the nationals attendance at the Cherub’s out of Mumbles, finishing 2nd crewed by Andy Whapshott (report) while Jason Rickards and James Nuttall travelled to the Musto Skiff Nationals at Eastbourne Sovereign (report).
  • 4 chew boats took part in Poole Dinghy Week out of Parkstone Yacht Club. 3 boats in the ILCA6 fleet were represented by Christi Brasher well inside the top half, Ed Baker in 3rdand Oliver Allen-Wilcox winning overall. James Williams and Sarah Tuppen won in the RS200 fleet. Final report.
  • There have since been 2 separate ICLA Qualifier events, with Chew representation at both. At WPNSA Ed Baker sailed in the ILCA4 fleet (report) and Oliver Allen-Wilcox finishing inside the top 10 in the ILCA6 fleet (report). At the Hayling Island event Christi Brasher sailed in the ILCA4 fleet (report), Sarah Harding and Oli sailed in the ILCA6 fleet (report) and Ed Baker stepped up a rig size to complete in the ILCA7 (report).
  • Ollie Houseman continued his dominance in the National 18 fleet by winning all 4 races at Inlands at Tamesis (report). This was followed by top 3 results at the Merlin Rocket De May Vintage Series and Thames Series at Upper Thames SC (report).
  • The Solo fleet have also been travelling, with “ninja assassins” (according to the report), Toby Peacock and John Ellis infiltrating the local fleet to finish 4th and 6th out of 29 at the Dartmouth Royal Regatta (report). John Followed this up by travelling to the Salcombe YC Regatta (results).
  • Following the Nationals success the RS100’s were on the road again, with the National Tour event at Leigh and Lowton SC with Jon Elmes and David Smart (2nd overall) (report).
  • Finally, Ian Cadwallader was back in the front of Ian Pinnell’s Flying Fifteen, winning every race at the Royal Corinthian open at Burnham (report)

Andy Jones
Commodore