Sailing Report – Helen Martin, Vice Commodore

Wednesday sailors were disappointed this week with strong winds causing the sailing to be cancelled, even the universities and schools didn’t appear, presumably put off by the forecast.

In contrast the weekend brought some great sailing, as long as you didn’t want to sail on Saturday morning, when it went very light for a while. The Solo fleet took advantage of the calm for some onshore briefing from Chris Goldhawk and Graham Cranford-Smith and were then put through their paces in the afternoon, ably assisted by Steve Smith. Some very tired sailors were observed happily collapsing in the bar for a debrief, late in the afternoon. See a full report.

I understand the RS 200s are planning to reschedule their training day using “in house” expertise, Chew is such a great club with so much depth of knowledge and experience!

The 2.4m sailors were also training on Saturday and Bath Uni had one of their recreational sailing days, introducing non-sailors to the sport.

The class race day on Sunday was enjoyed by all with good spirited racing across the fleets – the morning provided some interesting shifts and gusts, the afternoon somewhat lighter and a bit more consistent. Two of the laser sailors, prompted by what I hope was a calm, assertive hail of “protest”, used a good spirited Advisory Hearing to clarify a mark rounding rule – a very helpful learning process – to be recommended.

Don’t miss the Rules Update evening on March 1st.

 Membership Renewals

Currently undergoing final testing, the new online membership application and renewal system, WebCollect, will be released for 2017/18 membership renewals next week.

You will have the opportunity to check the accuracy of your information, change membership types if appropriate and select your preferred duty types and days. WebCollect will also be used in the future for training course bookings, open meeting bookings and social event bookings.

Look out for further emails and in the meantime please add the email address ‘cvlsc@webcollect.org.uk‘ to your contacts list to make sure the renewal emails get through to your inbox.

 Coming Up

  • SW Optimist Class Association Training – this weekend, 25th & 26th February.
  • How have the racing rules changed? Wednesday 1st March. 7 for 7.30. Mike Johnson, John Smalley, Keith Harris – improving our knowledge of the rules leads to fewer “incidents” and more enjoyable racing! Expect a good turnout.
  • Past Present and Future, the story of Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club – Wednesday 22nd March. 7 for 7.30. The galley will be open beforehand, details to follow.

 Training Courses

Powerboat Level 2. The next 2 day course will be on March 25th and April 1st. Please contact Jeff Stratford if you are interested, . There are other dates later in the year (see club calendar, contact Jeff to express interest).

Laser Training Day – 18th March. Online booking will be available next week.