The magazine of Exe Sailing Club EXE news Issue 93 Autumn 2013 www.exe-sailing-club.org EXE news In this issue . Issue 93 Commodore’s Notes .................................... 4 Autumn 2013 Dinghy Report ............................................. 9 Cruiser Update ........................................... 11 Editor Mike Coleman Training Centre Review .............................. 17 Tel 07767 607118 Sailability Project ....................................... 19 editor@exe–sailing–club.org Junior and Youth Sailing ............................. 23 Editorial Team Bar, Restaurant and Social .......................... 28 Sue Hamilton Anna Marks Comet Trio Nationals .................................. 31 Advertising Manager RTYC Offshore Week .................................. 34 Nigel Walshaw Getting Back! ............................................. 37 Tel 01395 269433 Exehibitionist @ Dartmouth ....................... 39 [email protected] This issue printed by Wine Run ................................................... 41 Print Wise On The Figaro Circuit .................................. 44 Basingstoke Farewell Tel 01256 332202 Ron Lee .................................................. 47 Cover photo Harold Ellis ............................................. 48 Trio Nationals 2013 Brian Rowsell ......................................... 49 Courtesy of Mike Rice Member Profile – Jenks Hughes .................. 51 www.fotoboat.com With thanks to all our contributors and advertisers Exe News 93 3 Commodore’s Notes t seems to me that we have just had the best summer for years. April and May were fairly chilly but June through to August was very good. Lots of the cruisers went long I distances and all the dinghy events seem to have gone well. Unfortunately we have lost several of our older members, notably Harold Ellis, Ron Lee, David Garrett, and Brian Rowsell. However, our oldest member, Jenks Hughes, reached his 100th and is still in fine form. Take a look at his profile near the back. Dartmouth Regatta has just finished and again we had a good group of cruisers turning out with creditable results, the best being Rick Newcombe, who won almost all of his races to collect the Passage Race prize and the PY2 class prize. We also had the First 31.7 Nationals, within the PY2 class, which he also managed to sweep up. The week was characterised by pleasant winds, no rain and a great amount of fun. More and more young people have been persuaded to take the step into cruiser racing and we had 10 racing with the fleet at Dartmouth. This follows a successful cruiser crew training weekend at the beginning of the season which brought some fresh faces into the crews turning out each week. The recent Girls Go Yachting has further reinforced the interest. Our hosting of the River Exe Regatta was very successful, thanks to Bill Gott and his team. The racing and other activities were much enjoyed, despite the extreme weather on the Saturday. We also hosted the Trio Nationals with a largely home based fleet attending and managed to get in nearly all the scheduled races thanks to Phil Morrison's organisation. The top prize was contested closely by Iain Horlock and Les Arscott with Iain being the eventual winner. Later in the summer we also had a very good turnout for the RS200 SW Open with a good number of Exe boats and very good sailing with race officer, Les Arscott. The annual Kayak Rally enjoyed brilliant weather and nearly 100 participants appeared including the Exeter Dragon Racing boat. This event for Oxfam is a great 4 Exe News 93 spotlight for the club and brings together a huge group of volunteers, helping to reinforce our image as a club which gets involved in all sorts of water sports events and does so to a high standard. In July we were honoured to host Sarah Treseder, CEO of the RYA, for a morning during her fact finding tour of SW sailing clubs. As we were the only club on the Exe she came to, we assume the RYA felt we were worth a visit. Her host that day was Bob Horlock, who had recently stood down as Principal of our Training Centre and who had already spent hours setting up a new interactive white board/projector system for the training room. (In his other 'spare time' he has also made a nicely painted number board for setting out dinghy courses on the stern of Up Spirits.) Other visitors have included the RYA Laser Squad who used the club facilities for a week to gain more experience of tidal conditions for Rio, and Ben Rhodes and Stevie Morrison who have based their 49er at the club for training post 2012. Ali Martineau has hosted team training for a group of ladies from the Royal Canoe Club who have been training at sea for a Hawaiian outrigger canoe race. We wish them success as they head off to Hawaii shortly. Sam Matson has joined the Artemis team full time and had a successful summer racing with them. His achievement of being 4th in class for the Fastnet race is particularly noteworthy as he was only 20 minutes behind his Figaro class leader. Ben Cornish, nearing the end of his youth sponsorship with us, continues to strive for an Olympic place in the Laser Squad and has raced in every major regatta this season producing some very impressive results. In the Laser Europeans he was 23rd (4th GB sailor) and he is a key member of the RYA squad. Iain Horlock competed in the Contender Europeans and the UK Nationals. In the Nationals he came a very impressive 5th and has been asked to crew the Contender boat in the Endeavour Trophy 'Champion of Champions' race. In the Juniors, Victoria Upton has campaigned her Feva with the Zone Squad and was awarded an RYA commendation for improvement and dedication. James Nicholson won the 2 Rivers Junior Series and we now have a group of at least three youngsters competing against the adults in the Laser class at the club and elsewhere. At the beginning of the season, Jen Miller left us to change career and Sam Jacklin returned to take her place as Club Professional. With his extensive experience of sailing conditions on the Exe he has been an invaluable organiser, especially for Junior courses continued . Exe News 93 5 Commodore’s Notes (continued) in the summer. Around the same time, Bob Horlock handed over to Rick Newcombe as Training Centre Principal. Bob did a huge amount of work in his time as Principal and intends to remain an active instructor and helper in all areas of training and sailing. Under the new leadership of Mick Marshall the house committee has made lots of improvements around the place, with new water pipe laid out in the dinghy park and more obviously new double glazing doors and windows upstairs and down. The research for and purchase of rubber matting for the western slipway has greatly improved the recovery of dinghies along there and it will be extended if it continues to be a stable surface over the winter. The social programme has been low key over the summer but new activities are being organised for the non-sailing period and a list of winter talks has been drawn up. The art group continues to meet on Tuesday mornings and no doubt the skittles teams will emerge again shortly. As forecast last year, our membership has decreased slightly with the usual turnover of members but fewer hopefuls on the waiting list. However, we have had a steady stream of enquiries which have converted to new memberships and, unlike many other sports clubs, our membership and financial position have held steady. We are likely to have vacancies next year and any friends who express an interest in joining should be encouraged to do so. In line with improving our links with all members, the Facebook page, having been the preserve of the juniors, was widened to include all sailors and sailing activities, and has attracted a wide audience, not just amongst club members. In parallel the Twitter page also highlights club activities and connects with sailors interested in, and following, the fortunes of ESC. For the future, after great deliberation, the Sailing Committee has decided that the Cadet class will be discontinued and that we will make the transition to Fevas for a junior squad. In line with that we will seek to encourage the RS Feva Association to hold Nationals here in a few years time. Cheers Rex Frost Commodore Photo page 4 – Mick Marshall Exe News 93 7 Dinghy Sailing Report Guy Farrant Dinghy Captain he beginning of the season was not too auspicious with four days racing lost in April due to bad weather. However, it was a lovely evening for the Wednesday T King Cup race on 1 May which marked the start of the decent summer. Indeed May was a better month overall with only two days lost. Sadly, the Graham Sykes Centenary Chase was abandoned on 19 May due to no wind after 15 dinghies and 7 cruisers turned out. In general turn outs are slightly down on last year (there used to be 30 Trios in the club, now only 22), particularly at weekends. Unfortunately the fixed times series have made little difference. Saturday 8 June with a 4pm start was memorable for the best weekend turnout of 16 boats and for racing– near 19° in hot sunshine followed by a pleasant drink and meal on the balcony: perfect. At the time of writing club racing at sea has only happened on five days. Wednesday evenings remain popular with best turnouts being 33 boats on 3 July and 31 boats on 19 June with several turnouts of 29 boats. The race box starts on neaps usually mean course 5 (14 buoy and back), but course 4 (out to 10 buoy) has been used twice. Up Spirits starts on spring tides give much more flexibility, including racing near 21 buoy and around the river café.