Club Championships Laser Open Open Day News, Views & Information from Weir Wood Sailing Club
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News, views & information from Weir Wood Sailing Club Issue 10 Spring/Summer 2012 Club Championships Laser Open Open Day Photo: "Championship Winners Rob and Katie Burridge" Commodore’s Cosy Chat outstanding thing about this was Simon Davis the 6 4.7’s we had As I write it is absolutely pouring down with rain and in attendance. 5 seems to have been doing so for at least 2 weeks. Yet three were Weir Wood weeks ago we were in full drought mode, the reservoir was sailors who are at significantly reduced levels (below 50%) and there were progressing very concerns as to whether we would actually get on the water quickly though at all later in the summer. This morning I have been down the ranks and it is to the Club clearing the drains around the main gate, petrol great to see them store and the one Boat Park land drain, none of which are on the water for man enough for the job! In the last 2 weeks the water is up normal racing around 3 vertical feet with far more to come and horizontally and for Opens. the ‘beaches’ have all but disappeared and the water is again It is brilliant and lapping against the walls below the Race Hut. Memories of I can only hope 1976 are slowly ebbing away. that we get even more as time goes J Simon Davis I was out over the weekend cleaning out some of the land on. This is the drains in the Boat Park. It was a perfect case of the law of beginning of the payback for all the work put in by so many unintended consequences as in rodding a main drain the people in the Youth groups over the last few years and the subsidiary drain taking the water to the reservoir blocked commitment the Club has made to development. David Giles with silt and twigs etc. This has now flooded the main slip! will be telling you more about the Open so I won’t dwell on it At least the Boat Park might start to dry out now. further here except to say that Opens and our representation Whether or not this means we are in the clear is in the lap in them countrywide are an important part of getting the of the Gods but, with the trees all now coming into leaf, it Club’s name known better and more widely. means that the Reservoir will be looking utterly wonderful For those of you who do not know how the Laser 'progression' when we do eventually seem some sun and blue sky. Late works different rigs were designed for differing weights so Spring always harbingers the start of Wednesday evening that, using the same hull, a sailor could progress through the sailing which has given me some of my greatest Weir Wood ranks as they grew. So our kids start with a 4.7 metre rig with experiences over the years. For those of you who haven’t a mast that is stepped back to balance the centre of effort. tried it and I know it is difficult for some to get down As their weight goes up as they grow they move to a 'Radial' to, it is well worth the effort. There’s always good racing rig. This is an intermediate sail of 5.76 metres and the radial although the winds can be very light so that means the refers to the way the sail is cut from the clew. The Standard cruising is exceptional. There is always a good value quality rig is 7.06 metres. meal available in the Clubhouse cooked by members so all proceeds go to the Club and the atmosphere is always Talking of those latter points of getting the Club better brilliant. If you haven’t tried it I can heartily recommend it. known we are coming off the back of our 2012 Open Day in early May. It was always going to difficult to match last The end of April saw our Laser Open and despite little year’s huge success where we saw over 450 people come or no promotion we ended up with 28 boats. The really through the gates, 188 took test sails and we signed up 14 family members. We had fantastic weather and there were other distorting factors and at 9am last Saturday with a Spring 2012 Dates at a Glance freezing cold and a very sharp North Easterly blowing rain Sailing Events horizontally across the water I was thinking couldn’t I call the whole thing off and go back to my bed! Ultimately we 9th June Laser 2000 Open had more than 100 people through the gates and Peter and Glynis Hargreaves and their wonderful team took 70 people Afloat 5th August Enterprise Open out – far more than I had anticipated. The one advantage on 2 15th July RS 200 Open a day such as that you tend to only get the highly committed 29th & 30th September Optimist SE Zone coming down and we signed up three families on the day and Championships I expect many more in the forthcoming weeks. Social and other Events You will remember that it was 3 days after that amazing Open Day in 2011 that we were broken into for the first time 21st & 22nd July Sail for Gold Weekend and we lost all our brand new outboards. We can but hope Write them in your diaries NOW that the same thing doesn’t happen again but your Club has expended much effort and money to prevent it. The latest addition has been the Stockade just past the main Club slip. The idea behind this was to provide secure storage, off Lastly and far from least can I remind you about the ‘Sail the water, for RIBs that we couldn’t get into the garages. for Gold Regatta’ coming up on the 21st and 22nd of July – I can’t say it blends in and it won’t stop a determined and immediately before the Olympics. The aim of this is to get resourceful gang of thieves but it will certainly make life as many boats on our beautiful reservoir as we can. There harder for them and will deter the opportunists. It will will be ‘buddy’ racing (where more experience sailors work also extend the lives of the RIBs and engines as they were as a team mentoring and racing with less experienced sailors deteriorating rather quickly on the buoys. It was started by in the Club), a band playing and food laid on the Saturday a group of engineers and navvies on a Wednesday and was with racing and a BBQ at lunchtime on the Sunday. I will be fully complete by the weekend without disruption to Club writing to all of you with more details and a formal invitation Afloat activities in anyway. By doing it ourselves we saved over later this month but please put this weekend in your diaries £5,000 in construction costs! So my heartfelt thanks go out well in advance. to John Chisnall, David Ramshaw, Chris Fyans and Dick Lankester for an absolutely sterling effort on every count. STOP PRESS Spring 2012 I certainly don’t want to end on a sour note but I need to inform you that negotiations with our Landlords to obtain a We are delighted to announce that Helena Lucas has been long lease on terms acceptable to us have run into the sand selected for the GBR Paralympic squad in the 2.4m. Helena somewhat. We have until 2015 to come to an agreement was a member of WWSC and Crawley Mariners from the and even then we have rights to extend and there is no age of 12 and her parents have been long standing members suggestion that the Landlords don’t want us off the water of the club. so there is no short term existential threat to the Club. But 3 the existing Lease terms work very much against us in the Our commiserations go to Megan Pascoe (and her family of current environment and will do so in almost any reasonable course) for not making it this time. Megan says on her blog: projection for the future. We are, therefore, trying to achieve “I found out on Saturday that I have not been selected for an outcome that will allow us to flourish without that being the 2012 Games. I will still keep sailing my 2.4 this year and to the detriment of our Landlords. The net outcome of all there are still some big events to win. My goal for the year is to this is that we have had to delay our plans to redevelop the go to the Open Worlds in September and get a good result. It Clubhouse. This is unfortunate but a price worth paying to should be a good summer of sailing at home and abroad and ensure an equitable outcome to the negotiations. I wish all our Paralympians the greatest success.” Sailing Secretary’s were again up on last year with 56 Scribblings members signing on to compete. Congratulations to Rob and Katy David Giles Burridge for again winning overall At the beginning of my Sailing in their Laser 2000. There is a full Secretaries Scribblings in the last news report later in the magazine. The Club letter I referred to how lucky we had Championships were used to raise been with the weather, moderate south funds for the RNLI with an entry fee westerly winds and mild with the only of £5.00 per competitor.