Spring/Summer 2011
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
News, views & information from Weir Wood Sailing Club "Club Champions Jon Ching and Peter Jenkins" Photo by Captura Images Issue 7 Spring/Summer 2011 Club Championships Celebrating our Seniors The RNLI Commodore’s Cosy Chat were the RS100’s which were an Simon Davis interesting sight It’s been a very busy spring so far as we picked ourselves up in the light wind! after the very cold winter. Unusually the pursuit race was A big group of us met at Ally Pally on the 19th March to be better attended formally awarded our Volvo Champion Club status! This is than has been the a very important award for the Club and gives it credibility case in the past in any circumstance so congratulations again to all of those and the fleet were involved. It was a great day for all concerned and the photos awarded with a are there for all to see later in Afloat so I won’t steal anyones’ slightly stronger thunder by going on about it! I’ll make only two points; wind in the Firstly on fund raising. As a result of VCC status you get a afternoon and a 15% discount on any new Volvo you buy and we, the Club, long, long course. Simon Davis get £100 for every Volvo bought by Club members. So can I 2 hours really is J appeal to you, for the sake of your sailing club, to go out and a long race after buy Volvo’s. Not just one, not two, but three or even four so two races in the morning! Chris Fyans used the very light that we can raise much needed funds for the Club. Secondly winds in the morning as an excuse to get his Rooster out but I’ve always thought that ultra high performers, whatever somehow or another didn’t really show up for the racing! A their discipline, be it business, politics or sport have an aura note for the future. Having hosted the inaugural Rooster 8.7 about them. Clearly Paul Goodison does. After he shook my National in October 2009 we will be hosting them again in hand on the Saturday I got a 5th in the Laser races on the October this year. The Rooster is an interesting extension of Sunday! Sadly it’s not something that lasts. the Laser concept without the Laser branding. DG’s report Also to add to the good news on the Youth front we applied is a good read and the results have been on the website for a for and received funding for 3 new RS Fevas for the Youth while. Racing Group. Along with Lasers 420’s and 29’ers Feva’s now And another great result for the Oppy fleet: congratulations represent the RYA’s ‘Youth Pathway’ boats. We have 5 Lasers to Emma Baker for coming first in the GB team at the Oppy with all rigs and 3 Fevas. It is great to see them being actively Worlds at Lake Garda. We are really proud of you. used most weekends. We’re looking for a sponsor for our Youth sailors as they start to spread their wings around Nationally the 100’s have created a real storm since their the Opens, Zonals and Nationals around the country so if launch and RS’s marketing was very clever, involving anyone has any ideas on this then please let me know. interested and experienced sailors trying prototypes out around the Club’s. WWSC sailors, ever at the forefront, were The Club Champs were a great affair. I thought attendance very quick to take them up and we had 2 representatives was actually down but then the DG (Sailing Sec David Giles, at the first RS100 Nationals last year with Tim Hulley 7th the real power behind the Commodores throne), reminded and Colin Hatton 16th. I think there are now 6 and maybe 7 me that we had an Oppi zonal training day last year so not regular sailors and they are proving extremely competitive all 62 boats on the water were competing. So our turnout both on the water and on handicap. In that context it was a this year at 48 boats was not at all shabby. New on the block real shame that winds on Saturday 16th April were forecast to be, and turned out, very light. RS brought two boats up to Spring 2011 WWSC for a 100 Open Day and there was a good turnout of Dates at a Glance Sailing Events existing owners and a couple of first timers. They seem a good deal less ‘flighty’ than the single handers 11th June Laser 2000 Open Meeting RS have come up with before and are more tractable in a reservoir situation with sufficient waterline width towards Afloat 3rd July RS 200 Open meeting the stern. Can’t be long before Sam Pascoe comes up with a 2 17th July Enterprise Open Meeting foiler which, given the boats basic high performance should Social and other Events be spectacular. 18th May (Wednesday evening after sailing) Talking about the 16th April we in the committee are very aware of comments that the Club is too skewed towards elite Talk by the RNLI after Wed racing and do not take into consideration the needs of those 25th June Picnic and Proms who can sail well, who want to race but feel that they will always be at the back of the fleet. We are also concerned that Write them in your diaries NOW such a high percentage of boats in the Boat Park rarely see the light of day. Therefore on the 16th April we organised a Junior & Youth Training where I feel we have put a lot of ‘Can sail, can’t race’ and ‘get the cover off your boat’ day. The effort and the effects are beginning to be seen in turnout, aim of this was to have some of the Club ‘pro’s’ including ex- level of interest and results. Growing the membership was World Champion and multi National champion David Giles 3rd. All I’ll say on that is that we are working on it! offering rigging advice and help on the water throughout We asked for textual response to what were your best the day. It was therefore highly disappointing that only a and worst aspects of the Club. Clearly well ahead was paltry two members actually turned up. I am constantly the wonderful location and the friendliness and spirit of saddened and amazed by the poor attendance to Club the club members. I’m bound to say that the atmosphere events outside the mainstream, and members will end up around the Club is excellent at the moment and there with the events they deserve i.e. none unless they turn up is a very strong spirit in the membership without the for them. It really is a case of ‘se it or lose it’. It was wasteful cliqueyness that we may have been guilty of in the past. On and demoralising for the two ‘Pro’s’ we had laid on as they the downside, it was the Clubhouse downstairs and the Boat may well be unwilling to volunteer in the future if so few Park that took most of the flak. We have put in place actions turn out when they do. On the issue of ‘can sail, can’t race’ over the summer to improve drainage in the Boat Park and we are going to stick with it and keep trying with a different I have asked Christopher Moir to clear all the old boats format. We will be using the Saturday race as the basis with out as well as looking at trimming some of the trees that a rigging and boat set up discussion and advice beforehand. constantly interfere with your burgees! In the race itself your club ‘pro’ will follow in a chase boat offering advice and taking live video which will be discussed On the Clubhouse nothing but a major redevelopment will afterwards. We expect to be able to run one each month do! So I think it is fair to warn you that anything we do will throughout the summer so watch this space for more be costly. After the Development Plan is published we will information and dates. start looking for resources, both financial and otherwise to assist in the redevelopment. In the last edition of ‘Afloat’ we sent out a Club-wide Survey to try and elicit what you, the members, thought about your In the meantime Wednesday sailing has begun with a very Club. The ‘your’ in that sentence is very important because good attendance for the intitial sessions, the water is already it is your Club and the Committees job is to represent your up to 15 degrees on the surface and the wind is blowing. views. We needed to get your view on the Club’s future so How can you not enjoy your summer at beautiful Weir that we could put a Club Development Plan together that Wood. will then be discussed at an Extraordinary Meeting later in the year. Our plan is then to start implementing the From our Foreign Correspondent Development Plan soon after that. The first point to make about the Survey was that we received, in the end, over 100 Michael responses, or 25% of the membership. This is a pretty good The Ed received the following dispatch from response for a voluntary club and gives us comfort that the Mike Ramus who was racing big boats in the views expressed in it are representative.