The skittles evening
This was a great success with over 20 people demonstrating their expertise in the skittle alley. If you were to ask me how I got on, the reply would be my position was similar to that achieved by Great Britain in the Eurovision song contest. My best bowls expertly passed through the skittles without troubling them. My sincere thanks go to Lois for organising it. Fun was had by all.
Duties for the year.
My thanks also go to Juley Simmonds for updating the duties list on the club website. There are still some slots to fill so please take a look and volunteer before we have it delegate a duty for you.
On the water.
We have had three sailing sessions. One first thrash and two race days. Some helms are naturally a little rusty. I failed to read and sail the correct course so I had to retire. Other helms who will be nameless tacked inside the yellow buoys and were duly disqualified by the ever watchful race committee. Racing is never dull!
All In Series.
For those of you who have not read the clubs article on this series I have reproduced some of the important bits here:-
Last year we were unable to award some trophies because there weren’t enough participants to have a series winner. So this year we are introducing The All In series. This occurs on 7 occasions throughout the year. It is planned to have four short races in a day. Each race will last around 30mins. There will two back to back in the morning and two back to back in the afternoon. This will give the committee 28 races to extract results so that the following trophies can then be awarded: 1st Lady Helm, 1st Double Hander Helm (& crew), 1st Single Hander Helm, 1st Youth, 1st Master, 1st Grand Master and ‘Best Improver’ from the ‘slow’ category (the Novices’ Cup). You don’t have to sail in all the races. If you want you could sail one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Or just the morning races etc. The club is aware that sailing for over an hour in a pursuit is not everybody’s cup of tea. You sail the races that suit you!
Some definitions have been modified to accommodate the trophy winners.
Veterans (currently over 45) and Juniors (under 16) will be replaced by the following 3 groups :- Youth: under 18, Master 18 to 55, Grand Master over 55 years. (These apply from the start of the year and to racing only – not to membership)
Novices are currently defined as those who have not won a trophy. This cup will now be awarded to the Best Improver from those with a ‘Slow’ rating. The computer program gives a % slow or % fast rating for everyone as result of all races sailed. (Roughly the bottom 1/3rd of finishers is ‘slow’ as they are sailing below their handicap) The person who improves their rating most, from this group, by the end of this series will be awarded the trophy.
The first All In Series day is this Sunday 27th March. First race is 11am. How many races can you fit in?
Comet and Topper Open Saturday 9th April.
The racing side of this regular event is organised. However the catering side is not. I need some volunteers to man the Galley at lunch time and serve hot dogs and hamburgers to 25 hungry helms. I also need some members with cake making skills to produce food for afternoon tea for ravenous sailors. If you can help out for an hour or two or are able to demonstrate your Mary Berry skills please will you let me know. Details are at the end of this letter.
Val Cross
It is with great sadness that I have to report that Val Cross passed away last weekend. I’m sure the Club would wish me to pass on to Nic and his family our heartfelt condolences.
Regards
Clive Chapman
Commodore