January Newsletter
Commodore’s Greeting
Happy New Year Everyone,
Those of us who went to Rye Harbour on 14th January enjoyed seeing Hastings boats come first and third in the Rye Rum Race.
On Sunday 22nd, we had one of the shortest AGM’s ever, no doubt helped by the Executive Committee proposals having been published well in advance of the meeting. The next event is a series of work parties, when I hope as many members will turn up as they did last year. Just as important is the club’s lack of a viable House Committee, so I would like to repeat the appeal I made at the AGM. Anyone with an interest in the social side, please give me a ring on the Commodore’s Hotline below.
Finally, we have the Commodore’s Reception on Friday 17th March at 7.30pm. I would love to see as many of you as came last year, so make a note in your diary now.
Best wishes,
Don Bowles, Commodore, Hastings and St Leonards Sailing Club
Any queries on Sailing Club matters? Commodore’s Hotline 01424 214759
Achieving glory
Congratulations to the following as we cast our minds back to the end of last season:
Winter Series Philip and Margaret Blurton (Tasar)
Mince Pie Handicap Matt Wiseman and Peter Sharrod (Dart 16)
Christmas Pudding Pursuit Race Sergio Velluti (Laser Radial)
Well done all!
Sailing Away
The Rye Rum Race on 14th January was a fun event, and HSLSC put in a good showing in the nine-strong fleet, taking first (Phil and Margaret Blurton’s Tasar), 3rd (Hugh Ashford’s Laser Radial) and 4th (Melanie Clark’s Laser 4.7). Interestingly, Hugh and Melanie took their boats over on the club’s Topper trailer, so if anyone is considering racing in this event next year but has no road trailer for their boat, perhaps that’s not such an obstacle and you will have to come up with a better excuse…
Melanie has also been taking part in the Bough Beech Icicle Series, crewing an RS200 which I gather is going well.
Support Activities (Sailing), (SAS) (= duties)… rota availability
Phil Blurton says:
“ The rota will be published in Dutyman in early March to cover the period from Sunday 19th March to the end of July. To help make the programming of support activities as painless as possible, please let our Sailing Secretary Philip Blurton know asap any dates that you will not be available between Sunday 19th March and the end of July. Don’t forget that we sail on Wednesday evenings, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. If membership levels are the same as last year, then across the whole year most people will complete five or six sailing support activities. Many members enjoy these activities and some even prefer them to sailing! If you are one of these people and are happy to do more than the bare minimum, then let Phil know this as well. Contact Phil in person 07803 429534 or by email: blurton@madasafish.com. “
And I say:“ If anyone has met Phil, they may have begun to realise that he’s quite keen on his sailing. Lives for the smell of the sea, the breeze ruffling his hair, all that stuff. So imagine how hard he will work to try and make sure that sailing will be possible unless the elements absolutely prevent it. Part of this endeavour includes drawing up a rota of duties, and in doing so trying to reduce the occurrence of the Saturday night call that Someone can’t make their duty, or, even worse, the Sunday morning realisation that Someone has clean forgotten about sailing and gone to do something cultural in Bangor for the weekend. Please let that Someone not be you. Please put your thinking cap on now and make this small effort to plan ahead. If for whatever reason you later find your duty looming and it ain’t going to fit with your hectic schedule, please find another person to fill your
duty. Thank you 🙂 “
Pre-Sailing Programme
The dates and times for this year’s Working Parties are 26th February 9.30, Sunday 5th March 9.30 and Sunday 12th March 9.30. In return for giving up your hard-earned Sunday lie-in to muck in with odd jobs and generally keeping the club ship-shape, doughnuts will be provided. Just turn up. Evolutions will be organised by Hugh Ashford and Chris Hills if the last few years are anything to go by. That way, we’ll be good and ready for Sunday 19th March.
Mike McNamara Rules Changes talk & supper, Pevensey Bay SC
This should be good – see poster attached to this mailing. Thursday evening 23rd February, 7pm. £8 including food.
2017 Sailing Programme
The 2017 Sailing Programme has now been finalised. Returning to the club after a break of two years will be a Shearwater and Dart Open (25th and 25th June), and in addition to the usual Laser and Topper Open, there will be a Catamaran Open in the autumn. If you have started to think about your summer holidays, then factor in Sea Week which is the week beginning Monday 31st July, ending with a fun Regatta on Saturday 5th August. And also mark your diary for the first race of the 2017 season, the Rum Race on Sunday 19th March. Can’t come soon enough, eh?!
Sail Training Course 2017
The RYA Level 1 & 2 Sail Training Course will run from Wednesday 3rd May 2017. A £50 deposit will reserve one of the twelve places, some of which have already been snapped up. Other training being mooted – repeat item
– please inform Helen if you’d be interested:
Mini-course re recovery of a dingy from the power boat (Roy Sandford)
Mark laying (Simon Terry – a Wednesday evening early in the year)
Race officer evening (Simon again, TBA)
Think whether you could begin the trajectory towards becoming a Dinghy Instructor. First step: Assistant Instructor – a course should be available early in 2017. It will improve your own sailing as well as enabling you to contribute more confidently with other sail training courses run at the club.
Hugh Ashford and Matt Wiseman intend to lead the Youth Sailing Scheme again next year – speak to Hugh and Matt for more information.
Sailing Club / Hastings Lions Quiz Night
Thanks again to Andrew Colthurst and his Lions buddies (do any of them sail big cats?) for putting on the quiz night in November in aid of the Seaview Centre. It was a “roaring” success ho ho; any volunteers to run something similar again in the coming months, see Bob Lloyd (ents secretary aka Rear Commodore).
Card payments (yet again)
So… we’re getting used to the idea of a) using the card to pay for stuff, and b) writing down who we are and what we paid for, either on the back of the receipt or on the slip provided next to the till, and leaving the info in the till or in the box provided. None of the whats and wheres really matter as long as the info is provided. However our new Treasurer (trumpet fanfare…) Eunice Pugh will appreciate it if only those payments larger than £5 are being paid by card. Each card transaction costs the club a little MONEY which is fine as long as we’re not spending more than we’re taking in. So… spend over £5 and you’re more than welcome to use the card machine. No problem, then, with :
Money Money Money
Don’t know whether you’ve realised, but the first race of the HSLSC season 2017 is the Rum Race, coming up fast on Sunday 19th March. This makes it time to cough up your dough, ie pay your fees for the coming year. At the AGM the new fees were agreed, after a lovely year of no increase in 2016. The new prices can be found On The Membership page
You can pay by cheque made payable to Hastings and St Leonards Sailing Club, or using the card reader at the bar. AND it would be gorgeous if you could fill in a membership form (attached with this missive) while you’re at it, to keep us abreast with your skills, aptitudes and preferences not to mention contact details, and return same to membership secretary Andrew Colthurst, either by leaving it at the club eg at the Commodore’s Reception, or you can email it to him when paying subs. Thank you!
Christmas is coming… or.. the early bird catches the worm
To ensure that we managed to book a Saturday evening Laying Up Supper, this year’s event has already been booked, as follows: Saturday 18th November 2017, venue: Palace Bar, White Rock. Pop it in your diary now, while you’ve got it handy for checking about those duties.
Last but not Least: Commodore’s Reception Friday 17th March 7.30
A FREE DRINK and finger food with each membership! Before we all dive into the 2017 season, please all bowl up to the Commodore’s Reception, Friday 17th March, 7.30, a chance to share some time with like-minded hoary* sea-salts / the other club members and exchange gossip, become reacquainted with the bar stock list and daintily enjoy some choice nibbles. It would be fab to see as many as possible club members, sailing and associate, young, new and old, as this is a really good opportunity to meet and mingle and get to know everyone.
That’s all for now,
Hope to see you soon,
Margaret Blurton, Honorary Secretary sailingclubsec@gmail.com 01424 440056
* Have just looked up “hoary” as unsure if correct in this context. It isn’t.
1) greyish white – perhaps only to be expected if have been indoors and not out riding the ocean wave over the winter months.
2) trite, hackneyed, clichéd, banal, platitudinous, vapid, ordinary, commonplace, common, stock, conventional, stereotyped, predictable, overused, overdone, overworked, stale, worn out, time-worn, tired, threadbare, hack, unimaginative, unoriginal, derivative, uninspired, prosaic, routine, pedestrian, run-of-the-mill.
When you come down to the Commodore’s Reception you will struggle to find anyone meeting this
description!