Commodore s Log Highlights from last year and a glimpse of what s coming

Transcription

1 May 2017 Commodore s Log Highlights from last year and a glimpse of what s coming What a great year we have had as Datchet Water Sailing Club goes from strength to strength. I would like to share with you some of the highlights of where we have been in the last year and where we are planning to go this year. The work on making the clubhouse sustainable has been completed with thanks to the many members and the management team for making this possible. For the next three years the focus will be on sailing and getting bums on boats. For this I need all members to support me to make it happen. Current feedback on the circuit is that Datchet is a friendly club and we want to build on this to develop participation. We have already probably the best facilities of any club of our size and now I want us to be known as the most friendly club in the country. I am delighted to see how many members have stepped up to get involved in all areas of the club and must thank my Vice Commodore and the sailing committee for all the good work. Also to the members who are travelling the circuit and flying the Datchet flag. Congratulations to all who took part in the Sailjuice series and I am delighted to say that Datchet sailors out performed every other club and we were awarded the Sailjuice Trident Club of the Year for the 16/17 series. Going forward we hope to improve our communications with members. Our aim is to be the best sailing club we can possibly be. To that end we would ask members to sign up and get involved in one of the ten focus areas we are working on. Together we can make this happen. I m looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Open Weekend welcoming our visitors and getting your boats out. Spread the word and promote your club. Word of mouth is still the way to get members to join DWSC, Despite today s world of technology, it is the We have already probably the best facilities of any club of our size and now I want us to be known as the most friendly club in the country Team Datchet proudly displayed by the Musto Skiff team DATE FOR YOUR DIARY Open weekend: May for details recommendation of a friend that brings most members to a club, either for membership or training. We need all our members to actively promote the club. If you like what we do, tell others, if you don t like what we do tell us. For example, we are hoping to get Max McCarroll aged 15 to write what club life is like for him. He has embraced the club and the sport and has gone to open meetings, sailed with numerous members, gone to the NSSA (this year as a helper), and used us for his Duke of Edinburgh Award challenges. Another thing we have seen more recently is much more focused media activity with the website, facebook, twitter etc. and we will be following this trend as part of our campaign to reach out to new members. Moving forward we will be relying on contributions from you our members. Maybe if you see a great article about sailing or related water sports send it to sailing@dwsc.co.uk and we will get it published on our website. If you use twitter or facebook or any other media communication that you think we should be on let us know. Also if you are visiting the club post it on facebook or twitter, with the hash tag #datchetwatersc to reference the club. If you take some pictures or make a video please share it with us and we will post it to the club website. The more media input we get the better. Mike Beckett, Commodore, Datchet Water Sailing Club

2 Club racing update New series to run on Sunday afternoons Sunday morning racing remains the main event for most serious racers. Much work has gone into course design and supporting Race Teams to help improve their experience and that of the racers. Check out the new sailing instructions at However, for those wanting to build their racing experience away from the cut-and-thrust of Sunday morning, the club has introduced Sunday afternoon racing. You recently received an telling you all about it. In brief, three fleets Flying Fifteen, Wayfarer and Lasers plus our junior 20 knot squad. Racing will start at 2pm and finish by 3.30pm with a debrief in the bar. Congratulations to new FF fleet captains New fleet captains have been appointed to lead the Flying Fifteen fleet. Nick Moore and Maxine Oliver have taken on the fleet captain and vice captain role for the Flying Fifteen fleet respectively. The Start Reps and Fleet Captains provide a first point of contact for new members to help them integrate into We are looking for all and any of the following to join in: - Members who want to gain race experience and build their confidence - Experienced members willing to share knowledge with less experienced sailors in their Wayfarer/ Flying Fifteen or to provide coaching - Members wanting to develop coaching/ race management/ safety coxswain skills and parents of 20kt sailors interested getting active while their kids are enjoying themselves - This Girl Can attendees wanting even more fun - Those unable to make it to the club for Sunday morning At the end of the series we will be awarding prizes (on a totally subjective basis!) including to the most improved sailor/ race team member/ coach and maybe some fun ones too the sailing communities. They act as a 2-way conduit between the members and the club - to flag issues/ members wants/ requests and to make sure that members are aware of significant club events that they might otherwise miss on the blog/ website. They also stimulate a sense of community in fleets/ starts and help connect that community to the rest of the club. For more information, take a look at the Sailing Committee page on the website Dutyman - new easier ways to step forward Just like every year, members need to be allocated for their duties. We usually manually input member s duties into the database as they renew their membership. This year we have found a way in which members can allocate themselves for their duties during the year. This has proved to be very successful for the first time in trying it. Around 30 members have put themselves in for duties during the year. We had a cut off time for this of Thursday 9th March. This was to help force members to get them allocating themselves. From now on the office will be allocating duties for everyone who renews their membership. Winter Series results The Winter Series was wrapped up on 15th March and honours were spread across the fleets as follows: Start 1 (Flying Fifteen) 1st Mike Clapp / Peter Morris (4027) 2nd Richard Jones / Howard Shawyer (4011) 3rd Nick Moore/Maxine Oliver (3407) Start 2 (Fast Handicap) 1st Tony Cooper/Ray Mason (Wayfarer ) 2nd Nick Harris/John Ryan (Wayfarer ) 3rd George Hoskins (Laser ) Start 3 (Asymmetric) 1st Daniel Goodman/Debbie Robertshaw (RS ) 2nd Mark Cooper (Musto Skiff - 260) 3rd Dave Poston (Musto Skiff 520) Start 4 (Catamaran) 1st Graeme Staden/Paul McKay (Hurricane ) 2nd John Patterson/David Tugwell (Hobie ) 3rd Dave Hazard/ Various (Inter 20 94) Datchet success at RYA Youth Nationals Two Datchet sailors (both instructors) earned podium places in the recent five day 2017 RYA Youth Nationals at Hayling Island SC. Alex Smallwood and his crew Ross Thompson dominated the 420 fleet from the outset, securing gold with a day to spare to retain the title they won last year. Jordan Giles earned a bronze in the Laser Radial fleet. Hanna Brant, whose father Trevor sails a Flying Fifteen at Datchet, also earned 3rd place in the girls 29er. Datchet down under Two DWSC boats sailed in the International Flying Fifteen World Championships in Napier, New Zealand in February. John Hanson and Helen Selden achieved a very creditable mid-table position while former world champion Charles Apthorp sailing with Alan Green from the National Yacht Club of Ireland, finished 4th overall.

3 Getting to grips with the racing rules - evening meeting gives members the racing edge A big thank you to Chris Simons for hosting DWSC s recent rules evening. There was a great turnout. Thanks also to Sebastian Camisuli for making a great chilli, assisted by George Hoskins who served with Burrell esque, panache that went down well with all the club members Helen Beecham shoudl also be mentioned for helping with the setup. It was really great to see so many members getting to know each other and to know that more people now understand the rules. The main aim of the evening was for Chris to make us all aware of the new changes that had been made since the start of the new edition and to help us to expand our knowledge on the most important rules. It was clear that everyone had learnt at least one thing from the evening. There will be more evenings like this to follow. If you have a story to tell (or know somebody who does), or have a discussion topic, let Gabrielle know and we will get it organised. Race management evening On the evening of 22nd March, the sailing committee ran a Race Management Evening. We had 23 of our Safety Officers, Race Officers and Assistant Race Officers come to help expand their knowledge on Club and Event race management. The presentation pack and a 20 minute video are available and the Race Officer manual/ some of the race management equipment has been updated as a result of the ensuing discussions. Visit for details and downloads. You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else - great words of wisdom from our host Chris Simons as club members get to grips with the latest racing rule changes Training boats update Our recent order of ten race rigged Toppers from Topper International has arrived and is being prepared for use this season We have also got a number of new boats on order including: - Three RS Fevas purchased from a Sport England Grant - Twelve Oppies spurred on by the success of the Optimist winter programme - Two training Wayfarers - Six kits for Laser boats to ensure standardisation of these boats.

4 Sun + water = sustainability as club project nears completion In 2014 Datchet Water Sailing Club embarked on a project to make the club environmentally and economically sustainable. With rising energy costs and a desire to reduce the clubs carbon emissions in line with our green club initiatives we conducted an energy audit with the help of the RYA Green Blue team. Double glazing had a dramatic effect. We have double glazed the wetbar, the office, the showers and changing rooms and toilets, the stairwell, the main lounge/ board room and training centre. We have also double glazed the event centre and the crow s nest (bridge). Roof insulation in the club room and board room have further reduced our heat loss. We are now able to host winter evening talks as the building is comfortable, you can read more about these talks later in the newsletter. Located on the roof are the solar panels and located in the wetbar is the tablet that lets us know how well they are functioning. Take a look next time you are in. The tablet shows you how much money we have generated since installation and the amount of carbon we have saved. We have installed a water sourced heat pump. These take advantage of the relatively consistent temperatures found in the reservoir. Water is pumped from the reservoir to a heat exchanger located in the green shed. The heat from the water is transferred to a working The heat exchanger removes the hat via a compressor from this working fluid, providing us with hot water for our radiators and our hot water system. Once the heat has been removed from the working fluid via the heat exchanger, it is once again pumped back through the pipework, thereby completing a continuous cycle. For every KW of electricity used to power the compressor over 3 KW of heat is exchanged. For both the Solar Panels and the Heat Pump system we receive payment from the government in the form of Feed In Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentives. Lakeside offers weekend gym membership for DWSC members Lakeside Gym based at Liquid Leisure, Datchet, has teamed up with Datchet Water Sailing Club to offer a special weekend membership package. The new deal will allow non-sailing spouses to visit the gym while the partner sails and so should offer a good way to allow members to sail more regularly without leaving their partners home alone all weekend. Alternatively, if your spouse wants to go to the gym then you ll just have to sail more! will have to sail (well that s my thinking - Ed). This Girl Can......gets going Our fantastic Thursday night This Girl Can events last year proved a resounding success and brought more people to the club to try out sailing. We are delighted with the turnout for our first session of this year, even though it was cold and blustery. As a result, we have added Friday morning sessions to the programme and already have seven ladies signed up and loving the new boats. If you want to join in you can sign up on the website. And on light wind evenings there will also be the opportunity to try out paddleboarding.

5 Windy weather - great for sailing, bad for boatparks We didn t want to show all the boats blown over in the boat park, however, please remember that boats break free: 1. IF the wind gets under the cover because the cover is not secure 2. IF the boat trailer is tied down but the boat isn t tied to it 3. IF the boat is tied down and the trailer isn t. 4. IF the wind can get enough purchase on the boat by a strap being loose. A small amount of time spent checking these basics can prevent a lot of hard work and heartache! Datchet celebrates Sailjuice Top Club success at the Dinghy Show Club members turned out in force at the Dinghy Show in March to celebrate the club s SailJuice Trident Club of the Year success. Club manager Gabrielle Boase was on hand to collect the award which was the culmination of a fanastic winter series of all fleet racing. Many members represented DWSC throughout the year with those who travelled and placed well at most events being Andrew Snell in his Supernova, Ralph & Sophie Singleton in their RS 800, Ben Iliffe & Paddy Lewis in a 505, and Serega Samus in a Musto Skiff. Thanks to the hard work of a good number of enthusiastic members volunteering to be on the stand and others visiting, the club had positive interaction with visitors and hopefully attracted new members for the season ahead. The attraction of having a Hartley Alpha training boat on the stand and a game to name the boat.was a great pull. Thanks to the volunteers who were: Nick Harris, Jade Golder, Max McCarroll, Tony Cooper, Mike Beckett, John Lovell, and Mike Firth. Members who also visited the stand included: Andrew Bedford, Alison Butler, Malcolm Butler, Sebastian Camisulli, Julian King, Martin Wilson, Harry Wilson, Andrew Wilson, Mike Shepard, Ross Smith (Brunel), Tom Hulatt (Brunel), Tom Hayes (DWSC Instructor/Brunel). Gabrielle receiving the Top Club award at the Dinghy show Bob the Buoy visits our stand to help celebrate the Club of the Year award Open Day 20th/21st May - book now On 20th/21st May, the club will be opening its doors and inviting people of all ages and abilities to have a go at dinghy sailing and stand up paddleboarding. Whether you re new to the sport, looking to get back on the water or sail regularly, Datchet Water Sailing Club will be one of the many sailing clubs and centres across the country taking part in RYA Push the Boat Out weekend. The event will see hundreds of people taking part in the sport at open days, have a go sessions and fun events for all the family. Bob The Buoy is also set to make a return having visited our stand at the RYA Dinghy Show last month. The fun starts from 10am on 21st and 22nd May and concludes at 4pm. Anyone from age 8 to 80 is welcome, regardless of previous experience, and can try sailing (and supping) in a safe and enjoyable way as everyone will be accompanied by an experienced club member and supervised by patrol boats. You can book before the day on the website to guarantee a place or come early and book in for a chance to see if this wonderful sport for you. Booking is at

6 Spread the word and promote club membership to your friends Word of mouth is still the way to get members to join DWSC, Despite today s world of technology,it is still the recommendation of a friend that brings most members to a club, either for membership or training. We need all our members to actively promote the club. If you like what we do tell others, if you don t like what we do tell us. For example, we are hoping to get Max McCarroll aged 15 to write what club life is like for him. He has embraced the club and the sport and has gone to open meetings, sailed with numerous members, gone to the NSSA going this year as a helper, used us for his Duke of Edinburgh Another thing we have seen more recently is much more focused media activity with the website, facebook, Open meeting reports We ve hosted three open meetings so far this year which is a great way to showcase the club to sailors of the types of boats we d like to see more of here. Laser 4.7 s - 1st/ 2nd April This was one of the UK Laser Association s ten annual 4.7 Ladder events and was a qualifying event for European/ World Championships. 43 entrants came from as far afield as north Wales, the Norfolk Broads and Brixham. Well done to Zach Lyttle & Joshua Thomas from DWSC who both scored finishes in the low 20 s amongst their results. Fast Cats 18th/19th March A total of 16 boats attended mainly Spitfires and Formula 18 s with a Nacra 17 and a Tornado thrown in. The event was won by Grant Piggott & Adam Kay from Weston SC in an F18. Ghislain Melaine and Sam Barker were the sole Datchet representatives (also in an F18), Instructor Continuing Professional Development Congratulations to Stuart Philbey, Tom Hayes, Tom McGiveny, Will Butler and Tristan Beckett (behind the camera) on successful completion of their Multihull Instructor qualification. The course was run by Ben Kimbell RYA. twitter etc. and we will be following this trend as part of our campaign to reach out to new members. Moving forward we will be relying on contributions from you our members. Maybe if you see a great article about sailing or related water sports send it to sailing@dwsc.co.uk and we will get it published on our website. If you use twitter or facebook or any other media communication that you think we should be on let us know. Also if you are visiting the club post it on facebook or twitter, with the hash tag #datchetwatersc to reference the club. If you take some pictures or make a video please share it with us and we will post it to the club website, the more the better. The more media coverage we get the better. finishing 6th overall, counting a neat sequence of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places. International Moths 25th/26th March Twenty-one boats arrived to glorious sunshine at Datchet, but a daunting north easterly breeze, rumoured to hit 28 kts at times, whittled this down to 10 boats by the end of race 8 on day 2. Dan Ellis (from Yealm YC), who finished 2nd overall behind Ross Harvey of Hayling Island SC, claimed a top speed with a 10 second average of 29.9 kts. Datchet sailor, David Hivey was obviously going very fast, on the occasions he completed the course scoring a first and second place. David Hivey enticed some of them back for a training session the following weekend. Huge thanks to Barry Peters who was Race Officer for both the Fast Cat and Moth events and to Helen Beecham who was Race Officer for the Laser 4.7 s. Introducing the Club Committee Get involved! Mike Beckett Club Commodore Sails a K1 Mervyn Wright Vice Commodore Sails a Flying Fifteen Nick Harris Rear Commodore Nick is responsible for publicity, mainly for the Dinghy Show and Push the Boat Out weekend. Ray Mason Council Member Ray is responsible for special projects. Mike Firth Sails a Flying Fifteen and is in charge of the Flying Fifteen Loan boat management and serves on the management team with David Tugwell and Gabrielle Boase implementing club strategy. David Tugwell Sails a Hobie Tiger. Also serves on the management team Mark Bailey Treasurer Supports council and the management team with all financial matters. Step up and help if you can. And please make sure we have up to date contact information for you, address/mobile phone number. This is your club and we want to involve you.