Commodore Bulletin 22 - 220226
Published 14:23 on 20 Feb 2026
WOW! Can you believe it! Its club opening time again.
It is a bit of a weird feeling writing this as I am excited that we are opening the cub again but a bit sad that this will be my last term as Commodore as I would have served 3 years and will be looking to hand over to a fresh set of eyes to continue to drive the club forward. It has been a real privilege to lead the club through levels of change but I have learnt so much and made great friends during this time and I think that is one of the things that really makes out club stand out and what I will enjoy about the last few years
So, what is there to update you on? Well loads.
Lets start with Sailing Club Manager and membership renewals. As you are hopefully aware, we now have a new system running all the clubs operations. It is called Sailing Club Manager (SCM) and is used by a lot of clubs in the UK. We use it to manage our membership, renewals, event bookings, duties, the web site, boat berths and it has the capability to do a lot more. Over the winter period our technical team, fuelled by alcohol (most of the time) and banter (all the time) have got it configured, tested, bugs reported, memberships set up etc etc and now a large proportion of you have actually started to use it and have renewed your memberships. I have talked about a lot of the benefits in other bulletins so the main thing to say is if you have not renewed yet, you should have been sent a renewal. If you have not, please shout up so we can get that sorted for you. Also, if you have not logged on to the website, please do, there is so much to look at and you can Start to book your duties in. We have already had a good uptake on duties and we think that the new system makes it easier to do so but also for us to be able to monitor those members who are not booking any which we can then deal with in the appropriate manner.
Saturday 7th March is the club opening and as normal, anyone who is assisting is welcome to bring their boat down (subject to the normal ask that you just drop it off and do not rig it until the working party has concluded. All other boats can be dropped off from Sunday 8th March. We will issue access codes to those members who have signed up (Saturday) or renewed (Sunday) so if you are planning to drop your boat off, please make sure that you have both renewed and if you are helping on the Saturday, signed up.
A gentle reminder for those storing boats at Ty Isaf of the arrangements. Your boats must be moved on Sunday 8th with a contingency week (if bad weather) of 1 week. Any boat still on site after 22nd March will be levied a charge of £25 per week (pitch fee) that must be paid direct to the farm prior to collection. Chris will be monitoring this and will be reporting back. I would kindly ask all persons storing their boats to collect them on the 8th otherwise we run the risk of losing this amazing service in future years.
Looking past the club opening, we are suggesting a rigging and shakedown weekend on the 14th and 15th. We are running a safety boat course over that weekend so their will be safety boat cover out on the water and it would be great to see people rigging and getting an early launch out on the water prior to the Massacre the following week.
Talking of the Massacre, this is the clubs first event of the season and always tends to be lightly supported. It would be great to see a few more boats out for our first open event and we already have a mixed bag of entries including a junior in a Oppi. This event is a target 2 to 3 hr pursuit race starting around lunchtime and is a great way to ease yourselves into the season. Won last year by Steve Pooley in his K1, its a great opportunity to chalk up a prestigious trophy before the season even gets going and for those of you new to pursuit racing, its basically a fox and hound type affair, where boats have a staggered start based on their handicap (so slower boats start first) and the aim is that as it gets near to the end, the faster boats have caught them up so its a flat race to the finish time. We can brief newcomers more nearer the time but it would be great to see a few more entries trickle in!
You can enter here: https://www.balasc.co.uk/event/1244973
Saturday 28th March sees us running a Mark Laying Course. This is an amazing course and you do not need to be PB2 (Powerboat) qualified as is it more about the skills needed within to boat to lay and recover our racing marks during open events. This is a key skill and if you are looking to do your duties as a safety boat assistant, it is a great opportunity to learn new skills. The pressure on our race officers to maintain good courses is key and underpin part of our good reputation in the racing community regarding our opens so every opportunity to upskill our members through a bit of free add value training is useful. If you are free on this weekend and are planning to help as a safety boat assistant try and get yourselves booked on.
You can book on here: https://www.balasc.co.uk/event/1253447
So, let us move onto club racing. This year our Sailing Captain (Mike Allen) has looked at the previous trend and is going to try something a little bit different (only a small tweak but a tweak all the same). For those of you new to the club racing scene, we have two primary events.
The first is the Champion Helm and this is one of our Blue Riband cups that active racers aspire to win! It runs over the whole season and takes the form of a pursuit race.
The second is our racing series and we currently run 4 of these as follows:
Pen Y Bont Vase March and April
Commodore Cup May and June
President Trophy July and August
Final Fling September and October
These are Handicap races and are open to any sailing member where their boat has a recognised PY.
For the 2026 season it will run as follows:
11:00 Champion Helm target time between 60- and 80-minutes dependant on weather and entry
12:15 13:00 Lunch
13:00 Series Racing starts. 2 races back-to-back
NOTE: for this season the morning race whilst forming the Champion Helm WILL ALSO be included that the running series for that period therefore the series racing each week will comprise of 3 races with a pursuit at 11:00 and 2 Handicap back-to-back at 13:00
A few of our members have been competing at Shotwick Sailing Club over the winter and the small nature of their lake and the congested start line formed a totally different type of racing. We are wondering if we could replicate something like give a bit of a different racing experience so we are considering either a couple of Saturday sprint race days or maybe a Summer Evening Series. These will be a very informal race event but we are just putting it out there to see if we have any interest. Please shout out if you think this might be something you would be interested in.
Our fleet reps continue to do amazing work in the back ground and following the last 2 years of successful Multihull Taster Sessions, if the interest is their again, we would consider putting this on for our members. We have had an amazing upturn in Multihull participation and is one of the success stories of the last few years. Our Cruiser Rep has pre-scheduled monthly cruising meets and these are now in the calendar. In previous years they have had some great outings and if you are part of this scene it would be great to see lots of cruisers out on the water together on these designated weekends. Finaly the paddling group have got some great initiatives which are just being finalised including a long-distance paddle, a sunset paddle and maybe a bit of a time challenge!
One thing you will probably a bit more of this year, will be our presence on social media and if anyone has this as a passion, interest or background and would like to get more involved please shout out as it is an easy way for you to help the club. At present we have the website, a Facebook Group, a Instagram and a YouTube Channel. We want to create more rich content this year to engage our members, spread the word about the club and create reach to generate potential new members. We have several Go-Pros and a Drone which are available either from the foreshore or during racing to create content so once again if you just want to borrow a Go-Pro to create some on water content for us or if you would like to qualify as a Drone Pilot and film club life and racing from the shore please let us know.
Finally, a little update on Rowing. We were approach last year by Rowing Wales about creating a rowing aspect within the club. They offered to fund training and facilities and boats but we were never able to get it off the ground. It is still on the table and I am keen to explore it a bit more this year. On this note we have Oxford University Rowing Club training at the club for 3 days in April and this will be a great opportunity to see rowing at the club.
That's about it for now. Please give me a shout if you want to discuss anything above but otherwise can I welcome you back to the club and wish you a great year on the water!
Rob Sloggett
Commodore
Last updated 14:23 on 20 February 2026