Commodore Bulletin 23 - 160326
Published 18:01 on 16 Mar 2026
Well, we are officially underway for the 2026 season and I wanted to start this bulletin with both a thank you and a congratulations!
It has been less than 2 weeks since the opening working party and on the Saturday (7th) we had over 40 members turn up. We were under way by 09:30, bacon rolls at 11 and done by 12:00! An amazing effort by everyone and it was great to see the first members rigged and on the water by 13:25 after helping out!
A huge thank you, not just to the members who were also able to help out but also the committee and other members who have been doing jobs and co-ordinating things over the winter to make sure we were ready. One example of this is the fact that our committee boat has been a bit troublesome over the last few seasons but a team has been diagnosing the problems and sorting it whilst the closed season has ticked over.
So, lets move onto congratulations.
Did you know that Bala SC has a very proud history of creating top level sailors, in fact Chris Grube, a 3 times Olympian, 2024 470 Silver medallist (Worlds) and part of the 2023 J70 World Champion team actually came out of Bala Sailing Club.
So, it is amazing news to report that one of our Juniors this month achieved 1st place overall in the IOCA Spring Championships at Draycott Water SC. A huge well done to Fletcher Sheehy (pictured) who took top honours in the Coached Regatta Fleet and it was great to see photos of him with his trophies proudly wearing his Bala SC Hoodie! We hope to see Fletcher out on the water in a few more club events and flying the Bala SC Junior Flag in other event this year.
I know a few of our other members (such as Tom McIntyre who participated last year in the Dragon series) have started to branch out and do other opens so good luck to all of our juniors who are developing their skills this season. Please keep me updated so I can make sure all our juniors get mentioned in the bulletins!
Next is a huge shout out to 6 of our members who completed their RYA PB2 course this weekend. The PB2 is our mandatory qualification that allows our members to drive our powered craft and in quite dire conditions Sunday, the following passed with flying colours:
Andrew Hodgson, Jonny Pine, Simon James, Julia Apps, John-Paul Dyer & Cliff Wood
A big thank-you also to our instructors Mark and Mick who not only gave up their weekend to run the course but also put up with very harsh conditions to ensure our attendees completed the qualification.
As I mentioned, the PB2 qualification is mandatory for the driving of club boats. We tend to use them as safety cover during our events and this is a gentle reminder to all our members who have not started to book out their duties to do so as quickly as possible. We have 189 duty slots across all roles still to be filled with a hand full required in April. It would great to see a few more duties being booked to save us chasing members up in the next few weeks.
Hopefully you should all be in receipt of or have access to your membership packs. These are held in the clubhouse in envelopes for you to collect. Each pack will have a windscreen sticker for your car and a boat sticker for each boat you have purchased a storage space for. Please could we please ask you to write your surname on the sticker with a permanent marker and affix the sticker on your boat in a place that can be accessed easily.
Looking forward to the weeks ahead, we have a very busy calendar with lots going on for our members.
Lets start with next weekend (22nd) when we have the first race of the season. The Massacre Pursuit Race was originally named as it took place around Valentines Day but also was an indication at times of the weather we experience in March. This year the forecast looks quite light so its a great opportunity if you are looking to get into racing, to have a nice 3hr sail in a really relaxed racing format. If you fancy giving it a go either sign on or give us a shout to find out more details. We already have 16 boats entered so it would be great to see this tip the 20 mark if we can!
You can sign up for the event here:
https://www.balasc.co.uk/event/massacre
The cruiser fleet will continue their monthly gatherings with a range of activities being planned. The first one for this season is Saturday 18th April and your fleet rep (Alan Williams) will be in contact to let you know what is going on. We have a Whatapp group for the cruisers so if this is your point of interest and want to keep updated, please ask to be added to that group.
Normal club racing starts on Sunday 29th March with Round 1 of the Pen Y Bont Vase and a reminder that for this season it will run as follows:
11:00 Champion Helm (Pursuit) - target time between 60- and 80-minutes dependant on weather and entry
12:15 13:00 Lunch
13:00 Series Racing (Handicap) starts. 2 races back-to-back
NOTE: for this season the morning race whilst forming the Champion Helm WILL ALSO be included in 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
Following the very successful PB2 course, we are also running a Mark Laying course on Saturday 28th March. This is open to all members, especially those who are considering being safety boat assistants during open events. Whilst also valuable for PB2 coxs, this course give the attendees the knowledge and skills to rapidly deploy, re-position and recover racing marks on the direction of the race officer, a skill that is highly needed during our open events. You can sign up for the course here:
https://www.balasc.co.uk/event/members-only-mark-laying-course
Finally, if you fancy knowing about something a bit different, we were recently referred by ENP to ask if we could host a 3 day training event for the Oxford Universitys Rowing Club. Whilst this is not the Elite team you see on the Boat Race, it is a group of very high level rowers who will be at the club on 8th, 9th and 10th April. They will be using the lake as a training venue and we have been asked to support this by providing 2 Ribs as support boats each day. We are in an open dialogue with ENP about the inclusion of rowing on the lake and I will update you more if this develops.
Thats about it for now, I do know that our Paddling Rep is doing work in the back ground to pull together a bit of a new program for our paddling members and over the last few weeks we have had a few new fishing members join us so welcome to them and the other new members who form part of the count of 10 new members for our 2026 season!
Keep safe as always,
Rob Sloggett (Commodore)
Last updated 18:01 on 16 March 2026