Commodore Bulletin 25 - 040626
Published 13:02 on 4 Jun 2026
Let me start with an amazing piece of news! Last year we decided to upgrade the club membership and management software. As well as getting rid of three systems that did not talk to each other (so making running the club easier and more efficient), the new software gives us access to great information.
So, as we are 3 months into the season I thought I would look at our new membership stats and its is both amazing and encouraging that so far for 2026 we have thirty-seven new members! When you consider our overall membership count of 199 members that is a great percentage. Also, of our 9 Learn to Sail members in 2025, 6 of them have renewed their membership for 2026! Finally, if we look at our young people (under 18) we have twenty-eight active memberships on the books.
From a membership viewpoint the club will always lose and gain each year, but the visibility of this data tells me that the club is in a great position, and we are continuing to give our members what they want.
Training has got off to a good start this year, and at the start of the season we held a RYA PB2 course. It is always great to see members going through this as it gives us extra people available to Cox our safety boats which are key to our safe operation. Many thanks and congratulations to our members who completed this.
We also held our first Learn to Sail course and I would like to welcome and congratulate Steve, Carys, Brian, Rachael, and Stephen on taking this first step into this amazing activity. It is only less that 5 years since I completed mine and I would encourage you to embrace and grab every opportunity to develop your skills. You are now part of an amazing club and community!
So, onto club life and what is going on?
So, let us start with the Catamaran Taster Day. This is free to all members and our third year running it. As you drive into the club, you will see this line of larger boats which seem to have gained and extra hull, or Catamarans as they like to be called. These have a slightly different technique to sail but are an absolute hoot and the club has two Dart 16s as part of our loan pool, so we like to give members the opportunity to develop the skills to enjoy them. So, on the taster day, we take you through how to trapeze and deal with a capsize (on the comfort of the shore) then we take you our with an experienced helm to get some experience and practice. This has been hugely successful the last two years resulting in a steady increase in active multihull members.
If you would like to know more and sign up, we are running this years on Saturday 8th August. You can book on here.
We also have a number of Open Events coming up and it is always great to have members as well as visitors join us for these. The next one coming up is the Long Distance Open (20th & 21st June) which is an amazing opportunity of both endurance sailing as well as seeing parts of the lake most people do not venture to, in the knowledge that there are safety boats keeping an eye on you. The event is 2 days (although you can just enter one), with the Saturday having a target time of 3 to 4 hours and the Sunday 2 to 3 hours.
For juniors, Cruisers and those new to this type of race, we also run a capped one lap fleet which still gives you a full long-distance race, but you get finished after 1 lap. This is a great introduction if you are not ready for a long endurance race.
To enter please follow this link.
Our Paddling Rep (Marc Wilkinson) has been busy putting a calendar together of activities for those of you who like to stand up (or sit down) and use a paddle. Whilst a small part of our membership, we do have sailing members who also paddle so the numbers and interest are a bit masked. He has three events in the pipeline as follows:
Sat 13th June (10:00 to 13:00 estimated) Kayak and Paddleboard Distance Event
Sat 18th July (10:00 to 13:00 estimated) Kayak and Paddleboard fun race around the 5-4-1
Sun 30th August (16:45 to 19:00 estimated) Sunset social paddle.
We will be putting on safety boat cover for all these events so if you would like to know more please visit the calendar page and look them up.
Onto a quick detour to inform and advise members, over the last week we have had some very strong winds at the club, and this has resulted in a few boats either getting blown over or moving on their trailers. It is important to note that all boats on club premises MUST be insured and your attention is drawn to a clause in a lot of marine insurance policies which can state that boats must be securely stored which sometimes is explicitly stated as either being tied down (to prevent tipping) or tied to something (to prevent moving). This is offered as a word of caution to all members to ensure they understand the conditions of their insurance as any damage caused to an adjacent boat because of your moving would need to be underwritten by your insurance policy.
Finally, whilst we are on membership admin, and hygiene factors a huge thank you to everyone who has booked on for duties this year. We have had to write out to a small number of members who did not do any duties least year, but it really was a small handful so thank you to everyone who has supported the club both last year and going into this year. I will always remind and encourage you all to book onto duties, as a volunteer ran club it really is the lifeforce that allows us to operate!
Finally, as I said at the start of the bulletin, we have twenty-eight juniors as part of our membership and our new Junior Commodore (Tom McIntyre) is keen to get thing moving. The starting point is to build a small committee around him so if any of our young people would like to assist, please come forward.
Over the last few weeks, Dan Partington has been running informal Saturday race coaching (many thanks Dan) and Tom is keen to put some dates and structure around this so keep an eye out for news on that front.
Finally, whilst we are talking about racing, the club racing scene has not been healthier in a long time. We are regularly getting 10 to 15 boats on the start line and last week we had five juniors participating. Club racing is open to all members regardless of experience and is a great way to develop your skills. Whilst it may feel daunting, we have way to support newcomers and I would encourage people to join us on a Sunday, even if it is just for one race. I will be developing a set of new articles on this soon so another one to watch this space on…
Anyway, that is about it for now. With the AGM in September and this being my last term, you only have three more bulletins from me!
Take care everyone!
Rob
Last updated 13:02 on 4 June 2026