Commodore Bulletin 15 - 260125
Published 12:28 on 26 Jan 2025
Well, it is incredible to believe as I write this bulletin that we are in touching distance of our 2025 sailing season. The closing working party seems such a short period of time ago and as the groundwork team start to prepare the foreshore in the next few weeks I am looking forward to another fantastic and fun filled season at the club.
As not all members have rejoined yet, this bulleting has gone out to all of the 2024 members. It would be great to see everyone back with us but if you are not planning on rejoining, can I take this opportunity to wish you well with your sailing ventures wherever they make take you and thank you for your previous years of membership.
For our rejoining members, the opening party will take place on Saturday 8th March with the same rules as the last few years. If you are planning to help (dont forget ot register on Dutyman so we get an idea of numbers), you are welcome to drop your boat down into your required spot then help out for the day. Please do not drop and do a sneaky rigging…. Its working party first then you get to play. General member access (i.e. those which are not assisting on the Saturday) starts from Sunday 9th March, with the gate code being sent out to all renewed members via a Webcollect email.
A serious note……. This year we have kindly been offered the services of Ty Isaf Camping Site as well as Pen Y Bont. Both locations give us very economical winter storage for our members and part of that arrangement is that we clear ALL boats that weekend (8/9 March) so that they can then start their camping season. Members who leave their boats at these locations past that weekend run the risk of being responsible for us losing these facilities so if you have a boat at either site, please ensure you have put a date in your diary to move it that weekend please or have arranged for someone to move it for you.
Once your boat is parked up at the club, please ensure that your boat sticker for this year is in place. You should have one on ANY craft left at the club whether this is a sailing vessel, fishing boat, a Kayak, or a tender etc. We will be carrying out more spot inspections this year as we aim to tighten up our records. We would also ask that all cars display their car stickers. Last year we had several occurrences of non-members tailgating members in with a set of trespassers getting very aggressive when challenged on leaving as they wanted someone to let them out… Please be respectful and courteously challenge any member who is behind you at the gate who you do not recognise, A quick point to a sticker on the windscreen is all that is required…
One other thing you will notice this year is a lack of tyres on the foreshore. In line with general guidance and our Environmental Policy, this year we have put in place a total ban on tyres. If you have saved some from last year, please do not bring them back down and find an alternative method of safeguarding your boat. Any tyres spotted will be noted against the boat and the member asked to remove them.
So that is all the formalities taken care of, so let us move on to the Business as usual as the club counts down to our start up. Well, the first thing I would like to spotlight is a desire to see more social and leisure sailing. As a club it is a common misconception that Sunday is our main (and only) day but we do have members that sail midweek and Saturday does have activities going on. We have made a conscious effort this year to make members aware that the Safety Boat cover on a Sunday is for all members and not just for racing. This is reflected in our Safety Boat policy and the briefing the safety boat crew will be given each week so if you are planning to sail but are a bit nervous or are developing your skills, please come down on a Sunday where the safety boat will be on station to look after you. It would be great to see lots of chatter on the WhatsApp group, seeing people setting up informal groups on the water either midweek or on Saturdays. There is always safety in numbers and its great to sail in a small group either down the lake or maybe picking up one of this years challenges? Basically, get out on the water as much as you can this year, even if racing is not your thing!
The training team have been reviewing our youth training program and will be merging the very successful sessions held mid-week previously to the popular Saturday morning which was previously and kindly ran by Stella. This new session will be referred to as the Saturday Junior Sailing and Coaching Program. There will be more communications about this as we move forward but if you have children below the age of 16 who have a level of knowledge / capability like the RYA Youth Sailing Stage 1, who would like to develop their sailing skills, please speak to our youth co-ordinator (Mick Fleming) to find out more
We have an exciting club racing season planned as well this year with our Sailing Captain for 2025 (Mike Allen) building on the changes made by the 2024 Captain (Steve Pooley) with the afternoon Champion Helm race staying as a Pursuit format. Thank you to everyone who supported this change of format last year and the feedback that allowed us to takes Steve concept and fine tune it into a way that was really enjoyed by the racing members. The morning (series) racing will also be changing with two subtle changes. Firstly, racing will start at 11:00 NOT 11:30 as per previous years. The reason for this is that the morning racing will now follow a fixed format as follows:
11:00 20 minutes short sprint race
11:30 45 minutes Windward / Leeward race
12:30 45 minutes around the cans race
That allows us a short break between 13:15 and 14:00 for the pursuit race to then start. This year we will also be awarding first place in each series to the highest place Multihull as well as Single Hull (therefore splitting these classes in the results) to encourage more Multi Hulls back into the racing scene. We will also be recognising the highest place veteran (over 60 on 1st Jan of subs year), junior (under 18 on 1st Jan of subs year) and female (in a helm or crew position) in the morning race series.
Juniors and anyone in their 1st year of racing (excluding the Champion Helm series) will also be given a 10% credit on their PY which is reset going forward to the established PY in the event of their first class win. Finally, anyone changing craft mid series will be allocated a new results line. Scores can not be carried across boats.
The Champion Helm will have two awards this year, the one awarded previously for the highest placed competitor/s but also we will be re-instating the Junior Champion Helm (Gary Darch Shield) for the highest placed Junior.
A new folder will be in the race office providing full briefing notes and instructions for the safety crew the RCO and racers as well as a revised set of recommended courses. Expect to see some great variety this year!
As well as revising the racing format, Mike has also re-instated several challenges that we held in 2023 but once again with a slightly tweaked format.
The 5-4-1 and long-distance challenges are open challenges which can be undertaken by any member in any boat as many times as they like on any day throughout the year. The basic rules are as follows:
- They are self-timed, you do the run, record your time and WhatsApp it into the club admin
- Both will now be adjusted for PY. No discount will be given
- There will be no end of year shoot out, just a running leader board closed at the end of the season (5/10)
- The courses are as follows:
- X-5(s(missing upload 4)s(missing upload 1)s)-X for the 5-4-1 course
- X-Weather Station (s(missing upload 1)s)s-X for the Long-Distance Course
- Courses must be sailed is the specified order and cannot be reversed in the event of a different prevailing wind direction
The multihull members are already talking about a variation of this where we have 4 different classes of Multihull (Dart 16, Dart 15, Vortex & Catapult) subject to members lending their boats out, where the person does a 5-4-1 lap in each type then their scores are combined. I am pretty sure I saw some chatter on the cruiser WhatsApp group about a variation for cruisers as well using the Long Distance course.
For me, this is great news as whilst the main challenge still stands, our members are engaging with the idea and finding new ways to get out on the water. Now the question is how do we get our paddling members to find their own flavour as their pastime is not about speed. Maybe the fishing members could do their own challenge where they must fish 1 hr at each mark and record their catch??? Who knows….
Whilst we are talking about the different groups, the club whilst having its heart and roots as a sailing club offers water sports activities and facilities to several other disciplines and I think if I have listed them correctly, we have people who fish in boats, a small number of shore side fishing members, kayak members, SUP members and wind surfers. If I have missed any other members doing on water pastimes at the club, please let me know as it is always good to understand the membership make up. Also, if there is anything that these groups would like to have reflected in the Commodore bulleting, please give me a shout as it is always great to expand this knowledge out to all club members.
I wanted to close this bulletin by doing a spotlight on a few committee roles (and that will be a theme in this years sets of bulletins). I have been very fortunate, that as someone who only took up sailing 4 years ago, being asked to stand as Commodore was a bit of a leap of faith! Your club is very fortunate to be supported by an incredible committee who put in a lot of time in the background working hard to make the club work (notwithstanding a good number of non-committee members who also do the same.). We have a range of roles but generally the club works on a committee basis with the Commodore facilitating a direction and discussion but very much allowing the committee to discuss, debate and make the decision on the clubs direction.
This year we have had two roles filled that were previously vacant and it is great to have energy in these areas. The first role to spotlight is our Diversity and Inclusion Officer which Paul Welsh kindly put himself forward for. As well as an ongoing shift in society, the RYA has a specific charter regarding diversity and inclusion and Paul has been set the challenge to review the clubs position on this and make recommendations around any areas we may need to focus on. His starting point is to look at how we structure our communications to be fully inclusive as well as looking at our offering to ensure we are considering the RYA roadmap. The longer-term plan is to identify areas of society which maybe are not reflected at the club or where our sport and pastimes is currently not accessible and make recommendation and look for funding such as grants to develop the club in this direction. The second role to spotlight this month is our Publicity and Media Officer which has been filled by Ewan McHenry This role currently has 3 focuses. The first is to ensure that our social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (yes, we do have a YouTube channel) are full of rich, exciting, and engaging content. Spreading the work of Bala Sailing Club wide across the internet. Next is to be our link into Yachts and Yachting and ensure that our events are both showcased as well as having post event reports and photos published. Finally (and the new bit for this year) is to looks at LOCAL media links and spread the good news about our club to the local communities.
These are two critical roles that help feed the long-term future and sustainability of the club so if you can support Paul or Ewan in any way, please reach put to them.
That is about it from me for the first bulletin of the year.
Oh, my personal challenges to myself for 2025? Get more time out in the Spitfire when the conditions allow it. It is a boat when me and Jonathan are both on form and the conditions are right brings a smile to our faces! I suspect we are a few years off from a win on PY but our challenge has been to where possible be first on water. Next, have a real good bash at the 5-4-1. With Nellie (my trusty Catapult) and my old Lightning back in my ownership I have a nice set of boats to jump into when the conditions do not favour the Spitfire. I am getting more comfortable in Nellie now, especially in stronger winds and the Lightning was a boat I regretted selling and have now got back, so you are probably going to see me out and about a bit more in those mid-week. Finally, I know starts are my weakness so being more confident to challenge for a front place is probably my final personal challenge.
Well that is it from me for another month. Lets count down the weeks together and hopefully I will see you all at the club soon.
Rob Sloggett (Commodore)
Last updated 15:47 on 27 November 2025