Commodore Bulletin 8 - 280524
Published 16:14 on 28 May 2024
Can you believe that we are already at the end of May! The sailing conditions have become a little bit more predictable and the club is in full flow! The fishing members seem to be having a good time and its been great to see so many paddleboards launching from the shoreline.
Whilst we are talking about the shore line, I just wanted to continue to thank everybody for the general approach around the club. After the clean-up and scrappage at the start of the year, everybody is working really hard to maintain a great platform we now have. Needless to say, at the end of the year it will make everyones work so much easier!
For those of you taking an interest in club racing, last week was the last round of the opening campaign (The Commodore Cup). This series was cut short from 14 races down to 12 due to two weekends where winds were light and we were only able to do 1 race instead of 2. Needless to say, that did not stop Miles Thomas taking top spot in his Solo (12 points), with Ken Hull and crew taking second spot in their SB20 (19 points).
This season we are using some of the other trophies with these being issued each series for the highest placed female (helm or crew), Senior (over 60), Junior (16 or under at start of year) and Multihull.
For Series 1 (Commodore Cup) these were awarded as follows:
Veteran Cup Miles Thomas
Tegid Cup (highest place female crew or helm) Kath Simpson
September Cup (highest placed Multihull) Jonathan Telfer & Rob Sloggett
Pen Y Bont Vase (highest placed Junior) Luke Chadwick
Congratulations to those above. It was very close in the Tegid cup with Jodie Walker Graham only 3 points behind Kath. We now move into an 8 week series of 16 races for the Presidents Trophy. Good luck to everyone competing for this.
This Saturday (1st June) our Senior Coach will be carrying out a session focusing on start line techniques. It would be great to see a group of you down for this. Please let Andy know via the WhatsApp group if you are planning to attend. Whilst we are talking about informal coaching, Ken Hull has also offered to run some more Race Officer training to allow people to develop their confidence to run club racing. Our club has its roots in racing and each year we also run a number of open events and regattas. Whilst we have a core of VERY experienced RCOs, for the club to thrive we do need to continue to upskill our members with a wider breadth of skills and Race Officer is one that all members can contribute and volunteer around. Once again, if you are interested in this please let myself or Ken know.
Another great initiative, driven by our Catamaran Fleet Rep (John Hackett) is to hold a Multihull taster. We have had 10 members come forward which is fantastic! We are really trying to re-energise this class this year with a view of slowly growing it back to where it was many years ago. To do this we have to offer the experience and then encourage people with the correct support to develop their skills on the club Darts. If you have not put your name down but are interested, please once again, give myself or John Hackett a shout.
Our next big club event is the 2 day Long Distance Race. This is a handicap race with a set target time of 4 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday and will be taking place on the 22nd and 23rd June. We will be joined by the K1 class who are incorporating our event into their Open Series. This event requires a lot of resources to run it but at present we are short of 1 RIB driver and 2 Safety Boat assistants on each day. If you have not completed your duties for this year (more of that at the end) and need an event to get up to your quota, could I ask you to prioritise this event if possible please and pop your names onto Dutyman. An event of this nature requires 5 safety boats on the water and we cannot operate without that level of cover.
If you are planning to race, please get your entry logged online so we have an idea of numbers, you can do it here.
https://webcollect.org.uk/daymembership/event/long-distance-weekend
We will also be holding a bbq in the evening and you are welcome to join us and sign up for a meal
here:
https://webcollect.org.uk/daymembership/event/bbq-evening-food-long-distance-weekend-2024
The cruiser group have been having a bit of a chat and following on from the 5-4-1 and Long-Distance Challenge last year have set themselves a similar Cruiser Class challenge as follows:
- Single self-timed lap (time on water)
- PY will be applied to the results
- X - 9 G 10 A 1 X (all to Starboard)
- Report the result on the Cruiser Whatapp group for publication on Sailwave
- Fastest time at the end of the year takes the honours
For anyone wishing to get involved with the club at a Committee level, we have a number of vacancies and I would welcome the opportunity to have a coffee with anyone considering supporting the club in this manner. We have a few roles that only need 2 4 hours a month whilst others are a bit more intensive. As well as learning a lot about the club you become part of a team which are shaping the club around an exciting strategy. Please, if you are interested, reach out to me. Whilst roles are normally appointed at the AGM we are able to fill vacancies mid-season as appropriate.
Finally, we have almost concluded contacting all members who have not signed up for any duties this year. A reminder that all full sailing members and either a single Family Member (FM1) or both adult members (FM2), should undertake 3 duties per year. Whilst the general take up this year has been much better than previous years we have a small contingent who are yet to support the club in this manner. As a committee we will review our approach to these for the rest of the year and if these members re-apply next year, how that membership application will be assessed. I do appreciate that some members do have exceptional circumstances and I have either been made aware or discussed these personally with the members but as a general rule we have always been transparent about the clubs policy around duties and it does form part of the club membership signing up process so it is disappointing that whilst a majority are supporting the club a small number continue not to.
Many people have asked why they have to do duty to support racing when they do not race but to be clear, whilst we provide safety boat cover on Sunday DURING racing, our ongoing approach is to support Sunday being the primary sailing day at the club and having a safety boat ready and on the water from about 11:00 to 15:50 every Sunday. As well as providing safety cover for racing, if other club members get into trouble, we have a boat out on the water to lend support. Ideally, we would love to provide safety cover on Saturdays and Sunday for the whole club weekend but that is a long term strategy.
If anyone is unclear as to the importance and value of safety cover, we had an incident this Bank Holiday whereby one of our members got into difficulty at the far end of the lake (past the weather station and out of visible contact). He was in the water for over 30 minutes before a member of public alerted us but because we had a number of members leisure sailing, we had a safety boat on standby and were able to expedite a recovery. If we did not have volunteers providing this service that members day would have been much worse. This member was not racing, just having a leisure sail.
I really hope this message has come across in the sprit it is intended, at the start of my tenure as Commodore, I made the committee aware of my stance on safety boat cover and providing a safe water sports environment for ALL members. I hope everybody is able to come on this journey with the club.
Have a great month, and I hope to see more of you to chat to on the foreshore.
Rob Sloggett
(Commodore)
Last updated 15:47 on 27 November 2025