In The Wind - December 2012

In the wind

SUSSEXFOUNDED YACHT CLUB 1892

Your newsletter from Sussex Yacht Club - December 2012

What’s this then?

With the late-running Autumn 2012 edition of Wavelength magazine delivered to members only a few weeks ago, it was deemed impractical to print the usual Christmas/Winter edition, but with essential club news relating to the forthcoming AGM requiring distribution it seemed to make sense for a paper edition of ‘In the wind’ to be printed... so here it is.

Wavelength Magazine - Spring 2013 The next issue of the club Wavelength Magazine will start to be put together in early 2013 so if you have an idea for an article in the back of your mind, or perhaps a camera full of pictures that need publishing, put your festive break to good use and get typing...

SUSSEX YACHT CLUB LTD Notice is hereby given that the 87th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Shareholders will be held in the SHOREHAM CLUBHOUSE on Saturday 26 January 2013 at 10:00.

AGENDA 1. Commodore’s Address and Recognition Awards.

2. Adoption of the Minutes of the 86th Annual General Meeting held on 28th January 2012.

3. Matters Arising from the Minutes of the 86th Annual General Meeting.

4. Adoption of Annual Report and Accounts.

5. Election of Commodore.

The following has offered himself for election: Commodore: David Ramus There being no other nominations, in accordance with the Company’s Articles of Association, the nominee to Commodore is deemed to be elected.

6. Election of Vice Commodore The following has offered himself for election: Vice Commodore: Steve Vyse There being no other nominations, in accordance with the Company’s Articles of Association, the nominee to Vice Commodore is deemed to be elected.

9. Election of President and Vice Presidents: Robert Grierson has been proposed by the Board and has agreed to offer his services as President.

Derek Copeman has been proposed by the Board and has agreed to offer his services as Vice President.

Chris West has been proposed by the Board and has agreed to offer his services as Vice President.

Alan Saunders, having completed the customary two years’ service as Commodore, is nominated by the Board to Vice President.

10. Election of Honorary Members The Honorary Members listed inside the front cover are proposed by the Board to be elected en bloc.

11. Appointment of Auditors The Board proposes that Clark Brownscombe be appointed for a further year.

12. Presentation of Racing Prizes 13. Any Other Business

By Order of the Board

7. Election of Rear Commodores The following have offered themselves for election: Rear Commodore & Hon. Treasurer: Laurence Woodhams Rear Commodore: Patricia Hill Rear Commodore: Terry Kinch There being no other nominations, in accordance with the Company’s Articles of Association, the nominees to Rear Commodore are deemed to be elected.

8. Election of Directors There have been seven resignations and seven nominations received from: David Golding, Adrian Weber, David Skinner, Neil Fraser-Betts, Marco Rummery, Giles Weston and Nigel Haines.

There being no other nominations, in accordance with the Company’s Articles of Association, the nominees to Director are deemed to be elected

T D Leigh (Company Secretary) Club Headquarters Sussex Yacht Club Ltd. Brighton Road, Shoreham-by-Sea. The ‘Report of the Directors and Financial Statements for Sussex Yacht Club Ltd’ for the year ended 30 Sep 2012 are available on the website www.sussexyachtclub.org.uk as a download, or as a paper copy on request from the office.

Shareholders (or their duly nominated proxy) only are permitted to vote at the Annual General Meeting.

Appointment of Proxies: A shareholder is entitled to appoint a proxy to exercise their right to attend, speak and vote at the meeting. Such proxy need not be a shareholder of the Company. If it is your intention to appoint a proxy, please advise the Secretary in writing (email will suffice) no less than seven days prior to the meeting.

SYC – Summary of Flag Officer and Director Nominations/Status as at 31st October 2012 President & Vice President nominations: Robert Grierson President Chris West Vice President Derek Copeman Vice President Alan Saunders Vice President Nominations for Flag Officer: David Ramus Commodore (David Skinner/ Bernie Watkins) Steve Vyse Vice Commodore (Patricia Hill/ David Ramus) Terry Kinch Rear Commodore (Alan Saunders David Ramus) Patricia Hill Rear Commodore (David Ramus/ Laurence Woodhams) Laurence Woodhams Rear Commodore (David Skinner/ David Ramus) Director Retirements: Alan Saunders Not restanding David Ramus Restanding as Commodore David Skinner Restanding as Director Chris West Not restanding Laurence Woodhams Restanding as Rear Commodore Keith Phelps Resigned 2nd February 2012 Steve Vyse Standing for Vice Commodore Terry Kinch Standing for Rear Commodore Patricia Hill Standing for Rear Commodore Miles Mayall Not restanding David Norwood Not restanding Nominations for Director: David Golding Laurence Woodhams/David Ramus Adrian Weber Laurence Woodhams/David Ramus David Skinner Anthony Boysons/Doug Beanlands Neil Fraser-Betts Kevin Headon/Bernie Watkins Marco Rummery Patricia Hill/Keith Phelps Giles Weston David Ramus/Laurence Woodhams Nigel Haines Robert Lyn/Christine Bohea Remaining Directors: Bernard Watkins Graham Roberts Ian O’Dell Kevin Headon Tim Cork Nominations for Admiral: Anthony Boysons Honorary Position Board Appointee The Articles of Association of Sussex Yacht Club allow us to have five Flag Officers, and up to twelve (maximum) other Directors. You can see from the above that there are five vacancies for Flag Officers and five nominees. There are seven vacancies for Directors and seven nominees. There will therefore be no election for Flag Officers and no election for Directors at the Annual General Meeting in January 2013.

Commodore Elect

I’m Dave Ramus, SYC Commodore elect and I will be taking over from Alan Saunders at the January AGM. Alan and Di are looking forward to some well-earned time off in 2013 cruising around France on Mean Feeling, leaving me with a very hard act to follow, and I would like to thank Alan and Di for all their efforts and hard work they have put into our wonderful club.

I have been a member of Sussex Yacht Club from the tender age of 13 and over the last 40 years I have been in the cadet section, sailing Heron dinghy No.747 (Jumbo) with Ian Powter, before moving to the windsurfing section, which was great fun while it lasted. I then went back to the dinghy section, sailing a Laser and Solo. I have also been sailing with my family from the early 70’s until now. We started out on a Hurley 22 (Tina) and did our first channel crossing on her taking anything from 18 to 24hrs.

So with a growing family, John (my father) decided it was time to move on to something bigger and faster, so we took delivery of Siesta. At that time (mid 70’s) a very sleek long-keeled Sombrero 32. After a number of boats in between I now sail the Devil’s Advocate, with the same family members and friends around the cans on weekend’s and as many of the offshore events and rallies we can fit in over the year.

My memories of our club during the 70’s 80’s & 90’s are of a vibrant community enjoying all that SYC had to offer with a very active social side. The bar was always full from Friday to Sunday with almost all the functions being sold out. The support from members was amazing and created a superb atmosphere.

Time is much more precious today with the stresses and strains of modern life keeping us all busy, which is perhaps conversely even more reason to organise our diaries and involve ourselves in all that the SYC has to offer.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

So, I am looking forward to the next two years working with a fantastic team of Flag Officers, Directors and Secretariat.

I am passionate about our Sussex Yacht Club, with all it has to offer, and look forward to being your Commodore for the next two years.

Dave Ramus

Our New Directors Here are introductions from the Directors elect looking forwards to taking up their voluntary posts for 2013.

Neil Frazer-Betts Whilst working for Brighton Marina I had an invite to go for a sail on an old boat called Speedwell. Having enjoyed it so much I continued to sail as crew and as a result I joined SYC in ‘83.

I have crewed on several yachts, but my finest moment was with Tony Cross on his J109 Wow when we came first in class and second overall in the Royal Escape Race. I have also helped on club rescue boats for the dinghy section and Sailability. Before previously becoming a director I had the honour of being awarded the Percy Ludgate trophy for services to the club.

As a director I assisted on house committee for many years and was part of the team that organised the club’s centenary celebration week in ‘92. My aim is to rejoin the house committee and assist them to promote and organise future social events and activities for the club. We have excellent bar and dining facilities and it would be rewarding to see them being used to their capacity with a good club atmosphere.

David Golding I was born in Brighton and have lived in Portslade for over twenty years.

I got into dinghy sailing in my thirties after giving up club football and joined SYC as a family with my partner and daughter over six years ago. To start with we attended family cadet evenings, competed in dinghy racing on the canal and river and I have been crewing on Kingfisher in keelboat racing as well. We bought our own 22ft keel boat, ‘Firebird’ that we restored and now race in the Saturday pursuit series, as well as cruising to the Solent and beyond.

After leaving school I worked as an apprentice joiner for a local established company and later became self employed. I have worked in various areas of the construction industry including several years sub-contracting for the National Trust, repairing and maintaining their properties in the South East. For the last five years I have been teaching carpentry and joinery at City College in Brighton. I intend to use my knowledge and experience to help maintain and develop the yacht club buildings for the future as well as continuing to enjoy the sailing and social events.

Nigel Haines I have lived in Hove all of my life, working for Brighton and Hove City council for 34 years, currently as a Principle Trading Standards Officer.

Prior to this I completed an apprenticeship as a boat builder at ‘Watercraft’ on Shoreham beach. My present work involves visiting and working with different enforcement agencies both at home and abroad - I regularly work in Brussels and EU member states and am involved in a current project with colleagues in China. I have three children all of whom have left home.

My sailing started some 40 plus years ago in Shoreham Harbour with a sailing school run by East Sussex County Council

called Hove Marine Activities Center. At 16 I qualified as an RYA senior sailing instructor and started owning my own boats, primarily sailing dinghies.

I have been involved with Sussex Yacht Club for many years as a racing crew for Tony Cross and for a while in the 80’s I owned a Westerly Centaur which I kept on an SYC mooring, then a Tornado cat which I raced from Shoreham Sailing Club, plus windsurfers at SYC. Seven years ago I joined the diving section of SYC and have progressed through the British Sub Aqua Club qualifications. I am now the Chair of the dive section and am working to forge relationships with local companies and Brighton University for the benefit of the club as a whole.

Marco Rummery My first memories of sailing are on board a National 12 on the River Thames with my father and brother at the age of seven. During my teenage years we moved onto sailing yachts, so I gained a fair bit of cruising experience sailing the South Coast and across the channel to France.

I joined Sussex Yacht Club almost ten years ago, initially keeping an Enterprise dinghy, sailing locally with my family. Also at this time I crewed on ‘Fayme’ with Andrew Smith and latterly on ‘Mean Feeling’ with Alan and Di Saunders.

Crewing has been a fabulous experience that enabled me to meet a wonderful group of people who remain very good friends to this day. Over the past few years I have helped organise the PHAB weekend from Brighton Marina as well as lending a hand at Paddle Round the Pier and Club open days, all of which I have enjoyed.

I am lucky enough to have my own boat, ‘Lara’, which is a 1969 Rival 31 berthed at SYC in Southwick. I have a keen interest in boats of all types and have recently qualified as a Small Craft Surveyor, my eventual aim being to set up a Surveying Practice. I currently run a building renovation company and a marine advertising website.

I am on the House Committee at SYC and very much enjoy the challenge of ensuring the smooth running of our regular functions and liaising with our franchisees to find harmonious solutions to problems that may arise. Whilst I hope very much to continue in this vein, I would also like to focus on new member attainment. I firmly believe we need to increase our Family member base in order to sustain longer-term memberships and to maximise the use of our varied club facilities.

David Skinner A Member (now Life Member) for over 40 years. In 1970 we joined SYC, owning a mud-berthed Silhouette which was a lovely little boat for playing Swallows & Amazons. We have progressed to Moonlight Saunter, logging over 40,000 nautical miles rallying and racing with some success.

One of my proudest achievements is to hold the Langley Coaster 19 times, an annual award for the most completed races in any single year.

I have served on SYC Committees for 35 years. With a brilliant small Committee, the Centenary Celebrations were organised and we broke-even 10 days before our first event, going on to fund a tractor for the yard.

For 1993-95 I served as Commodore, when we purchased our first Travel Hoist. I have helped to drive forward Jetty/Pontoon schemes; refurbishment of our premises and our successful Lottery Bid - our “cash cow”, and to benefit new-blood

succession I have now not sought re-election to RearCommodore. My dream of additional quality moorings at Southwick will become fact this winter; another major step forward and as a Director I will see it through.

I believe in traditional values and so called progress can easily lose what the years have built up. As a Trustee of Sailability I will work for the benefit of our disabled. Youth & Families are another of my hobby-horses, as without them we founder. In this age of gazing into computers it is important, in my opinion, to encourage the young into our rewarding physical sport.

I have a long fuse; whingers I smile at and ignore, whilst to constructive ideas I listen and action sound input.

The Club means a huge amount to my family and my efforts on its behalf can never repay the debt I owe for the years of joy out at sea and around our great club.

Adrian Weber I have recently taken over the role of Safety Boat Manager at SYC. This role suits me as I have been involved with safety boat duties since I was eleven years old, and have been a safety boat qualified helm for a number of years at SYC assisting with dinghy racing and Sailability. Previously I have performed safety boat duties at Worthing Sailing Club and in my early years at Lancing Sailing Club.

I have my own RIB which I have used over the last 20 years as a safety boat for Offshore Powerboat Racing. The ‘Extreme’ Safety Boat team currently works with P1 Superstocks that operates around the Country for five races per year.

I have held Senior Management positions in my working life, including twenty years with Lloyds TSB and for the last ten years with Credit Security Ltd, where I am currently the Development and Compliance Manager. I am used to dealing with people at all levels and have a strong understanding of business. I have also been a listening volunteer for the Samaritans for over five years and have gained an insight into understanding people.

Giles Weston I am a (mostly) retired solicitor having been senior partner of a major West Sussex practice until 2011. I was born in Shoreham and have lived in the town for nearly all my life. Sarah and I currently live on Shoreham Beach.

I joined Sussex Yacht Club in 1965 as a cadet and have been an active member ever since. I started sailing in Herons, and then Hornets from 1969 until 1986. Since then I have sailed mostly in bigger boats with a variety of different club members and have competed in Cowes Week, the Round the Island Race and the Triangle Race on a number of occasions. I also owned a J24 which I sailed at the Club for a few years.

I have sat on any number of club committees over the years from cadet, through various dinghy committees, house committee, handicap committee and a total of nine years as a director of the club including four years as a Rear-Commodore and Chairman of House, my final year of which was during the SYC centenary in 1992.

SYC has played a very large part in my life and my interests at the club cover both the sailing and social sides and, as a director, I will be happy to assist wherever and however required.

London Boat Show Offer The Tullett Prebon London Boat Show at Excel London runs from Saturday 12th to Sunday 20th January 2013 and following SYC agreeing to carry out some launch and recovery work for the show (and yes we are charging them for this) the organisers have extended this special offer to all SYC members.

SUSSEX YACHT CLUB £12 TICKET OFFER Valid any day 12th – 20th January WEBSITE BOOKINGS: www.londonboatshow.com TELEPHONE BOOKINGS: 0871 230 7140 BOOKING REFERENCE CODE: JG1 Tickets can be ordered up to midnight on Friday 11th January.

Tickets can be printed at home or delivered by post. Because tickets ordered via postal delivery could take up to 7 days to arrive the most expedient option, for those ordering tickets over the Internet, is to use the website’s ‘Print at Home’ facility.

A single transaction fee of £1.75 applies whether ordering one or any greater number of tickets.

Youngsters 15 years or under go free (up to two per accompanying adult) provided tickets for them are requested when ordering adult tickets.

Group orders for 10 or more tickets (still at the same price) can only be made by telephone.

When booking you will be asked to select the day you intend to visit. This is merely to enable the organiser to anticipate visitor numbers. When you receive your tickets they won’t be dayspecific and they can be used to attend on any single day.

WEBSITE STEP–BY–STEP BOOKING PROCEDURE 1/. Click on ‘SHOW TICKETS BUY NOW!’ at top/right of homepage.

2/. Enter & submit promotional code JG1.

3/. This brings up a ‘Ticket Options’ page. DISREGARD EVERYTHING ELSE – JUST CLICK ON ANY ONE OF THE DAYS BETWEEN 12th & 20th January.

4/. This brings up the £12 ‘any day’ ticket offer which is then straightforward to follow.

NOTE: If you want to visit the show between Monday and Wednesday tickets are only £10 and you do not require the JG1 code to order them.

Cruising Log Trophies Three Cruising Trophies will be awarded at the 2013 AGM and we are urgently seeking entries from as many skippers as possible. There are a few changes to the regulations to make entries easier, so take a look below and submit your ships log to the Yacht Club Office at Shoreham no later than 14:00 on Monday 7 January 2013.

WINDFLOWER CUP - Longest sailed passage in any continuous three week period during 2012.

Coming up (and apologies if this newsletter arrives too late for this) is the SYC Christmas Party on Saturday 15 December and the crowning event of the year, New Years Eve, with a live band and truly great food and company.

Book either of these great evenings with Jacqui on 01273 464868 or by email to secretary@sussexyachtclub.org.uk.

Finally, there will be a monster raffle at the January Club Night, run by the successful House Team - not to be missed!

Chris West, House Committee Chair

MATTHEY CUP - Highest number of logged miles in the 2012 calendar year divided by Thames Tonnage.

Matters Financial

COMPASS CUP - Best kept Log.

Laurence Woodhams, Treasurer, gives us an overview of the Club accounts for the year ended September 2012.

Entrants should state clearly which cup or cups they are entering for. The entrants for the Windflower Cup should indicate the total miles claimed and the date parameters for said mileage.

Entrants for the Matthey Cup should indicate the total miles claimed for that year. Entries may also be extracted from electronic logs and presented in txt, rtf, doc, xls, or pdf formats.

The minimum number of entries for each award is one. If possible, the Compass Cup will not be awarded to the winner of either the Windflower or the Matthey Cups.

We hope there will be many entries this year. Please enter and get your log in early as the awards will be made at the AGM on Saturday 26 January 2013.

Richard Jackson, President

House Update Chris West, 2012 Chair of the House Committee, gives us an overview of what he and his team have been up to.

What a great year we have had at SYC during 2012... Not only have the ‘big five’ events been held and well attended but the twelve Club Nights (held on the first Friday of each month), have also been well attended. Good food and cheer has been very much in evidence throughout the year, not only the continuing service from Hocine our Bar franchisee, but also from the talented and dedicated Catering franchisee, Simon and his excellent team.

The combination of great and reasonably priced food at the Club Nights, together with the stunning raffle with generous prizes each month, have all contributed in increasing the footfall and helping our franchisees to make our attendance to the club an enjoyable experience at reasonable prices!

The move to open the bar early on Friday evenings (17:30) has been applauded by those who like to pop into the club for a quick snifter and chat, perhaps organising crews for the weekend’s racing, before retiring home for a relaxing evening, or going on to events ‘out on the town’.

The availability of sandwiches, provided by Simon, behind the bar on Friday and Saturday lunchtimes, is growing in popularity and we hope soon to be able to offer hot food on Saturday lunchtimes... Remember the more you use your club, the more services we can offer.

The ‘Report of the Directors and Financial Statements for Sussex Yacht Club Ltd’ for the year ended 30 September 2012 are available from the website at (www.sussexyachtclub.org.uk) and I know most members will check “the bottom line” first; to save you the trouble it is £58,697.

A few of our members; who are, or have been in business or accountancy, will analyse the accounts and no doubt prepare questions to be submitted to the office (in good time please) for inclusion in the AGM. This type and level of scrutiny is welcome as all members benefit from a public interrogation of the figures, to understand better what is happening in our club.

So what does the £58,697 net profit mean to the club? In the 12 months preceding 30 September 2012 our club (in the form of a limited company) became more valuable by £58,697; it is as simple as that. This does not mean that we have £60k more cash in the bank, or that income exceeded expenditure by £60k, it truly means that our club increased its value by this amount.

As we are both a business and a club we have a different approach to profit than that of a straightforward business; i.e. we don’t use profit to pay dividends, but use them to develop and invest in our club’s future. Furthermore, we aim to set charges to members as low as we can possibly make them, without jeopardising those very services through under-investment.

When we constructed the 2011/12 budget in May 2011, our budget anticipated a surplus of approximately £19,255, on projected turnover of £459,255. By the end of the period our surplus was £58,697. Some members have asked me how it ended up 3 times higher than budgeted. A variety of factors caused this including; increased income from the Aldrington project, reduced consumption of electricity, increased income from Shoreham boatyard and better purchasing by the budgetholders and the office. We also deferred the Southwick mooring extensions whilst awaiting information for planning purposes.

The hard work by our members and staff in generating this surplus has put us in a good position, but we should not be over-confident. Our goal is to continue to peg member charges below inflation, leaving us with no room for additional income from this source, we cannot expect exceptional boatyard income to match last year’s level, and we have reduced the joining fee from £90 to £30 to encourage new membership. In addition we are planning to pay for the bar refurbishment and the Southwick moorings extension without recourse to any borrowing.

I believe this is what a strong, active and growing club should look like financially, and I am very grateful to all the people who have worked tirelessly to place our club in the position it now finds itself. Due to the spending planned for this year on our infrastructure, the same will be asked again of our members, officers and staff, in keeping the tightest control on our spending and make sure that all of our facilities are used to the full.

Laurence Woodhams, Treasurer

A NEW RATING SYSTEM FOR THE NEW SEASON - VPRS Tim Cork and his Sailing Section are trialling an exciting new rating system in 2012 - and it won’t cost you a bean!

Prediction Program) and has been designed to work with a straightforward set of measurements, some of which can be estimated.

A diverse range of sailing craft can be rated and the ratings depend on measurement alone. No local adjustments are made to any of the calculated ratings, which ensures that they are universally applicable.

VPRS uses a velocity prediction program (VPP) and a manageable set of measurements to give a scientific assessment of sailing performance. Boat speeds are predicted for a range of wind speeds over several points of sail.

A weighted average of the predictions is then taken and expressed as a familiar Time Correction Coefficient (TCC).

Measurements and other data are carefully chosen to capture the equipment and design variations which have the greatest impact on yacht performance.

In addition the measurement definitions are written to minimise the opportunities for rating optimisation.

Doug Beanland and the Italian Job, SYC Yacht of the Year. The result is a fair, affordable and easy to use At a recent Sailing Section meeting it was voted that Sussex rating system.

Yacht Club would adopt a trial, for one year, of a single VPRS At a glance handicapping system (VPRS) to enable all of our growing fleet to race using one system. By doing this we aim to simplify the scoring and make class divisions more flexible. members for the 2013 season.

To achieve this racing boat owners will need to complete a measurement form for every boat, which is available on the dedicated VPRS website (www.vprs.org) where you will also find a really useful measurement guide.

Measurement forms must be completed by owners taking information from either previous rating certificates (such as IRC), original drawings or specifications of the boat or by taking measurements themselves. However should you require any support with any aspect of measuring we do have a number of people who are happy to help who can be contacted via the SYC office.

To enhance the accuracy of our certificates, we will also be arranging for a full weighing and measuring day to take place early in the New Year although this will be after the start of the season so do not delay in completing the form.

For the 2013 season Sussex Yacht Club has decided that it will cover the cost of the rating for all yachts of full members that complete their measurement and return them to the office by 14 February 2013. Yachts not returning certificates before this date will not be included in the club return and be subject to the VPRS fees set by the organisers (which can be found on the VPRS website).

VPRS was developed for club racers, drawing on requirements and feedback from the racing community in Poole harbour. It is a performance-based system using a bespoke VPP (Velocity

by anyone. certificate re-issue if required. classic designs and sports boats. not depend on local adjustments. performance; ratings are not a means of personal/crew handicapping. evolutions during the course of a manufacturing run to be captured, and departures from one-design class rules to be accounted for. as losses from more cruising orientated sails and furling gear are reflected in the ratings. on the certificate.

If you have any questions about this new system don’t forget the Sailing Meeting being held at Shoreham on Sun 10 February starting at 15:00