Thorpe Bay Yacht Club - Newsbuoy 7 - Summer 2012

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www.tbyc.org • Edition 7 • Summer Season 2012

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Nick Elmore Commodore The main sailing season is once again upon us.

There has been a raft of activity amongst committees and volunteer members to get the club ready for the summer season. There has been painting, cleaning, weeding, all kinds of manual work and plenty of planning for upcoming events. A small army of dedicated members have really gone to town for all of us to benefit from, and enjoy TBYC.

experience better for all.

Our membership is once again increasing after a record year in 2011. Our club is growing in numbers, so we need now to focus on making the whole

On the water the new Committee boat has been taken out many times by members who want to familiarise themselves with the layout for when they are asked to do race officer duty. We now start 95% of all our racing from the boat and it gives us remarkable flexibility on course setting. This boat was a great investment for TBYC and all those volunteers who help to maintain and upgrade its capability are doing a first class job.

I am pleased to announce that the club have taken advantage of the London 2012 Olympic legacy. We have secured the purchase of one of the Ribcraft ribs to be used in Weymouth for the Olympic sailing.

These boats were offered by Ribcraft and the RYA to yacht clubs around the country with generous discounts so that the British clubs could benefit from the Games in 2012. The rib (see diagram, opposite) will

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replace our ageing SS7 which has been with us giving great service and has helped countless members for more than ten years.

This sort of craft has proved its worth to our club many times over, and with the Olympic rib coming in September safety on the water is being maintained to a very high standard.

Within the clubhouse there continues to be investment. Last year we saw the provision of the new lift and fire escape stairs. This year we are working on a number of smaller projects. I am pleased to share with you that thanks to generous donations from our brewery Heineken through our very own Martin Swindon – we have procured some new balcony furniture to replace some of our old benches. We have square tables and chairs that are lightweight and durable. Many more members will be able to sit out in comfort and enjoy the wonderful views our club has to offer.

Finally I would like, on behalf of the General Committee, to give a huge thank you to all those who give up their time and volunteer to help to the benefit of all the members of Thorpe Bay Yacht Club.

Nick Elmore Commodore

Keep up with all the latest TBYC news www.tbyc.org

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At last, Spring is here and whilst we may not be basking in sunshine (yet), the longer lighter days herald the beginning of the new sailing season, and an exciting new social calendar to tempt both old and new members…

After an excellent Wine Tasting Evening in February with guidance from a Master of Wine complemented by a delicious antipasti buffet provided by Gary, many of you will also have enjoyed our fantastic Cocktail Making Evening in May – a new event that we hope to make a regular annual fixture.

If you’re a new member, our social functions are a great opportunity to meet to fellow members – new and old.

Another great way to meet people is to volunteer to help with events and work parties etc - we’re looking for volunteers to man our side shows on a rota during our Jubilee Street party on the 4th June, so please give me a call or email me if you’re able to help, even if it’s just for half an hour.

Without your help, these events can’t take place!

We’re always looking for new event ideas and entertainers to provide a broad spectrum of events to appeal to as many members as possible, so please give me a call or e-mail me if you have any suggestions.

Stephanie Bradley Social Representative

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10 Downing St. The Oval Room.

The Elysée Palace. Canary Wharf.

Well, I wouldn’t swap mine for any of these.

Second floor, up looking out at the Thames Estuary in all its splendour, with ever-changing vistas from low tide in February to fifty or so boats sporting multi-coloured spinnakers gracing the waters in front of TBYC in high summer.

Janet and I have occupied this office for some twelve months together, without falling out I might add! Little did we think when first sailing together some ten years ago that we would end up working as secretary and administrator in such pleasant surroundings.

Janet’s background is one of a local girl born on Foulness Island, spending her formative years on the island before moving to the mainland. Her working life started with the Joint Credit Card company in Southend, and then some years at the Proofing And Experimental Establishment on Foulness, during which time she drove a tank and a hovercraft.

She also signed the Official Secrets Act, so don’t ask - or she may have to terminate you with extreme prejudice.

Latterly she did a stint with HSBC in their Southend credit card operation, jumping ship when banking became a dirty word! Her background in bookkeeping is invaluable to our operation, enabling the Club Treasurer Ian Murdoch to keep our finances under control.

In contrast, my working experience consists of 41 years with Mirror Group Newspapers - yes, that means with Robert Maxwell, just about the most personable rogue you could wish to meet! Apprenticed to the Mirror block-making

department at 16, I saw and was part of the changes in newspaper production which, over that span saw the introduction of pre-coated film, automated etching processes and polymer plates direct to press. Finally we achieved full page make-up, which means in its present form that journalists compose all pages with graphics and advertisements, which are sent directly to the presses in Watford from Canary Wharf. These changes in production techniques, as you can imagine, resulted in many hundreds of redundancies of production staff. Virtually only electricians were required to service the company’s needs. This brought early retirement to me at the age of 57, which only civil servants might enjoy in today’s economic landscape.

A good part of this retirement has been spent sailing my ‘Hopper and running the Sandhopper section both as captain, membership secretary and Barry’s alter ego, all of which have been fulfilling.

What do we do?

Well, amongst the many and varied tasks carried out there is the payment of suppliers, payment of staff wages, all undertaken by on-line banking, weekly banking recorded on an in-house journal, ordering of supplies from stationery to flags to clothing, and entering all the club’s transactions using Sage.

The office will also facilitate the standing orders from members who wish to use this method of payment.

Finally, the club’s membership records are held on an Access database, which enables us to issue invoices, record payment of these and keep track of the boats belonging to members.

We also mail out to members Newsbuoy three or four times a year, as well as AGM notices, TBYC accounts for the year and of course, the issuing of renewal membership packs. Janet will also produce figures for each monthly and quarterly GC meeting so that the Treasurer can identify & assess any trends that may appear.

The office liaises continually with Mike Thomason, who controls the boat park together with winter sailing, ensuring that all fees are paid on time. She will also have an involvement with the Mooring Officer, assisting him with names, boats, membership status etc.

The busiest time is without doubt from issuing the AGM Notice to the end of the subscription period, roughly midNovember to the end of March.

Recently a card payment facility has been introduced in the bar for drinks, social event tickets and cashback, together with online payment of subscriptions.

We have now accumulated enough e-mail addresses to undertake mass e-mailing to the membership for work parties, social events and any other notice the GC might want to disseminate.

Always busy, but good fun.

Tony Padbury Hon. Secretary

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es... u in t n o c y r the sto

Thorpe Bay Yacht Club, as we all know, continues to this day to benefit from some superb decisions taken by the founder members in its formative years.

We enjoy one of the best clubhouses in a fantastic location and continue to have good club assets that support sailing activities for all our members. Two of these assets are our two displacement support craft which, with great foresight, were purpose built for TBYC in the early 1970s, have continued to support the waterside activities through thick and thin.

The two craft which are adapted Colvic Seaworkers were specified by a

knowledgeable team of members who I understand under the expert eye of Hugh Foster-Taylor - took the purchase

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proposal to the General Committee for one boat and gained approval to purchase two.

Despite being fully submerged by the severe storm that hit South East England in October 1987 the boats were back on duty the next day with some members TLC the next day pulling stricken craft off the beach. From the damage sustained in 1987 the boat were wintered at Barry Thornton’s boatyard in Leigh-on-Sea and returned to TBYC with woodwork that would have been more fitting on the QE2.

The boats continued to provide reliable service week in week out at the club, withstanding the rigours of the club sailing programme with the introduction of winter sailing and including a support trip to Tower Bridge in 1991, but I’ll save that for another time. Over the winter of 2002 it was deemed appropriate to have the then 30-year old engines reconditioned at Gosneys in Romford. The units were subsequently returned to the boats and in 2005 the next major project of

stiffening the hulls with foam stringers and flow coating the insides was undertaken by our GRP expert David Johnson.

During the 2010/11 seasons with the increased usage supporting the weekend club sailing, the very successful mid-week series and school holiday cadet sailing, it became apparent that our two trusty displacement boats once again required some TLC to continue performing reliably.

After consultation with several alternative engine manufacturers it was decided by the Committee that the most sensible option would be to replace the current units with identical Ford 4 Cylinder diesels as this would provide an economic solution and still allow the members of TBYC to continue to be able to maintain and repair the boats without

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By early February the replacement engine units had arrived and the team busied themselves with removal of the marinisation parts from the old units and refurbishing the gearboxes.

the requirement of diagnostic software and having to call out service agents every time we had an issue. A plan was formulated in late November 2011 to attempt to re-engine the two craft ourselves before the Sandhopper lift in scheduled for mid-March 2012.

This didn’t really leave sufficient time for completion of the project on both craft, but with a positive attitude the working party team started the disconnection of the existing powertrains on a chilly January Saturday afternoon following the 2012 Frozen sheets race, as soon as Seasafe 2 was lifted out of the water.

We were kind enough to secure a local triple garage to conduct the majority of the task and by early February when snow covered most of the UK, thanks to Burroughs lifting equipment we had the old power units warmly tucked up.

Components that were damaged by the harsh saltwater environment or electrolysis that were not up to repair were replaced with new components, updating both units to run identical heat exchangers and accessories for interchangability. The base units were then skilfully placed back into the boats or on to the engine bearers refurbished by Graham in his spare time from being Rear Commodore!

Reconnection, rewiring, commissioning and testing was then carried out in the boat park during early March. With the craft lifted back to the moorings with the Sandhoppers, we were ready for the new TBYC sailing season.

A big thank you also to our suppliers for parts, supply and technical advice:Hendy Power Southampton, Lancing Marine, ASAP Supplies, Seahorse Power Dorset, R&J Burroughs, Kildale Marine, A & J Fasteners, Robert Stevens & Sons, RJ Waller, Leigh Baxter Associates, Essex Ford, Polevolt Electrical Ltd, RS Components, Boatacs, Broadway Electrical Services, Anglia Batteries and Universal Rotating Electrics.

Toby Speller

The team that put in many hours of effort during the winter months to achieve the project on behalf of TBYC were Gordon Sanders, David Edwards expert electrical support and harness design; Peter Thompson, supplier of nice clean warm workshop facilities and supplier of numerous bacon rolls; Barry Duce, our team motivator; Graham Dare, Jeremy Sandford, Clive Varrier, Tony Clarke, Tony Padbury, Janet Willmser and Simon Boygle.

Get all the latest TBYC news and events www.tbyc.org 

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It was a cold and misty start for the ten of us who met at 7am at the top of the slipway. This was the first of the familiarisation and training days on Seasafe Four.

The day was aimed at helping those looking to build on their sail training skills and for a number of us who were embarking on the RYA Dayskipper course. The day was to include taking the boat on and off the mooring, providing an introduction to navigation and course plotting, sailing the boat and of course figuring out how to use all the facilities, including the stove and grill!

Having launched Seasafe 7 and running the supplies out to SS4 it was clear everyone had taken the training instructions very seriously - we had enough food and drink for a trip to make Robin Knox-Johnston proud. Deciding to leave SS7 on a visitors mooring there was some debate on who could tie the safest knot and there were a few furtive glances backwards as we got off the mooring!

We hoisted the genoa and main and in a light breeze and limited visibility navigated our way towards the Pier Head.

Plotting our progress on the chart and once in deeper water we calculated a compass course out and towards the Princes 2 Buoy out at the mouth of the Thames. As we sailed on the mist began to clear and the sun came out leading to some suggestions for breakfast. Mark Robinson got the bacon rolls on the go whilst Gary Haylett toasted some hot cross buns and Shaun Christian organised the teas and coffees. We sailed on seeing a beautiful French ship, a dredging vessel and a couple of other cruising yachts.

We all had the opportunity to savour the peace and serenity of being out on the water, punctuated by Barry’s many stories of his sailing escapades and adventures. We saw the Red Sands Towers in the distance and decided we could either go and see the Towers or head up towards Canvey Island as our next way point - with the chance of visiting Barry’s old stamping ground, how could we say no?

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We had terrific boat speed as we travelled up the Estuary and received some phone calls from club members as we passed TBYC! It was certainly a relief to hear that SS7 was still where we’d left her! Taking turns at the helm we carried on past the pier, and as we romped along at a good 6-7+ knots everyone was commenting on how comfortable it was on board. Having taken in the delightful vista of Canvey del mare we gybed round and with the breeze building to a good Force 6 we really did have the chance to put the boat through her paces as we headed back towards the club.

As we came back towards the club we were conscious that the day was getting on but we also had to wait for enough water to get on to the mooring. With all the washing-up done, sails stowed and everything put back where it should be, we took the opportunity to reflect on where we’d been whilst waiting for the tide. We could not have timed the point of return any better because as we were unloading the last of the equipment ashore the light finally started to go and it was almost dark by the time we put SS7 away.

There will be many other opportunities for all members to attend Seasafe 4 sail training days and they are highly recommended as a great opportunity to explore a bit further away, to sail a fantastic boat and above all to have fun whilst learning on the water.

Matt Walters

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“One willing volunteer is worth ten pressed men”. How true.

Funny; for twelve years, I have turned up with the kids, rigged the boat, moved it to the beach, helped launch it in the swell, then sat back watching them race round the cans with the “free” binoculars at the bar, downing a reasonably priced pint (or two!) of decent beer, then recovered the boat, helped them wash it, stow it, get changed and then gone home...

I never realised this was all possible because of the hundred thousand discussions, debates, proposals, arguments, contentions, compromises, resolutions, agreements and actions that have gone on with the various committees throughout the 60 odd years’ history of the Club.

I never thought of the cost to empty the glass recycling bin per quarter, or the price for a skip on Work Party Day, or that we shouldn’t pay sewerage to Anglian Water for the Boat Park because there are no drains, but we do for the Clubhouse. I had no idea we pay thousands per year to the Borough Council for the use of the green as a bumpy car park. I never dreamt that the cost of special paint to refurbish the fixed race marks might be more in the long run than the cost of replacing them and that the position of the buoys have to be reported to Trinity House and the PLA I could go on. There are so many details that have to be addressed each week to keep the club ticking over.

I have woken up to the fact that running the Club is a serious business. Hopefully, running it as best as possible, means that so many have such fun.

Ian Murdoch Treasurer

Our club is so successful even in such tough times as we have a dedicated section of volunteers who give up their time for the benefit of others. Make sure you do your bit - whether it’s picking up litter in the boat park, covering a race duty or heading up a section of the club.

Many thanks to all who turned up for the spring work party. Great support from many sections, especially the Sprints who did a great job with the club painting, thanks to Anthony Blower, Rob Bailey, Mike Thomason and Paul Beasley for heading the teams and getting everything done in such a short time frame. We will be holding another later in the year so if you missed out please come along, especially if you are a new member as it is a great way to meet and make new friends.

You will see a few changes around the kitchen area and balcony which we will continue to improve. If you have a particular trade or skillset that you think will help the club, please let me know.

The ladies toilets have been replaced. Thanks to Rob Bailey for all his hard work and we will continue to make additions and keep updating our club. The lift is proving to be a valuable asset to TBYC, allowing many to use the club who were finding the stairs a challenge.

Please help the club keep tidy and in good repair. If you spot something that needs doing, please tell Lorraine behind the bar so she can let me know.

On the sailing property side, a massive thank you to Toby Speller for completely overseeing the Seasafe engine replacement, done in a very short time frame and finishing under budget. Thanks also to Peter Thompson and Chris Maloney for inflating and dropping the race marks.

Finally, when you see Tony Padbury at TBYC, please buy him a pint. I cannot list the huge amount of tasks he has carried out over the winter and spring in all capacities which enables you and I to enjoy our club every weekend. We are very lucky to have such a dedicated member.

Happy sailing.

Barry Duce House Rep A special thankyou to Linzi Swindon for some of the superb photos she has supplied for this edition of the magazine.

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We all love doing our duty.

Around 275 members are involved in undertaking the race officer or support boat duties for the 950 duties covered in the club’s annual sailing programme (and this excludes the additional duties involved in the cadet programme.)

DutyMan has arrived.

In order to improve the management of the duty roster, and to provide members with an extra means of seeking swaps or

The majority of members do just three duties a year - although some volunteer to do more and Tony Clarke does a whopping eighty duties in the RIBs over the year. Doing these duties is vital to the smooth running of the club’s sailing and racing activities.

Club racing and general sailing rely on members doing their duties as either race officer/ assistant or helming/ crewing on one of the four support boats. If there is no race officer then there cannot be a race, and if there are insufficient support boats we cannot safely sail. There are ten duties (two race officer / assistant race officers and eight support boat helms / crews) for the majority of races.

In addition, each event has a Duty Officer allocated to oversee the management of the organisation of the event for each day. The Duty Officer is usually a member of the Sailing Committee.

On the day of the event the Duty Officer opens the Bosun’s Hut, checks the equipment and meets with all the duty holders at the top of the slipway one and a quarter hours before the start of the race. This short meeting allows all those on duty to meet their colleagues for day’s racing and agree any particular requirements for carrying out their duty.

When duty holders do not turn up on time the Duty Officer is delayed in carry out other activities and is left wondering whether to seek to find volunteers to undertake any unfilled duty so it is very important to turn up on time.

On a few occasions a duty holder does not turn up at all and this causes significant problems for the organisation of the race as stand-ins have to be found at the last minute which is extremely difficult and disruptive, and sometimes impossible.

Not to turn up without informing the Duty Officer is viewed as wholly unacceptable by the club, and was the subject of concern and discussion at the last Sailing Annual General Meeting.

Duties are allocated in December for the whole year (March to March) and are set out in the printed handbook and distributed to all members. The club requires members to turn up to do their allocated duties or to find a suitable swap or replacement and keep the Duty Officer informed of any swaps.

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volunteers for duty changes, the club introduced a web-based duty management system – ‘DutyMan’ - in February 2012.

‘DutyMan’ was developed for sailing clubs more than 6 years ago and is currently used by around 150 clubs and organisations: 1) to publish a calendar of events with allocated duties on the web, and which should always be up-to-date, accurate and definitive; 2) to automatically e-mail members a list of their duties and duty reminders; 3) to organise duty swaps between members interactively using e-mail to/from ‘DutyMan’ and automatically update the duty roster with agreed swaps.

‘DutyMan’ requires a database of the e-mail addresses of the 275 or so club members who undertake one or more race duties each year together with a database of all the duties for the year. Members who have been allocated duties have an individual password allocated by DutyMan. The Roster can be viewed by clicking on ’ DutyMan Race Roster’ at the left hand side of the club’s main web page. Only those who have been allocated a password and are loggedin can see the telephone numbers of other members and/or undertake swaps or volunteering.

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If you know that you have duties allocated and have not received an email from DutyMan, please send an e-mail to secretary@tbyc.org letting us know. Your name and correct e-mail address will then be added to the DutyMan database.

Members in the DutyMan database can update their contact details – e-mail address and telephone numbers – or change their password. A member can also opt out of receiving any e-mails through DutyMan if they wish, but clearly this will restrict the benefits of the system.

DutyMan will send an e-mail reminder for each duty 3 weeks and 1 week before each duty date. If you do not wish to receive these reminders then you can log-on, ‘confirm’ and record your duties, and cancel the reminders. However, please be certain that you have transferred the duty dates to your diary and you are sure that you do not need reminding.

It would greatly assist Duty Officers if members who have duties would log-in to DutyMan to: Confirm that you have acknowledged and recorded your duties - by clicking on the ‘Confirm your duties’ heading.

A blue tick will appear against your duty.

Input your mobile phone numbers into DutyMan. This will provide greater flexibility for any necessary contact – including the possibility of texting.

However, please remember that whether or not you confirm your duties in DutyMan, you are expected to do your allocated duties. If you are unable to do your duty then it is your responsibility to arrange a suitable replacement.

Please note that DutyMan has the up to date duty roster. The duty roster in the club’s printed handbook was out of date as soon as any swapping occurred.

Swapping a duty in DutyMan DutyMan is a new tool this year to assist members if they need to swap their duty but swapping cannot, of course, be guaranteed. Swapping is done by ‘requesting’ and ‘accepting’ a swap.

Dutyman allows a duty holder to request a swap with up to 20 other duties at any one time by simply clicking on a “duty swap” symbol – but if you chose to allow DutyMan to automatically ‘multi-select’ the 20 similar duties to swap with be careful to take out (click on) those duty swap symbols for the dates which may not be suitable to you.

An e-mail is automatically sent to those being requested to swap - who can then say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ simply by clicking on a line in the e-mail. The first one to say ‘yes’ gets the swap and the Duty Roster is immediately updated and the swap is confirmed by e-mail to the parties involved.

If you receive a swap request please reply even if you cannot do the swap. It really is OK to say ‘no’ if you cannot do the swap as the member seeking the swap knows the position and can then get on with requesting swaps elsewhere.

However, if you can swap then please do so. The person requesting the swap will be very relieved. Remember, we could all be in the position of needing to swap at some time.

Volunteering to do a duty in DutyMan Any member with a password in DutyMan can volunteer to take on an unallocated duty - marked as ‘tba’ and having an ‘unallocated duty’ symbol, or a duty marked with a ‘swap wanted’ symbol. This will be an additional duty as no swap has taken place. Just click on the symbol and the duty is yours.

An e-mail confirmation will be sent to you.

Swapping and volunteering will of course continue to be arranged between members without using DutyMan’s facilities. However, please always confirm any agreed swap or volunteering by directly requesting and accepting the swap/volunteering between the two members in DutyMan - the Duty Roster is then automatically updated and you do NOT have to inform the Duty Officer.

DutyMan helps users through its processes, which generally just involve clicking on symbols.

There are also help screens. However it is recognised that it will take a while before all duty holders fully understand, and are happy to use, the system.

Please have a look at DutyMan if you haven’t done so already. We hope that it will become a useful tool for all members who have duties at the club.

If you do have any issues with DutyMan please e-mail secretary@tbyc.org or you can phone me on 07946 413923.

Graham Dare Rear Commodore (Racing)

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TBYC AND THE WORLDS 2012 OLYMPIC YEAR After a long and sometimes cold winter, and an arduous UK qualifying series, I am proud to announce that four TBYC teams have qualified for Team GBR places at the RS Feva World Championships to be held at Hayling Island Sailing Club between July 21st‐27th.

TBYC Team GBR are Jourdan Swindon and Alex Bradley, Alex Hadley and Edward Elmore, Max Duce and Ben Farendan and Madeleine Hopper and Philippa Hadley.

However ‐ the good news does not stop there, as we have two more teams that, as we are going to press, I know are going to be offered places at the Worlds due to the fact that they were extremely close to the cutoff, and we have a few extra places allocated to the Worlds team GBR – both Ella Kilkelly and Libby Manning and Oliver Barnes Dean and Patrick Stillman.

For all of you armchair sailors or club sailors who would like to follow our young stars’ progress, I will be blogging on a daily basis during the event!

FEVA Easter Series Following massive success in running the Easter series in 2011, we ran this again this year. Although the weather was nowhere near as kind to us as last year’s freak hot spell, we still enjoyed four days of excellent sailing.

The Feva series was run in conjunction with the Easter cadet series, both of which had excellent attendances considering the cold weather. All races were run off our excellent new committee boat, which we decided to use as it would be used during an open meeting, each day motoring to the usual location that we run open meetings from to the west of the slipway anchoring and running windward leeward courses using the inflatable marks. This, I must say worked excellently, and for all of you that are not a fan then I would say try it. What an improvement for a racing platform!

The racing for the Fevas was close as usual with only 1 point between 1st and 2nd after 9 races. I can still hear the sound of Barry resonating in my ears whilst trying to encourage his son at an elevated level with expletives not suitable for this publication (“Max, you ******! Cover!”)

Excitement aside, our young cadets had some valuable experience of the same environment they will enjoy during the TBYC RS Feva Grand Prix Event being held over the weekend of 19th‐20th May.

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The final positions for the series were: 1st Alex Farrell and Edward Elmore 2nd Max Duce and Ben Farendan 3rd Jourdan Swindon and Oliver Barnes‐Dean We also have a big thanks to make to some of our Sandhopper sailors for giving up their precious time to assist with race management and safety, as without these people the event would not be possible. Thanks to Tony Byrne S151 FT3 (Flying Tortoise 3), Nigel Payne S33 (Sea Phantom) and Will Daly S159 (Sand Star).

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WIN TWO PERSONALISED TBYC TEAM GB POLO SHIRTS! All TBYC members are invited to enter this free competition!

Each member is entitled to only one entry. You must guess where you think each TBYC team will end up in the world rankings. There are 200 entries across the globe, so competition will be tough!

See the “spot the ball” type grid to make your guess.

The prize will be 2 TBYC RS Feva Worlds Edition Class Polo shirts, to be awarded during the TBYC Cadet Week Prize Giving and subsequently announced on the TBYC club website.

You have six TBYC Teams and have to guess their placings. These are as follows:

STOP PRESS

Whilst going to press we hav e some new teams movin g in to the Feva which, as a club, sho ws the model is working.

So it’s a big welcome to Gregg Watso n and Maddie Shields (Gr egg, there, moving up to helming aft er a season of crewing); Vic ky Little and Millie Little (the proud ow ners of the Snows’ boat GBR4150).

Coming back to the class we have Emma Purdon in Odie.

Welcome back Emma, and don’t forget to get big bruv to give you some tips!

For any new TBYC Feva tea ms, we are organising a dea l with Kyle Stoneham for TBYC cla ss polo shirts. Look out on the club website for details and pri ces.

That’s all from me folks, bu t don’t forget to check your sailing programm e for training days and events. Catch the Feva!

Steve Hopper RS Feva Chairman

Entry forms will be available on the main bar and should be deposited in the “TBYC Team GB RS Feva All Stars Competition Box” in the Club House. Competition closes 20th July 2012. Don’t forget to state your NAME and POLO SHIRT SIZE! If we find more than one entry per person, the first entry we find in the box will count.

Any others will be discarded. Please use your full names, not nicknames, as these will be discounted.

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We are looking forward to another great year of sailing.

The fleet has grown by a few boats, and it is great to see Peter Haines back with a new boat this year. There are a few boats that have changed hands, so we welcome to the Sprint fleet Graham Dare, who bought Ian Hadley’s boat. Welcome also to Conrad Stephenson as well as a few others.

The Sprint 15 is a very versatile catamaran which can be sailed in three different formats; single-handed with one sail unarig, which is how we race mostly; twohanded with two sails (which to be honest only works in a hooly) and two sails on the trapeze which is great fun. In an F4 and above this format really is seat-of-yourpants sailing. The boat takes on a different personality and is not for the fainthearted!

I have sailed monohulls all my life, and since buying my Sprint have never looked back. I originally bought it to sail with my stepson as it is a stable platform and great fun, fast and messy. It is a great racing and fun boat.

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We run training sessions regularly – thank you Howard Hawkes - and I have noticed the improvement within the fleet that this training has created. We have an open door policy for all new Sprinters for training, tuning and the buddy scheme, if anyone requires it.

There is a national circuit to race in, which is a great way to improve your skills and also to spend some time in parts of the country you would never normally go to.

You can camp at most of the clubs or stay in the surrounding hotels. All clubs have list of available hospitalities.

So let’s discuss rafts. They are fast, stable – most of the time, you can take your mates out, you can sail to far-off shores, take a picnic, and when most of you lot are

stranded on the beach due to high winds you can still go out if you have the minimals – see Daren Fitchew’s videos on the club website.

All you cadets who think cats are not cool, did you know they race on the same handicap as a 29er? Fair enough, they don’t point up to the wind, but when you are hanging off the back of a Sprint downwind, knowing full well you cannot get out any further and the next trough is going to pitchpole you – once again see Daren’s video – there is nothing like it.

Andrew Hannah

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The lift-in on March 24th went very well. The weather was very misty at first, then cleared slowly, then as the tide came in a sea mist came with it, so thick that some boats had difficulty finding their moorings. The mist had burnt off by high tide.

The day started with the usual safety briefing, with the workforce was divided into four teams each with a team leader. The operation went very smoothly, so you all deserve a pat on the back!

A special thanks to those members who keep their boats elsewhere but still turned up to help, and especially to Vic Davis for traffic control, Jan and Candy for keeping us supplied with tea and cakes, and thanks also to the ladies that usually help with teas, who were seconded on to the job of safety marshal duty and were a great help.

I personally found it less stressful to have no distractions from cars or unauthorised people milling around the work area. The boat park was also left tidy for the Boat Jumble on March 25th, so thanks and well done everyone.

On Good Friday we set off on the Ramsgate Rally. Six boats all got finger berths, with good electricity and a marvellous party atmosphere with welcome drinks on Levanter. We had a table of 14 and 1 child in a local restaurant, followed by a pleasant sail back which made it a great weekend away.

Bob Crane

Visit TBYC - even when the bar’s closed! www.tbyc.org

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The sun is shining – the water is warming up and the sailing season is getting underway. Is it really spring already?

I hope you have all enjoyed the Cadet evening entertainment that we organised during those cold Thursday nights over the wnter.

It is the willingness of fellow members to help develop our Cadets which makes our club so fantastic - so a huge thank you to all those who ran evening sessions, putting their time and energy into making them interesting and educational. At times we had over 60 Cadets, plus parents, crammed into the Commodore’s bar for the sessions.

We started with Rupert giving an expert guide to all things rope-related and followed this with Mike Thomason demonstrating the various sailing related knots and explaining their uses. Ken Herve, ex-Hornet-class World Champion, kindly agreed to share his experience and the knowledge gained from his years of successful racing. He held three coaching sessions with our young sailors; Ken encouraged the Cadets to plan well in advance of every sailing event, highlighting the importance of being prepared for kit failures, so ensuring you never retire from a race. He covered everything from race technique to teamwork and motivation.

Mike ran another evening demonstrating the effects of tide on setting a course in “course made good”. Alex Farrell gave a fantastic talk to the younger Cadets about his own experiences starting at 5 years old in Oppies, growing in confidence and skill through Picos, Lasers and more recently in Fevas and 29ers. He emphasised the importance of taking part in competitions, sailing every weekend and having the support of his family.

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As the season approached, thoughts turned to getting boats ready and both Mike and Johnno Gillies focused on providing guidance around rigging Picos and Oppies correctly.

The final event was a visit from the RNLI, with Graham Slack and one of his colleagues from the Southend Lifeboat Station explaining how the station operates and describing some of their more interesting rescues.

Over the Easter holidays Johnno ran a fantastic taster session for the TOP Series, this should give a great opportunity for a wider group of young Cadets to get sailing time and race experience.

The highlight of the Cadet Calendar is always Cadet Week. We have now almost completed our plans for Cadet Week 2012 and the application packs will be out very soon (if not by the time you read this!)

We have tried to make this year the best yet and following feedback received we have created a new group called “Piranhas”. This is positioned between Stingrays and Barracudas, to enable those Cadets who have completed stage 1 and had experience of the Stingrays but now want more time on the water to build confidence to get them to stage 2 before joining the Barracudas.

Matt Waters has worked hard to find sponsors to support the Cadet Event calendar and in particular Cadet Week.

You will see on the website his request for further sponsorship but we have been thrilled by the support already pledged by club members and local businesses – a huge thank you to you all.

So that’s all from me for now – have a fantastic summer season. I’m certainly looking forward to getting out on the water, taking part in races and enjoying all the sailing and social events our brilliant club has to offer.

I look forward to seeing you all around the club.

Mike Thomason 07906 279212 mikeissailing@gmail.com

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I am writing this whilst sitting in the restaurant of the Premier Inn in Huntingdon, which is how I have spent most of my weekends over the winter.

This is because I have been tasked, with Ian Bradley, into taking our sons Jourdan and Alex to numerous training weekends for the RS Feva squad. Oh, the joy of sitting in the club house for a whole weekend, of sailing clubs from as far north as Rutland to as far south as Weymouth!

But I have no regrets, as it has allowed me to see how other clubs run; not only from the way members greet you as a guest, but as to the ease of launching the boats and the facilities on offer.

Our boat launching experiences varied from lowering them down the side of a reservoir on a rope, to dragging the boats over a vast expanse of sand.

Most of the greetings we received from the club members were quite cold and curt, perhaps because we were from Essex; but each time I went to a new club, I naturally compared TBYC to them and quickly realised how lucky we are.

Our members are always welcoming, our boat launching facilities are excellent and our clubhouse facilities are better than most.

Obviously, we can always improve on what we have, and the General Committee spend a lot of time ensuring that the club always runs to the best of its ability.

But we must not sit back on our laurels; we must always strive to improve on what we have and to support the club in both the sailing activities and the social events, as TBYC is run by the members, for the members. I can honestly say that I am proud to be a member of this club.

I am always available to hear your comments and criticisms of the club and will always try and resolve them as quickly as possible, so please do not hesitate to contact me.

May I take this opportunity to thank Gordon Carr, our bars manager, who will be retiring at the end of May. Gordon has been with us for almost five years and has proven to be a key member of the TBYC staff. I am sure you will join me in thanking Gordon for his time and input into TBYC and wishing him a happy and healthy retirement.

Happy sailing!

Martin Swindon

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The season is now upon us and many of you have started your preparations, ready for the first races of the TOP series to begin.

The aim of TOPS is to introduce and encourage racing to younger members and beginners who wish to start racing with the rest of the club, but feel daunted in going too far offshore, with the added bonus that we get some of the closest racing seen in the club.

Though the conditions at the beginning of the season and over the Easter Bank holiday were not perfect, we have seen lots of cadets out sailing in Picos, Teras and Optimists.

Most notable so far was the TOPS taster Easter Sunday training session. Though the conditions were overcast and cold with a southerly wind, making conditions difficult to get off of the beach, eleven cadets were afloat in four Picos, two RS Teras and an Optimist, who undertook a number of basic sailing exercises to get them all used to being on the water again.

Six practice starts took place, with the cadets starting to get more and more competitive to be the first to make the perfect start. This also helped to get all involved used to the flags and starting sequences. To finish it all off, we had a small race to get the competitive edge back using the inshore practice start line and utilising some of the inshore marks to get everyone used to following a specific course.

Everyone involved, though cold when they came in off the water, had great fun and proved that they were raring to go for some competitive sailing come May. By the time you read this article we will already have had another race-specific TOPS training afternoon on Sunday 29th April which I hope I will have seen you all at. The aim of the afternoon is to get adults and cadets, participating in the TOPS racing series this year to come down and meet the fellow members they will be racing against. They were briefed on the schedule of racing and training for the forthcoming year, given a shakedown of how best to rig

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their chosen boat, practice mark rounding, sailing and starting sequences before the start of the series, in order that they all know what to do on that first Saturday.

I’ve included in this article some dates for your diaries.

The format for these dates, unless otherwise specified will entail a coaching talk (should participants wish) will be given in the Commodore’s bar one and half hours before each published start. At these coaching sessions

a range of sailing and racing facts will be discussed, from the basics of racing rules and tactics to some onthe-water coaching sessions before TOPS racing. If participants in the series do not want to enter coaching, then the normal race briefing at the top of the slipway will be held twenty minutes before the published start time.

Remember, if you want to be a part of the one of the biggest sailing series in the club but haven’t got a boat yet, then look to beg or borrow what you can before May! I will be looking for parent volunteers to help set up a rota of duties to be shared by all during the TOPS series; these duties will include race officer, beach duties (to include launching and recovery), additional guard boat cover if and when required and additional helpers for the coaching sessions.

If you have any queries then please do not hesitate to find me at the club or e-mail me.

Hope to see you all out on the water Johnno Gillies jpgillies@johnsongillies.co.uk

The Laser fleet is a part of the slow monohull fleet, which includes the Mirrors, Cadets, Topazes and Solos.

There is a close group of five or more of us sailing each week. Any members wishing to spend more time out on the water, please contact me as there is a club laser available if needed.

This invitation is on offer to all interested members who would like to become part of the Laser fleet but do not have a boat.

Call Nick on 07791 682001

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“The Gospel According To Spratty” Hi all.

Before I start, I would just like to thank Barry for the last four years. Without his enthusiasm, the class would probably not have grown as it has done. Right, now that’s the creeping bit over with, now let me begin.

It is great to see such a strong start to the seaso n, most races have been seeing ten or more boats out. We have also seen various winners, with Barry taking two wins in the first two races. That’s him shot his bolt, then.

We have also seen young Alex Warrington whop us all in one race, as well as a couple of the old guard gettin g their names up in lights. Well done Brian and Tony, creeping up the fleet. Personally, I have had a mixed start to my season, going from last to second from last to third from last; still hopefully, it can only get better.

At the time of going to press we have now got three, maybe four new owners, so I would like to welco me Allen Burrell and Paul Beasley (The Rubble brothers) who are now the proud owners of Scruffy; Dom And Toby Spell er (that boat’s going to need more buoyancy) who now own Katie; and Ian “Steve Sandhopper is my guru” Homan who purchased April Fool.

Now, this still leaves us with two boats to sell, so if anybody wants to come and have a go, please contact myse lf or Rupert and we will put you in touch with those looking for a crew/helm.

At the end of the spring series we should have enough information to try and start up a mentoring system . The aim of this will be to help those who want to get furth er up the fleet. Our only problem is going to be who we get to mentor Barry! If any of you fellow Sandhopper folks do want to be involved in this, please let me know .

That’s it for now. I know it is short, and it is unus ual that I have not got more to say, but that can only be good for you all. Come and join us!

Regards, and good sailing Spratty

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Check out our videos! www.youtube.com/sandhopper39

e ‘Other Half’ ” “A few lines from th rth so far who has ventured fo ne yo er ev this were to ks an Huge th end before writing ek we e th in r te wa the ns, despite adverse this year. Those on some superb conditio to ed at tre be to te fortuna in ed close competition forecasts, and enjoy ded on all sides by the sunshine surroun y derous clouds. Man threatening and thun a on the Sunday with came off the water with certainly those of us touch of sunburn pates! more aerodynamic ga rning up and havin It is always worth tu d often pessimistic an look. Forecasts are ve a crew for a even if you do not ha d can often be obtaine particular race, one rk, as I pa y slip, or the dingh from the top of the sion this year. ca oc e than one or m on lf yse m d un have fo indon and Mark sail with Martin Sw to ed r leg ivi pr en be I have e to thank them fo is year and would lik th r e; fa tin so es w nd cre cla as ly Shields is hard viously the intention Ob e. e m th th to wi ks an up th putting e class is, so them how great th is a I was trying to show great results, as this ch su ring we had su en r g fo kin et ta fle e on th rest of teetering w sailors and those ne ng it cti in, tra ve at is th of y in sure wa continue ppers! If you could ho nd Sa o int e ng the plu eciated! would be much appr d the class the Sandhopper an of s tie ali qu ing ar de ree boats Testament to the en hy, where the first th op Tr let nt Ya e th of has to be the finish following 2 hours 18 a 23 second spread, in th wi e ging from lin e th d crosse ore importantly, jud m s ap rh pe d, an g minutes of close racin had a fantastic bosh terwards, everyone af r e ba e th in er nt the ba ir of porpoises on th e even spotting a pa m so y, ar tu es e th around . way back from Kent st drought I can middle of the wette e th d in e ar we gh Althou th gentle breezes an es of sunny days wi tim e od se go So e . th us r, on be up remem rely nearly su e ar ts se n su e th drinks on the deck as in the bar!

- and afterwards, up on so r te wa e th on you Cheers!

Rupert

Surf’s up - even when the tide’s out www.tbyc.org 23

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Have a safe, sunny sailing summer - we’ll be back in early autumn with more of your boating adventures!