Issue 10 Spring/Summer 2012

Club Championships Laser Open Open Day

News, views & information from Weir Wood Sailing Club

Photo: "Championship Winners Rob and Katie Burridge"

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Commodore’s Cosy Chat Simon Davis

As I write it is absolutely pouring down with rain and seems to have been doing so for at least 2 weeks. Yet three weeks ago we were in full drought mode, the reservoir was at significantly reduced levels (below 50%) and there were concerns as to whether we would actually get on the water at all later in the summer. This morning I have been down to the Club clearing the drains around the main gate, petrol store and the one Boat Park land drain, none of which are man enough for the job! In the last 2 weeks the water is up around 3 vertical feet with far more to come and horizontally the ‘beaches’ have all but disappeared and the water is again lapping against the walls below the Race Hut. Memories of 1976 are slowly ebbing away.

I was out over the weekend cleaning out some of the land drains in the Boat Park. It was a perfect case of the law of unintended consequences as in rodding a main drain the subsidiary drain taking the water to the reservoir blocked with silt and twigs etc. This has now flooded the main slip! At least the Boat Park might start to dry out now.

Whether or not this means we are in the clear is in the lap of the Gods but, with the trees all now coming into leaf, it means that the Reservoir will be looking utterly wonderful when we do eventually seem some sun and blue sky. Late Spring always harbingers the start of Wednesday evening sailing which has given me some of my greatest Weir Wood experiences over the years. For those of you who haven’t tried it and I know it is difficult for some to get down to, it is well worth the effort. There’s always good racing although the winds can be very light so that means the cruising is exceptional. There is always a good value quality meal available in the Clubhouse cooked by members so all proceeds go to the Club and the atmosphere is always brilliant. If you haven’t tried it I can heartily recommend it.

The end of April saw our Laser Open and despite little or no promotion we ended up with 28 boats. The really

outstanding thing about this was the 6 4.7’s we had in attendance. 5 were Weir Wood sailors who are progressing very quickly though the ranks and it is great to see them on the water for normal racing and for Opens. It is brilliant and I can only hope that we get even more as time goes on. This is the beginning of the payback for all the work put in by so many people in the Youth groups over the last few years and the commitment the Club has made to development. David Giles will be telling you more about the Open so I won’t dwell on it further here except to say that Opens and our representation in them countrywide are an important part of getting the Club’s name known better and more widely.

For those of you who do not know how the Laser 'progression'works different rigs were designed for differing weights so that, using the same hull, a sailor could progress through the ranks as they grew. So our kids start with a 4.7 metre rig with a mast that is stepped back to balance the centre of effort. As their weight goes up as they grow they move to a 'Radial' rig. This is an intermediate sail of 5.76 metres and the radial refers to the way the sail is cut from the clew. The Standard rig is 7.06 metres.

Talking of those latter points of getting the Club better known we are coming off the back of our 2012 Open Day in early May. It was always going to difficult to match last year’s huge success where we saw over 450 people come through the gates, 188 took test sails and we signed up 14 family members. We had fantastic weather and there were other distorting factors and at 9am last Saturday with a freezing cold and a very sharp North Easterly blowing rain horizontally across the water I was thinking couldn’t I call the whole thing off and go back to my bed! Ultimately we had more than 100 people through the gates and Peter and Glynis Hargreaves and their wonderful team took 70 people out – far more than I had anticipated. The one advantage on a day such as that you tend to only get the highly committed coming down and we signed up three families on the day and I expect many more in the forthcoming weeks.

You will remember that it was 3 days after that amazing Open Day in 2011 that we were broken into for the first time and we lost all our brand new outboards. We can but hope that the same thing doesn’t happen again but your Club has expended much effort and money to prevent it. The latest addition has been the Stockade just past the main Club

J Simon Davis

Dates at a GlanceSailing Events

9th June Laser 2000 Open

5th August Enterprise Open

15th July RS 200 Open

29th & 30th September Optimist SE Zone Championships

Social and other Events 21st & 22nd July Sail for Gold Weekend

Write them in your diaries NOW

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slip. The idea behind this was to provide secure storage, off the water, for RIBs that we couldn’t get into the garages. I can’t say it blends in and it won’t stop a determined and resourceful gang of thieves but it will certainly make life harder for them and will deter the opportunists. It will also extend the lives of the RIBs and engines as they were deteriorating rather quickly on the buoys. It was started by a group of engineers and navvies on a Wednesday and was fully complete by the weekend without disruption to Club activities in anyway. By doing it ourselves we saved over £5,000 in construction costs! So my heartfelt thanks go out to John Chisnall, David Ramshaw, Chris Fyans and Dick Lankester for an absolutely sterling effort on every count.

I certainly don’t want to end on a sour note but I need to inform you that negotiations with our Landlords to obtain a long lease on terms acceptable to us have run into the sand somewhat. We have until 2015 to come to an agreement and even then we have rights to extend and there is no suggestion that the Landlords don’t want us off the water so there is no short term existential threat to the Club. But the existing Lease terms work very much against us in the current environment and will do so in almost any reasonable projection for the future. We are, therefore, trying to achieve an outcome that will allow us to flourish without that being to the detriment of our Landlords. The net outcome of all this is that we have had to delay our plans to redevelop the Clubhouse. This is unfortunate but a price worth paying to ensure an equitable outcome to the negotiations.

Lastly and far from least can I remind you about the ‘Sail for Gold Regatta’ coming up on the 21st and 22nd of July – immediately before the Olympics. The aim of this is to get as many boats on our beautiful reservoir as we can. There will be ‘buddy’ racing (where more experience sailors work as a team mentoring and racing with less experienced sailors in the Club), a band playing and food laid on the Saturday with racing and a BBQ at lunchtime on the Sunday. I will be writing to all of you with more details and a formal invitation later this month but please put this weekend in your diaries well in advance.

STOP PRESS

We are delighted to announce that Helena Lucas has been selected for the GBR Paralympic squad in the 2.4m. Helena was a member of WWSC and Crawley Mariners from the age of 12 and her parents have been long standing members of the club.

Our commiserations go to Megan Pascoe (and her family of course) for not making it this time. Megan says on her blog:

“I found out on Saturday that I have not been selected for the 2012 Games. I will still keep sailing my 2.4 this year and there are still some big events to win. My goal for the year is to go to the Open Worlds in September and get a good result. It should be a good summer of sailing at home and abroad and I wish all our Paralympians the greatest success.”

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Sailing Secretary’s Scribblings

David Giles

At the beginning of my Sailing Secretaries Scribblings in the last news letter I referred to how lucky we had been with the weather, moderate south westerly winds and mild with the only cloud on the horizon (or lack of it) being the shortage of rain causing the water level to drop. Sadly this was a case of speaking too soon as since then the wind failed us on several occasions and a cold snap caused the lake to freeze over in early February. The rains continue to fail and for the first time that I can remember the lake is far from full in early April.

Despite this there has been a busy racing programme going on. The Laser Christmas Cracker was run again this year. It started just after Christmas and ran until March. The sea clubs that shut down over this period are invited to join us at very favourable rates and the home fleet is not diluted by open meetings commitments. The result of this has again been a large Sunday morning turn out of lasers giving great one design racing. Congratulations to Dave Binding for coming out on top at the end of the three month series.

Weir Wood held its annual club championships on Sunday 25th March. We were again blessed by favourable weather, almost unbroken sunshine and a light to moderate south easterly wind. It was pleasing to see entries

were again up on last year with 56 members signing on to compete. Congratulations to Rob and Katy Burridge for again winning overall in their Laser 2000. There is a full report later in the magazine. The Club Championships were used to raise funds for the RNLI with an entry fee of £5.00 per competitor. It was very pleasing to be able to present the RNLI with a cheque for £240.00.

The Club ran its first open Meeting of the season with the RS 500’s holding a training day on Saturday 24th March and an Open meeting on Sunday 25th. Although there was only a small entry I was struck by how much enthusiasm the competitors had. This was the first time the club has hosted an open meeting and shared the lake with normal club racing. It all seemed to work well and rather than limit the club racing on the Sunday mornings an open event takes place, for the smaller open meetings we host this will become the norm. The Enterprise fleet will be running their open meeting on a shared basis later in the season.

Every year Weir Wood sends a team to the Large Lakes Interclub. There are actually two interclub events; there is also a small lakes interclub event which we have seldom got involved in. This year Weir Wood sent a junior team to the Small Lakes interclub which was held at Tonbridge Sailing Club on Saturday 31st. March. With the effort the club puts in to training our youth sailors we were hopeful of

a good showing from them. The team duly delivered comfortably beating all the other junior teams at the event. Weir Wood took the first three places overall out of the fleet of 21 with Emma Baker being placed first, Zac Riley second and Katy Wood third. A little further down Fiona Harrington was placed 10th and Millie Hopkins 14th. This really was a great effort from our youth sailors and adds to the Large Lakes interclub victory they achieved in October last year.

As ever there is plenty of racing coming up at the club, all of which is displayed on the club race card that each member should have a copy of. One event that is not on the card is the Laser 2000 open that due to a change in Class Captain has been arranged late this year. The Laser 2000 open meeting will be held on Saturday 9th June. Many thanks to new Laser 2000 Class Captain Michael Ramus for sorting this out.

J David Giles

Hire Boat Fees

Please note that the Hire Fleet boat fees have increased from £5.00 to £10.00 per half day.

Web site calendar

Can we draw a couple of things to members’ attention? Firstly, the web site calendar. This appears on the web site top right hand side on the home page. It is there to record everything that is going on at the Club so that members are fully aware of our programme. Dick Lankester has volunteered to keep it up to date but in order to do so he must be told about events. So if something is being planned can you let Dick know and he will make the appropriate entry.

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Laser ramblingsOlly Bush

Two weeks of ice aside, it’s been a busy few months.  44 of you took part in the Christmas Cracker and I’m delighted to say that one of the visitors, Roddy Ley, has decided to make his stay permanent.  A very warm welcome to James Burnett who is also joining our ranks.

The Cracker was nail-bitingly close at the top, with the final results being:

Top youth: Thomas Chapman

Top visitor: David Goddard (just pipping Martin Walker)

So far in the early summer series, the running order is:

As you’ll have seen from David’s report, the open season is up and running.  This year, Simon Barrington has stepped up to take the chairmanship of the SE Laser area.  I’m sure we can expect a very slick series this year, so let’s try to support Mr B. 

Clearly still upset at not winning the Christmas Cracker (with ‘the dog ate my homework-like excuses), Mr Giles

Snr put in a near perfect performance in the first three races at Bough Beech to win at a canter.  He cunningly bunched all his mistakes, involving at least four capsizes by my reckoning, into a spectacular last race.  Having almost caught up with the leaders on the final lap, he put in one more for luck and promptly retired from the race (NB this is what happens when you try to overtake the Laser captain; especially with a cheeky and completely out of control attempt to get inside me at the leeward mark).  David Binding put in a commendable performance to get fourth overall, while Chris Fyans showed he learnt a thing or two down under with some very quick sailing in the last (windy) race.

Second up in the series was Chipstead, where the wind was less fickle than usual.  Perhaps this explains why a WWSC sailor won it this year for the first time for ages.  Or maybe it was because that sailor was – you guessed it – David Giles. 

At least David didn’t get it all his own way at Weir Wood.  This was a brilliant day’s sailing, with a NE wind building through the day and the race team of Martin and Julia Pascoe and Peter Meares did a fantastic job to get five races in with just the right time between races.  The numbers were a bit disappointing, but I was very impressed with the quality of the fleet, which made it a lot of fun.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I was completely spent and a little chilly

by the end of it, so Tracy and Ali’s curry seemed like a gift from above.   My other big takeaway was realising quite how well our 4.7 sailors are progressing.  They have been training all winter and it looks like it’s really paying off.  David and Verity certainly managed to keep their boats more stable than I did!

Next up in the series are Arun (12th May) and Lancing (27th May).  Hope to see lots of you there. 

Meanwhile our Masters have been getting around, with Chris Fyans flying the flag down under, plans being made for next year’s worlds in the Middle East (which Jon Emmet expects to attend) and Neil Peters doing his best to shipwreck my Mum of all people on a yachting course. 

Olly

J Olly Bush1. David B2. David Giles3. Pete Y

1. Geoff2. HRH Mr Commodore3. Bill

WWSC Committee“Snippets”

New Sailing RecordThe Guinness Book of Records has a new sailing record. At the Optimist World Championships at Riva, Lake Garda a record 1055 boats raced making it the largest single class regatta ever!

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Cruising NotesMike Summers

We enjoyed a well attended meeting in February at the Chequers in Forest Row.  Some important outcomes were a sharing of ideas for destinations for day trips, some dates for the diary and some discussion about options for trips entailing two (or more) days away.   If you were unable to come to the meeting but have some burning thoughts or wishes, please let me know. As you will see below, we want to cater for everyone whether you would like to tow your boat somewhere else or to use the Reservoir better. 

Here’s what we enjoyed last year:

• TonyCarterandRichardWilliamsandcrewstoNewtownCreekontheIsle of Wight

• TonyCarter,RichardWilliams,ChrisBrunsdon,StuartAdamsandMartin Cragg and crews (5 boats!) to Wooton Creek on the Isle of Wight

• Tony Carter,StuartAdamsandMikeSummersandcrewstoBeaulieuRiver

• RichardWilliamsandTonyForbatandcrewsinChichesterHarbour

• MartinCraggandPeterDeemingtotheMedwayatChatham

This was a great start to the Cruising Section and all present confirmed that more like that would be great in 2012. Tony confirmed that we would be able to use Warsash Sailing Club facilities, although there is a public slip so that we can always use that in the event of a big Club event coinciding with our ambitions.

We chatted about using the Reservoir for Cruising type events for those who do not wish to tow their boats long distances or perhaps have boats that would not be suitable for open water use.  Most of those at the meeting were willing and interested in towing their boats to new water but we should be catering for the wishes of those who want to use the reservoir for cruising activities and I would like to arrange a further meeting with those who do not want to tow their boats specifically to address this issue.

We talked about longer trips and overnight stays. Clearly not everyone is interested in this but a number of suggestions were made that might allow a trip of more than one day, but strong interest was expressed in arrangements that include a proper bed and a shower at the end of each day.

• Tom HaddonsuggestedtheWaveneyCentrehttp://www.waveneyrivercentre.co.uk/,alsoColdhamHallSailingClub http://www.coldhamhallsailingclub.co.uk/andBourneEndattheUpperThamesSailingClubhttp://www.utsc.org.uk/. All of these venues feature enclosed water (lakes and rivers) and there has been enthusiastic response to Tom’s enquiries.

• TomalsosuggestedWaltononThames,whichisonly1hourawayandwherethereisapublicslipway.

• RayJoneshassuggestedhiringaBroadsyachtsothatwedonothavetotowourownboatstotheBroads(whichcouldbe a3½hourjourneythroughsomeoftheslowerroads)http://www.huntersyard.co.uk/index.html

• Rayalsosuggested(afterthemeetingclosed)thatBawdseyQuaySailingCentrehttp://bawdseyquay.co.uk/ welcome/4534013008 wouldbeworthalookwithBawdseyManorofferinggroupaccommodation http://www.bawdseymanor.co.uk/default.asp?page=11

• RayalsosuggestedCalshotWatersportsalthoughnotesthat thetemporarymembership necessarytomakeuseofthe facilitiesisabitpriceyhttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/calshot.htm

• RaysuggestedsailingonRutlandWater,wheretherearebunkroomsattheclubhouseandaverylargeexpanseofwater (largest man-made reservoir in the country) which is about 2½ hours away by motorway.

• (Notsurewho)suggestedthatHaylingIslandSailingClubhasPortacabinstyleaccommodationavailable.

• InterestwasalsoexpressedatsailinginPooleHarbourusingRockleyParkasabasehttp://camping.uk-directory.com/ Rockley_Park_Holiday_Park_267.php although this is a holiday park and gets very busy in the summer.

• RichardWilliamshasjustboughtapropertyatWootonCreekontheIsleofWightwithplentyofspacetocamp,itis above the Low Tide mark, and therefore dries, so boats can take the ground (ideal for someone wanting to camp on his boat!).

• TonyCarter istheproudnewownerofa32footyachtbasedatWarsash. TonysuggestedthathecouldofferMothership facilities on an expedition in the Solent (ie to Richard's pad in Wooton Creek).

J Mike Summers

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Some weekend dates were chosen for Cruising Section expeditions. These avoid Bank Holidays as it was generally agreed that these are often not the best time from the point of view of family arrangements. Note that I have not identified the Saturday or Sunday, just the weekend so there is a little bit of flexibility. The idea is to get these dates into your diaries (I will put them onto the Website) so that everyone has the opportunity to plan to join us, no more “if only I’d had more notice…”  I will be checking out the tides in the Solent and will identify which might be best.

19/20May

3/24June

18/19August

8/9September 

 In terms of other ideas for events in the year

• PeterDeemingsaysthattheRoundtheIsleofSheppeyraceisheldonthefirstweekendinSeptemberandisgreatfun.

• Post-meetingnote ; IwouldliketocompeteinthethreeRiversRaceontheBroadsoneyear(Icannotmakeitthisyear) One to plan ahead for.

Ray suggested that we could hold evening clubhouse sessions when a topic could be discussed eg. Tide predictions, Pilotage, Navigation and setting a course to allow for tide and leeway. I think this is a really good idea as the planning of a passage and important issues of safety and boat preparation could be included.

Returning to the Dates for Your Diary section, would anyone like to volunteer to take on the organization of one (or more) of the expeditions? Generally it entails no more than acting as the communications hub to make sure everyone knows where to go and when to be there. With some more ambitious plans afoot, ie a Broads trip, it may involve a bit more. I would like to widen the circle of those of us organizing events to share the fun and the responsibility.  Your thoughts please.

House and Grounds NewsJohn Chisnall

We have continued to try and resolve out various electrical anomalies and believe we have just about sorted them out. The changing room heaters and club room heaters should all be working fully automatically by the time you read this. If they don’t come on for any reason they can be overridden by the switches in the lobby. But if you do operate these please make sure you switch them off when the day is over and please let me know that there has been a malfunction. Only that way can I get things fixed.

We have put foundations in for the new Oppy Portacabin and that should be installed sometime over the next month or so. This will give a useful weatherproof facility for teaching, briefing, training, etc of the youngsters rather than have them standing about in bad weather. No doubt they will want to put their own stamp on the building in due course.

The Power Boat compound has been completed (see later article in this Edition) and a new winch cover fitted.

Plans are progressing for a kitchen refurbishment and we expect to be able to undertake this in the next few months.

We are still looking for a volunteer to take on the House and grounds role. If you feel you can help contact any committee member or myself.

Do you have a Solo or Lightning dinghy you would like to sell to a club member?

‘Almost’ any condition considered.

Please contact Ernie Hatton-Tel 01342 314008 orEmail- hattonea@btinternet.comI am at the club most Sundays sailing RS400 – 535

wanted

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Introducing our new Social Secretary: Christine FlemingChristine Fleming

To all the members I have not met yet and do not know your name “Welcome”. To all the members I have met and know your name, it is so good to be back, to all the members I have met and for some reason cannot remember your name please tell me.......or write it on your forehead on a post it note! Oh , and my name is Christine Fleming. In the early days I hired all the boats in the fleet (one at a time) in an effort to learn as much as I could. I learnt to concentrate my rigging skills to one boat. Those of you who saw me sail recently will know that these skills are somewhat rusty.

Not sure how people would describe me, but probably the slightly scatty butterfly mind woman with reddish curly hair who sails her blue enterprise if she's brave enough and crewed for Dick Lancaster on a Sunday morning and learnt an awful lot.(basically that I need to know a lot more about sailing)

Being part of a Club of likeminded people who love sailing is a great experience. Let's make this year the best yet. I know how busy lives are and will try and plan ahead as much as I can so that the events the Club does put on everyone can enjoy. Some say you cannot please all the people all of the time. I look upon Weir Wood as a huge family from the tiniest baby to the eldest member. We all should have a say in how our club is run. Without so many dedicated people already the club could not run. Good events and good fun for all take time planning and elbow grease. If you have any spare time to help this year be the best for sailing please come forward to help.

2012 for Wier Wood is going to be a good year. I look forward to seeing you on and off the water......and probably sometimes in it!

FarewellsEd

Club memberships are always dynamic with folk coming and going for all sorts of reasons. However, this year we say goodbye to some long term members. Steve Carr and Peter Gusterson has decided not to renew as their advancing years are interfering with their athletic spirits. Steve looked after our House and Grounds for about 5 years. He sailed a Wanderer and a Flying 15. We shall miss his cheerful demeanour and his wonderful sense of humour. Peter was a stalwart on Saturday afternoons and Wednesday evenings sailing his Super Nova. We will miss his quiet, considerate and friendly companionship. He wrote to our membership secretary:

“Dear Ian,

Thank you for sending me WWSC membership renewal forms. I am writing to let you know that I will not be renewing my membership. It has been a hard decision for me but I have come to the conclusion that being as I am, small and 77 years old, single handed dinghy racing is now doing me more harm than good.

I have had many years of pleasure as a WWSC member sailing mostly Saturdays and Wednesdays and I wish to thank the committee members past and present for their dedication which has made the club the excellent club that it is.

I am due to do the OOD duty on Sunday 25'h March, and this will give me the opportunity to say farewell to fellow sailors.

Yours sincerely

Peter Gusterson”

Andy Genders and The Greenfields have also decided not to renew. Andy has been plagued with a troublesome back for some considerable time and this has seriously interfered with his ability to sail. Mark and Gill have been frustrated with low water levels and consequent lack of sailing as it has proved impossible to launch their Flying 15. They have bought a “Quarter Tonner” and are planning to race her on the sea. We hope you will stay in touch and that we may still enjoy Gill’s cooking at Cobnor.

J Christine Fleming

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Club Championships25th March 2012Rob Burridge reports.

Rob Burridge

54 boats competed in the 2012 championship in beautiful blue sky conditions with a good force 2-3 breeze blowing off the dam.

A poor start to the 2012 sailing caused by lack of wind and water, meant that many of those taking part had hardly been in the boat in recent months.

However, the prospect of good wind and competition created a large turnout.

The format consisted of two morning handicap races, with one of them being discarded, followed by a pursuit race that had to be counted in the overall score.

Martin and Julie Pascoe took on the role of Race Team and proceeded to use the whole of the reservoir.

The start to race 1 was held in the middle of the reservoir with a line that stretched most of the way across. The line was square to the average shifty wind and enabled a clean start for the large fleet.

The front of the fleet soon turned into a battle between the fast RS boats with Jon Holroyd (RS100) changing positions with Matt & Annabel Larkin (RS500) and Colin & Tony Prince (RS400), although the chasing pack of slower boats were never far behind. As the wind did its usual Weir Wood thing of shifting wildly, there were numerous place changes going on, and at the end Rob & Katie Burridge (Laser 2000) took victory on handicap followed by Holroyd, Larkin and Prince.

The Laser battle was as always close, and the Lasers with their modified handicap took the rest of the top 10 places with Dave Binding beating David Giles into 5th and 6th places respectively.

Handicap race 2 was similar to race 1 although Jon Holroyd managed to break away far enough at the front to take victory on handicap.

He was followed in 2nd on handicap by David Giles in the Laser and Ramshaw in the Laser in 3rd.

The Burridges had struggled initially to get clear air and had to settle for 4th.

The close and ever changing positions of the racing was borne out in the results with a number of sailors posting top 10 positions in one race only to be in the midfield in the other race.

The afternoon pursuit race started on time, in a slightly increased breeze, with the lone Oppy setting off while most

were still queuing for lunch.

The race team had managed to use every mark on the lake (except 9 which was probably high and dry anyway), with a series of downwind reaches of varying angles, followed by a longbeatbacktothestart/finisharea.

Once everybody had started, all eyes were on the huge gap between the Oppy and the Cherub. The increased wind turned out to be both a blessing and a hinderance to the faster chasing boats as they managed to start planing on the downwind legs, but then could not hold spinnakers on the tighter reaches.

The Burridges in the Laser 2000 were managing to hold the spinnaker most of the time, and by halfway, had passed all the slower boats and had the Oppy in sight.

As time ticked by it became clear that Holroyd was leading the chasing pack of fast boats but he was not having a clean race as he struggled to pass the slower boats on the tighter reaches.

Just when it looked like the finish was going to be really close between Holroyd and Burridge (both having counted a 1st in the morning), the RS100 went for a quick dip while trying to hold the spinnaker on a tight reach. This was a fate that also befell the Cherub of Paul & Peter Jenkins who were flying in the increased wind until their chase came to a watery end.

Also having broken away from the pack was the RS200 of Ramshaw and Harrington, closely followed by Matt Giles and Fiona Harrington in another RS200.

Both of these boats had improving scorelines during the day, and their consistency would be rewarded with 3rd overall fortheyoungteamofGiles/Harrington,and5thoverallforRamshaw/Harrington.

Once again the leading Lasers were doing well but could not match the speed of the spinnaker boats on the long downwind legs, and Dave Binding finished 7th to give him 4th overall. 

At the finish of the pursuit race the Laser 2000 remained in front with Holroyd having to settle for 3rd behind the RS200 thanks to his quick dip.

This left Holroyd and Burridge tied on points but with Rob & Katie Burridge taking victory once the discard came into play.

The prize giving was well attended with prizes being given out for excellent performances in the various categories of youth, master, lady, loving couples and family.

Everybody agreed that the event had been an excellent days sailing with near perfect conditions and well run racing followed by quick results. Thanks to the race team of Martin and Julie Pascoe supported by Peter Meares.

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Congratulations Rob and Katie for winning and also to Rob for winning the event for 5 times; another first.

AND the Duckhams Trophy:DaveMasoninaFireballformissingtheStart/Finishlinedespite it being almost as wide as the lake!

K 2nd Place Jon Holroyd

Results

1st Rob and Katie Burridge Laser 2000

2nd Jon Holroyde RS 100

3rd Matt Giles and Fiona Harrington RS 200

Family Trophy

The Prince Brothers RS 400

Loving Trophy

Matt and Annabel Larkin RS 500

Master Helm

Dave Binding Laser

Lady Helm

Verity Hopkins Laser radial

Youth Helm

Verity Hopkins Laser radial

A Loving Cup Winners Matt and Annabel

A Duckhams Dave S 4.7 Winner David Haw

K 3rd Place Matt and Fiona

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Weir Wood Laser Open 2012David Giles

Weir Wood held its annual Laser Open on Saturday 28th April. The North Easterly wind started the day at about 10 knots but steadily increased to 20 knots plus by the afternoon with a peak gust of 31knots being recorded. Race Officers Martin Pascoe and Peter Mears started first race punctually with a slight bias to the pin end of the start line. Quickest away was Steve McQueen from Itchenor Sailing club but he was pressed by David Binding and David Giles both from Weir Wood. Both these two took the lead for a spell but McQueen fought back to take the winners gun with Field from Chipstead sneaking through at the end to take second. 

Race two again saw a slight port hand bias but soon after the start a large starboard shift help those who started at the committee boat establish a commanding lead. The two that most gained from the shift were McQueen and Bedell from Queen Mary Sailing Club. They established a large lead whilst battling it out amongst themselves. In the end McQueen came out on top giving him his second bullet of the day. 

During lunch the wind steadily built and the fleet were greeted by white caps and rain squalls as they arrived at the start area for the three back to back races. It was a closely fought affair at the first buoy but soon after Graham Lund from Alderburgh sailing club broke well clear and was never challenged again. 

With the wind increasing steadily race 4 saw heavy wind specialist Simon Barrington from Weir Wood Sailing club start to dominate. Giles held an early lead closely followed by Barrington and Lund. On the final upwind leg Barrington powered through into the lead with Lund taking over second approaching the windward buoy. Despite some rock and rolling in the squalls downwind this remained the finishing order.

The final race saw Giles establish an early lead but again Barrington was close behind and started to narrow the gap particularly upwind. These two fought it out until the final upwind leg when Barrington broke clear and by the end finished with a healthy lead from Giles and Lund who had closed up towards the end of the race.

Overall Results

1st Simon Barrington

2nd Graham Lund

3rd David Giles

1st Radial Simon Davis

1st 4.7 David Haw

J Laser Open

J Laser Open Winner Simon Barrington

K Master Helm Binding

A Barrington in actionA A too relaxed Fleet Captain

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Introducing the Laser 2000Fleet Captain

Mike Ramus

Having reluctantly accepted the request to become Laser 2000 Fleet Captain  ( a very grand title  suitable for an admiral in the landlocked Ruritania.)  I was asked to introduce myself and give a summary of my background and sailing experience.  I have been sailing on and off for the last 50 years.  Most of my experience dates from before the birth of many of our club sailors, and as far as they are concerned a little after the building of Stone Henge.

I received my Premiere Etage in the sixties  for learning to sail  dinghies off the beach through  surf in Normandy without a rudder or centerboard.  Ten years later I joined the Welsh Harp in north London and raced GP14’s.  I was the Sailing Secretary of  BTYC,one  of the smaller clubs  on that  lake  and  used to race intensely at the open, away and world meetings organised by the much  larger Wembley SC. All the clubs had large GP fleets. However, both my concentration and usefulness was restricted, as in gales my knee kept dislocating. In addition to the usual races at BTYC we would have Ladies races, A and  B  fleets, anything really to spread the prizes through the fleet and to get people moving between boats  and clubs. As Sailing Secretary the political activity off the water was just as intense including amongst other things opening up the yacht club to private members, introducing windsurfers to the lake, financing the rebuilding of a burnt down club, etc.

When our three children arrived I was happy to move on as I had neither had the time nor money to pursue sailing. Every summer we would take the children kayaking down the 30 kilometers of rapids on the Ardeche in France. People thought it was

physically too hard and technical but the kids were so young and light they would just float on the bubbles of otherwise very tricky overfalls whilst I would sink.

 As the kids moved on I joined the  HSBC Yacht club and The Little Ship Clubin Central London. My knowledge of sail trim and racing rules was quite handy in these fleets. Ironically I did not realise that there had been a major revamp in the rules in my absence. Luckily no-one else knew either!  We would race yachts in Scotland and Mermaids in The Solent.  Consequently I was invited to race in the Caribbean and Bermuda. Additionally   HSBC allowed me time to teach Army Cadets and young Offenders Windsurfing in Devon. My colleagues were speechless; not what they had in mind as punishment for young criminals. Interesting to observe that out of uniform you could not tell the Cadets and criminals apart. The Colonels tell me that the young offenders are now doing well. Perhaps coping with  freezing water, teaches people self  respect !

My daughter Emily got the sailing bug at university, so six years ago we joined Weir Wood and purchased a Laser 2000. Our planned racing never took off as life and injuries interfered. Last year I was recovering from a shoulder operation and this year Emily became Mrs Randall. This was when I was asked to become L2K fleet captain. The good news was that I was explicitly assured that I would not have to organise The Open Meeting at WWSC, something totally outside my experience of sailing at the back of the fleet. The bad news is that after Emily's wedding,  I realised that no one else was organising it either. So here I am,,   yet again in the deep end, feeling my way.

I have been asked to outline how I would develop the job as Laser 2000 Fleet Captain.   I have always thought

that preserving the status quo was my primary concern. In our case the great work Andrew as Fleet captain, Tim and Rob as enthusiasts extraordinaire and Dil encouraging race training for the whole fleet has been outstanding.  This is a difficult act to follow. Currently the most important item is the L2K open on the 9th June. Following the interest shown for this event we will have a better idea of how best to develop ideas for later in the year. Of course we still have the  Cruising  Section, the  Open meetings organised by the L2K Association and Robin is planning to reset a date to take a group of dinghies around The Isle of Wight, postponed from April  because of bad weather .

 I look forward to your feedback; until then happy sailing.

Michael Ramus

Laser 2000 Fleet Captain.

J Mike Ramus L2K Fleet Captain

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The Laser 2000 Training Weekend in Weymouth April 21-22

Dave and Debbie Russell

It was one of the best sailing weekends that we've done! All that close quarters stuff around starts and short legs with lots of mark rounding was great fun with regular gybes and tacks to test everything from boat trim to hoisting and lowering the genni more effectively. Rolling starts at 3 minute intervals, with a one-lap race every three, is excellent for starting practice particularly with the line bias changing. We were very pleased with our successful port end start - the joy of seeing the other sailors faces as we steamed ahead on a port tack past the fleet! The others decided this was a good plan after our maiden flight! The dream of doing it in a real race is still there! Peter Barton, the coach was always keen to know what our plan was, and did it work .......... Not sure we always made a plan and kept to it but it made us think if nothing else.

The wind changed from a gentle force 3 with blue skies on Saturday morning to a very gusty force silly on the Sunday with black clouds rapidly covering the grey rain-clouds - squalls or not we went out - with one exception when we all decided to watch it from the galley and have an extended tea break. We only had two capsizes, but managed to demonstrate that it is possible to turtle a boat with a mast-float fitted (twin-tube type). (Apologies from the helm to the crew for standing on her head in the process!)

Many thanks to our coach Peter and the other participants for making it such a rewarding and enjoyable weekend. It made us realise what an amazing centre the Olympic sailors have to play in - I reckon we might be going next year - do join us.

Photos will appear in the 2000 website at some stage.

Bon Voyage to Sasha GhansamEd

Sasha moves on from Weir Wood at least for the summer. She has gone to join Rockley Water Sports at Lac Biscarrosse, located between Bordeaux and Biarritz.

Sasha started sailing at 6 years old with the Ed (her grandad) in his Enterprise. She joined Oppy Club as soon as she was able and came through Oppies with her boat “Red Hot”. She went on to join the Youth Group and qualified as an assistant instructor at 14. She also did the Power Boat Courses.

After GCSE’s she went to Plumpton College to do the Outdoor Adventure Sports Course. If you are looking for a career in the Outdoor Life this provides a very exciting foundation. The course covers cycling, canoeing, kayaking, climbing, mountain walking, skiing and sailing of course. It also covers all the necessary supporting skills such as fitness, nutrition, sports management, etc.

During her year she has climbed and walked in Scotland and North Wales including being involved in a mountain rescue when one of the group broke a tendon in her ankle. (“The helicopter wash ruined my hair!). A group of them kayaked down the river Wye over several days being completely self sufficient in food and bivouacking overnight under the kayaks.

Plumpton work closely with Rockleys and Sasha did her Instructors Course with them at Poole following it up with a Power Boat sea endorsement at Sovereign Harbour.

Just before starting the Plumpton year she went on a 6

week expedition to Madagascar with”World Challenge”. This included several weeks trekking across the interior mountains and a week helping build a school. As with others of our youth who have done similar things she had to work and save up the £4000.00 to pay for the trip.

Good luck, Sasha, with your next adventure and we look to hearing how you got on through the summer.

Commiserations to her mum who shed buckets of tears for several days after she went. Many of us can assure you that these absences are only temporary and she will come back, and back, and back ....................................!

For information about the course at Plumpton go towww.plumpton.ac.uk

K Sasha

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The Power Boat StockadeThe Ed on behalf of the Silver Seniors Construction Team

After great deliberations and consultations, much measuring of powerboats and trailers, research into colours and how to accommodate a fall across the site the stockade components were ordered. The Suppliers were instructed that as the site was remote they should make prior arrangements for delivery.

Some weeks later the Editor was returning from seeing a client in the Ashdown Forest up behind Weir Wood. Within a couple of miles from home he received a message from his wife saying that Patrick had phoned and that he had a delivery for WWSC. Could I meet him in about an hour? I had no idea who Patrick was so phoned the mobile number.

“I have your stockade stuff” he said

“Where are you?”

“Just reaching M25 junction with M23. I will be at Weir Wood in about 45 minutes”

“Have you got directions?”

“Yes. Should be OK”

“Well the thing to look out for is the School on the left and you turn into our lane about 50 metres after that”

“What kind of lane?”

“Single carriageway and a bit and you should be aware that it is covered with compacted snow and ice”

“That could be difficult. I’m in a 55 ton articulated truck!”

Frantic phone calls followed and the ever willing Vice Commodore Fyans sprang into action and agreed to meet him to save me a return journey. Sometime later I had a call from Chris who was holding his mobile phone up in the air asking if I could hear what was going on. There was a terrific racket which was the truck trying to negotiate our access.Eventually the load was dumped at the entrance to our car park.

Chris again on the phone:

“Can’t leave it here. It will be nicked for scrap”

“Can we put it on boat trailers and move it”

“Difficult. It’s on 2 pallets that weigh 650 kg each!”

To cut a long story short our intrepid Grand Master unpacked the lot and took it load by load down to the jetty single handed.

Another phone call:

“You have one hell of a mechano set here. There are over 1000 nuts and bolts and no sign of any instructions!”

Thus phase 1 was complete. All we had to do now was build it.

The construction team had impeccable credentials; a structural engineer, a planner, a marine engineer and a surveyor (of sorts).

We agreed after much debate that the key to the operation was the setting out. That meant right angles.

“Pythagoras will solve it. We need a 3, 4, 5 triangle”

K The First Blow

K Thank God the Gates Fit!

K Is it Vertical?

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One was duly found and set out. A one eyed martian could see that that it wasn’t square.

“The answer is root 2” someone volunteered.

“What’s root 2?”

“1.414216.......” I intoned remembering some piece of trivia from my professional past.

“Multiply the side by that and we get the diagonal”

“Can’t do that in my head”

“I have a calculator on my phone”

Using the calculator was problematical. How did you activate it, how could you read it in the bright sunlight etc etc. Eventually the magic diagonal was deduced: 11.63 metres. More scratching of heads and swinging of tape measures and pegs hammered in and we had perfection. (Anyone is welcome to go and check!)

All that was left was to agree how to deal with the ground levels. I had allowed for the structure to be horizontal all round. That proved problematic and our Marine Engineer intoned a litany for the next several hours: “Should have followed the contours!”

The rest was easy; auguring holes, pouring concrete, bolting rails and palings and 1250 bolts and nuts later the gates were hung. Only one thing left. Would the boats fit?

You have seen the result and as far as I know it all works fine. Folk have been trained in using the winch. Please note you must NOT operate it unless you have been trained. Not that it is difficult but it is an insurance requirement. And in case you haven’t noticed there is a new light weight winch cover fitted which cost the Editor 4 masonry drills and half his knuckles fitting the hinges.

Many thanks to Dick Lankester, David Ramshaw and Chris Fyans for their hard work, skill and patience.

Word quiz

What’s the connection between all these words?

1. Banana 4. Potato 7. Assess

2. Dresser 5. Revive

3. Grammar 6. Uneven

Answer: No, it is not that they all have at least 2 double letters. In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word.

J Only 400 more Palings to go!

Laser 1 Sail No 182608: fully XD rigged, Top Cover, Launching Trolley, Spar Carriers, Foil Bag.

Excellent condition. Used approx. 7 times in the last 14 months at Weir Wood only.

XD rigging updated late 2011 with new control lines. Hull & Foils in excellent condition.

Rolled Sail

Price: £2800.00 ono

Contact Andy Genders on 07584 438229 or email Andy@Agenders.com

LASER FOR SALE

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Open Day 5th MayEd

The day started very wet, cold and dismal and did not forebode well for a successful day. The temperature was 10 degrees lower than Christmas Day. It was so uninviting that we decided not to even attempt the usual BBQ leaving the honours to the Galley. This was in marked contrast to the previous two years when we have enjoyed exceptionally good weather.

But despite this visitors began to arrive around 11 am and we were soon taking folk out for a ride in the Wayfarers. The wind was lighter than forecast which was a good thing and all of those I spoke to who went for a sail said that they enjoyed it. By the end of the day we had given about 65 rides and signed up 3 new family members. A number of others went away with information and if the past is anything to go by a few of those will join. Several were keen on the training courses as an introduction to the club and sailing.

No doubt the success of the day was boosted by our new celebrity Commodore, now known as Simon the Celeb. His version of his radio triumph ran:

“The world of Celebrity is around the corner for your correspondent. I can see the day coming when we are going to have to employ Security guards simply to keep the hordes away. Not only have I been on Uckfield FM this morning but I’m booked on Meridian this evening! Annie has promised to listen and double the audience.

My new best mate, Jon the head honcho at Uckfield Global Radio Holdings was extremely complimentary about my appearance and suggested I had a perfect face for radio. I’ve now taken to wearing sunglasses to throw any groupies off the scent though it is pretty cloudy here and I managed to stub my toe painfully when I tripped over a kerb in the village.

Annie is worried it might go to my head.”

The photo clearly shows his “perfect face for Radio”

K Paul Handley and the K1

J Queing Up

Q Open Day Trial Sail

J The Perfect Face for Radio

A Julian gives it a go

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A bonus for Weir Wood members was a debut appearance of the K1 single handed keel boat and its designer, Paul Handley. Paul has designed a number of dinghies very well known to WWSC sailors including the RS Feva and Tera dinghies and the RS100. Apart from the K1 He has also designed other keel boats including the K6 and Mustang 30.

The K1 combines the sailing qualities of a small keelboat with the versatility of a dinghy to create a package which will appeal to keelboat and dinghy sailors alike, whether sailing just for fun or expert racers. It has a lifting keel with bulb weighing 60kg yet its all-up weight is little more than a conventional single-handed dinghy. The hull is constructed using the latest resin infusion techniques to minimise weight and the carbon spars are ultra light and responsive. The slender hull has little resistance when heeled so is quick and tacks through a very low angle. The jib is set on a self-tacking jib pole and the cockpit is deep and comfortable when sitting on the deck edge. The result is a boat that is an absolute joy to sail and guaranteed to provide effortless fast sailing and close tactical racing. One of our new members, Julian Legatt, gave a competent demo of its performance, sailing it for the first time.

Thanks from the Committee to all who turned up to help on the day both chatting to visitors and organising and helming

the sailing trips including all the young AI’s who helmed the boats. Vince White went home saying he was quite superfluous as there were more AI’s than visitors.

But the day did emphasise how important it is to bring new members to the club. We need a constant source if WWSC is to survive and in these difficult times that is going to take a lot of effort. It is not only sailing clubs that are finding life tough. Every sporting organisation is in the same boat (if you will pardon the pun). The committee are looking at more focused ways of generating new members but it is down to all of us to do our bit. So if you know of anyone who might remotely be interested in taking up the sport that we enthuse about and enjoy get them down and introduce them to WWSC, its facilities, training, youth, racing, friendly membership and one of the best sites to enjoy in south east England. And that includes our youth members who have a huge audience through their schools, their chums and their Sports faculties.

J Lars gives it a trial sail............. J ...........Oops! It sunk!

J Cruising on Open Day J Open Day and rather cold

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Vic Hopkins reports on a visit to Poole RNLI Headquarters

Vic Hopkins

Members came from all over England and Wales for a Branch and Guild RNLI weekend held at Poole in April this year for a guided tour of the Poole HQ which is situated on the edge of Holes Bay in Poole Harbour (Close to the ferry terminal).

What a wonderful place. Our room overlooked the bay. I hadn’t realised quite how extensive the sight was. The waterside frontage with the new Tamar class boat No 23 destined for Eastbourne. Before going to its home port it is to take part in the diamond jubilee pageant on the Thames. Each seat on these boats costs many thousands of pounds on account of their very high specification. These boats can experiences forces of up to 5G when coming off a wave at high speed.

Two floors up and we are overlooking the largest indoor survival pool in the UK; 25m long, 12 m wide and 8 m deep with an overhead gantry crane with a 4m freeboard from the water.

Next came the hard bit: a Dorset cream tea in a delightful restaurant full of delicious food. We enjoyed a quiz that evening where we didn’t disgrace ourselves with a second place only one and a half points behind the winners.

Saturday was another tour, first of the Lifeboat simulator. I was put in the coxswain’s seat with another of our group as pilot. Armed with throttles and wheel the simulator started. It was good that it only lasted 2 minutes as I could see some very sick people around me. There were big seas then ships ahead. Having safely negotiated these my pilot said “22 knots” and we headed off into fog and then snow. What was next in store for me? A submarine!

After this amazing experience we went back to the survival pool where in a darkened room there was a lifeboat in the middle of the pool with the overhead crane hooked onto the boat which was also tethered fore and aft. Three lifeboat men jumped into the pool from the upper floor (about 5 metres) dressed in their survival suits. They climbed on board the boat, all lights were extinguished and the engines started. A storm was coming and the waves in the pool reached about one and a half metres high. Blowers on the side of the pool simulated the wind and hoses gave the spray. They were even able to simulate thunder and lightning. The crane then hoisted the boat over into a capsize. Once the boat was was inverted the engines stopped. These engines are waterproof. The lifeboat men came out one by one tapping on the hull to rell the others still underneath that they were safe. When all three of the crew were out the crane was unhooked and they made their way aft. A rope was pulled at the stern of the boat which inflated a huge buoyancy bag. This bag pushed the rear end of the boat up and as it came up it self-righted. The crew climbed back on board between the engines where there was a step and a strop to assist them in climbing on board. The engines were then restarted.

Following this we went outside onto the balcony to watch an operational team carry out a man overboard exercise in open water. The cox then drove the boat into a small area surrounded by pontoons. He then proceeded to turn the boat through 360 degrees with a clearance of no more than 12 inches using only the throttles (very slick!). He finally drove the boat onto sponsons which took it out of the water.

In the afternoon we had a question and answer session with some of the lifeguards. In the evening before dinner the Lifeboat choir sang to us. We returned home the next morning after a sustaining breakfast.

Vic Hopkins

We continue to support the RNLI throughout the year including donations in the Lifeboat box in the club house which recently raised £12.55 when emptied and the RNLI continue to be grateful for our contributions.

Ed

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ANTICIPATING AND CELEBRATINGTHE OLYMPICS

SAIL FOR GOLDREGATTA WEEKEND

21ST AND 22ND JULY

A WEEKEND OF SAILING, ENTERTAINMENT, FUN AND FOOD

FOR EVERYONE

PUT IT IN YOUR DIARIES NOW

WE WANT EVERYONE THERE

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Chris Hopkins

Weir Wood SC Youth Report Spring 2012

It doesn’t seem 5 minutes ago that we heaved a sigh of relief as we packed up at the end of the 2011 season. My winter plans were to sort out essential maintenance on the house. As usual best laid plans…. I spent much of the winter at Datchet, Lymington and other locations with my daughters and other club 4.7 sailors. The maintenance on the house still needs to be done. Never mind, the group of 5 Weir Wood kids have been a constant presence on the 4.7 circuit keeping Weir Wood’s name in the frame while learning a lot and having a good time.

The 4.7 Winter Championship at Datchet was something else. All our group came in after the first race as it was a bit windy. They sat out the second race but regretted it as the wind dropped so they duly went out again only for the wind to increase to touch 35 knots! It was windy enough for 1 catamaran to split a hull completely in half during a pitchpole! All the adults from Datchet who were racing experienced significant difficulties but the 4.7s completed their full schedule of 6 races in impressive style.

5 Weir Wood boats returned to Datchet in April for a qualifier event in very mixed conditions but not quite as windy as before (except for the squalls). John Hamilton excelled himself by landing at Heathrow in the morning driving in the oppositee direction as all the boats were arriving but still making it back with 2 boats in time for the start of the second race. It was just a shame that the race management wasn’t up to the club and class normal high standards with the fleet waiting under the postponement flag for 90 minutes between races and then ran a race which lasted only 20 minutes….

Oppy Flotilla

We are still looking for a volunteer or group of volunteers to take over as Flotilla Leader. The regular parents are doing a sterling job at keeping things going but we do need someone to co-ordinate it all and provide the driving force.

We also desperately need help with the Intermediate Group. Most of the parents now involved are keen on the racing side. They are doing a great job on that front but to me the future of the group depends on a continuing feed of children from the beginners courses and we accept that many just

want to have fun. Away from the clubWeir Wood has been well represented at several events including the Spring Championships in Poole. Georgia Baker and Zac Reilly both acquitted themselves particularly well and giving Emma a run for her money. Internationally Emma Baker represented GBR at Brassameer over the (cold) Easter holidays.

New arrangements

Hopefully you have noted by now that new arrangements have been put in place for Saturday afternoons. Fundamentally Oppy Club is now in 2 parts. Starting at 13.30 there are coached sessions for beginners and intermediates. This incorporates the beginner’s courses but also aims to provide a more structured environment for those coming off the beginner’s course to really start to learn to sail in a variety of conditions and build their confidence. This session uses Assistant Instructors to provide coaching hopefully from younger instructors with whom the Oppy sailors can identify. A nominal charge is being made for these sessions to cover our costs. The second session starts at 15.30 and is intended to provide a couple of races maybe over longer courses than may have been the case in the past

Alongside this the Youth Racing Group has been moved to a 15.00 start to allow its members to act as AIs for the Oppy session and then join in the race coaching.

Youth Racing Programme

We hope to introduce a bit of variety into the Youth activity. To this extent we have suggested a number of dates with relatively local open meetings where we are encouraging our members to attend en masse. With several double stacker trailers available this has worked out quite well. We also hope to run a couple of sea sessions from Itchenor. I will get the details on the web.

Also for Youth we are aware that not everyone wants to sail a single hander. We will happily cater for 2 man boats and have the club Fevas and Laser 3K’s available. I also have a lad who wants to crew a trapeze boat. Anyone interested in teaming up please contact me.

J Chris Hopkins

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Storage etc

We mentioned in the last newsletter that we planned to add a canopy to the side of the Oppy Garage. This plan has been shelved as the quote received meant that it was not good value for money. However Richard Baker has offered a redundant portacabin. Footings have already been laid ready to receive this and arrangements made for it to be moved on site when the weather is dry enough for the lorry to be able to access the site. Some work will be needed to restore the building and we will of course welcome volunteers to help. Many thanks to Richard for this and apologies to Richard Haw who made a similar offer last year which was declined at that time. We hope that this building will both provide additional dry storage for the mountain of youth gear that we now have and provide facilities for shore based teaching and bad weather shelter.

Interclub

By way of variety we were persuaded to send a team to the Small Lakes Interclub event which this year was held at Tonbridge. This was definitely an experience for the kids as “small lakes” is not a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. By a stroke of genius in team selection (luck!) our team of 3 Oppies, 1 Topper and 1 4.7 was ideally balanced for the variable conditions encountered. With the best 3 out of 5 boats to score our results were 1,2,3 1,2,7 and 1,2,3 over the 3 races. Most significant for me was that this was an almost entirely different team from the team which won the large lakes event in October.

Congratulations to Emma Baker, Zac Reilly, Millie Hopkins, Fiona Harrington and Katie Wood for a job well done.

Grant application

Following our successful application last year we have applied for funding for 3 further Fevas. Currently we are waiting with baited breath for an answer.

Sunday afternoon arrangements

Manythankstothoseparents/grandparentswhohaveoffered their services to assist with the Sunday Youth Group. We now have cover for the session leader throughout the season but still need some people to commit to set dates so that we can ensure coverage of the “helper” role. A recent incident where Allan was temporarily incapacitated emphasises our need to have a second adult on site to provide adequate protection for the instructors as well as students. We are also clear that safety has to be our priority. If the session leader is not comfortable that a session can operate safely they will make a decision to cancel the session. This means that parents must ensure that they can arrange collection of participating youngsters at short notice and must check at the start that we can run a session. For child protection purposes we also request that a parent or other designated adult is on site and responsible for any under 14s.

When chemists die, they barium.

I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time.

How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.

I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.

This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity.I just can't put it down.

I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.

They told me I had type A blood, but it was a Type-O.

Why were the Indians here first? They had reservations.

We are going on a class trip to the Coca-Cola factory. I hope there's no pop quiz.

I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.

Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn't control her pupils?

When you get a bladder infection urine trouble.

Broken pencils are pointless.

I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.

What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.

England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.

I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.

All the toilets in New York's police stations have been stolen. The police have nothing to go on.

I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.

Velcro — what a rip off!

A cartoonist was found dead in his home.Details are sketchy

Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!

The earthquake in Washington obviously was the government's fault.

Be kind to your dentist. He has fillings, too.

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Youth goes Power boatingDavid Haw

The Club’s spring powerboat course Stage 1&2 was run with a slight twist on the normal format. The training was carried out at Weir Wood, whilst the assessment element was carried out at Cobnor, Chichester Harbour, providing the opportunity to gain some tidal experience. This required all the students to obtain some basic knowledge and experience in advance of the course. The course content will prove to be invaluable as our Youth members become A.I.’s assisting at events such as Oppy Cobnor! David Haw takes up the story.

It started off on a Saturday morning mid March; Fiona Harrington, Jacob Hamilton, Cameron Harris and I, together with two Youth parents Mike Scott and Ian Johnston, all raring to go for the powerboat course. We started off in the classroom with some theory, but promptly moved to the water, where we learned what to check on a RIB, the correct method of launching and carried out a lot of exercises including how to use the RIB safely. It was a very long first day with a bit of rain, but we all came off and couldn’t wait for the next day.

The next day we went to Cobnor for our assessment. We towed the Club’s Narwhal, Zodiac and Chris Fyan’s big RIB as a support boat. For logistics, we launched from Itchenor, and went straight to the Cobnor Channel where we got straight into the exercises. They were tough, particularly as we had to deal with tides and stronger winds, when approaching marks and pontoons etc, There was a lot more traffic on the water, including large yachts and power boats, so there was a lot more to think about, but I am proud to say we all passed.

I would like to say a big thank you to Peter and Glynis Hargreaves for running the course and a special big thank you to Chris Fyan’s for once again letting us use his RIB, without which, we may not have been able to do the coastal element. Later in the afternoon, the weather held out and we able to go out to sea and gain some experience on helming a RIB in waves.

Anyone thinking of using the Club’s RIB’s should consider attending one of Club’s powerboat courses.

K Up the Chichester Estuary

A David and Fiona take off!

K Out to Sea

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Congratulations

Congratulations to Jonny and Jane Holroyd on the birth of their son Leo. We understand that he already has his first buoyancy aid and clears quickly out of the way when hearing “Starboard” . Mum and dad obey all the rules when overtaking to windward and have a new understanding of “Water at the Mark”

Also congratulations to Emily Ramus on her marriage to Jeremy and she is now Mrs Randall. Just to embarrass her you might like to know that at aged 3 she crewed for her dad Mike (our new Laser 2000 captain) and won most of their races. Other sailors said she sounded like David Coleman commentating on a race and that

they had never heard Nursery Rhymes in a race before. Apparently they played “One potato, two potato, etc.”  and the boat would  go faster. During Emily’s first sail in a RS200 at WWSC a few years back she was in one of the unfortunate boats struck by lightning and she was thrown into the water. She also broke her back skiing but made a full recovery and has been back on the slopes many times since.Apparently as a restaurant manager her biggest accomplishment was throwing out the drunks.

So watch out Jeremy. You had better behave yourself.

for the teachers in our membership

Teacher: Why are you late?Student: Class started before I got here.

Teacher: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor? John: You told me to do it without using tables.

Teacher: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?' Glenn: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L' Teacher: No, that's wrong Glenn: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

Teacher: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water? Donald: H I J K L M N O. Teacher: What are you talking about? Donald: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

Teacher: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago. Winnie: Me!

 Teacher: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?  Glen: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.

Teacher: Millie, give me a sentence starting with ' I. ' Millie: I is.. Teacher: No, Millie..... Always say, 'I am.' Millie: All right... 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.'

Teacher: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it.  Now, Louise, do you know why his father didn't punish him? Louise: Because George still had the axe in his hand.

Teacher: Now, Simon , tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating? Simon: No sir, I don't have to. My Mum is a good cook.

Teacher: Clyde , your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's.. Did you copy his? Clyde : No, sir. It's the same dog.

Teacher: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested? Harold: A teacher.

K Leo, Jonny and Jane

A Emily and Jeremy with Emily's parents, Mike and Mum

Copy date for next issue 31st August 2012Editor: John Chisnall e-mail chisnall@globalnet.co.uk or magazineed@wwsc.org.uk Published by Weir Wood Sailing Club and Printed by Embassy Press (London) Limited

Photo: "Frozen Lake"

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