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16 Jan
Wayfarer and Dinghy Cruising News
Firstly, thanks to those who attended the working party on Sunday and spend a (rather damp) morning scrubbing the weed off Dawpool. Thanks also to the volunteers for our next working party on 10th February. I will send a reminder about this closer to the time, but we also need to raise 4 workers for this.
Could everyone also please note that this email address will cease to work in a couple of weeks when I move jobs. Please use my new address (bloor dot jon at gmail dot com) from now on.
Rob, Peter, John and I also spent a bit of time on Sunday discussing the cruising plans for this season. The latest draft programme is currently on the website and features several Wayfarer cruises - primarily on Saturdays.
As a few people have pointed out already Doug has, in the past, taken on overall responsibility for planning the cruises, safety and deciding whether conditions are safe to go ahead on the day. As Doug will not be sailing this season we need to decide between us how we will deal with this.
The majority view so far is that we should divide the cruising section events into two types. The first would be the traditional cruises (probably to remain on Saturdays for the most part). These would require each boat / crew to be self sufficient and to carry a certain level of kit to be agreed (basically an anchor and warp, suitable method for reefing etc.). We would arrange for there to be a minimum ratio of one outboard per two boats to ensure that everyone can get home if the wind dies (as it did rather a lot last season!). These would be open to everyone, but we would try to have some kind of system to allow new members or those who are nervous about helming their own boat on the cruises to have the opportunity to crew for / sail with someone more experienced for their first few cruises. Obviously we would provide support to each other as required, but everyone would need to be aware that there would be no rescue RIBs on standby! I presume that we will continue to use Dawpool to provide some form of safety cover for these cruises(?).
The second category would be "training" events. We would aim for these to be on Sundays to tie in with racing so that proper safety boat cover would be available. The format is still to be discussed, but suggestions so far would be training on various aspects of cruising (including capsize recovery!), racing for beginners and local training "cruises" around the cans. These would be pitched at a level where everyone (including new members) would be able to participate in their own boats. This is subject to sailing committee approval and other arrangements, but it was raised at the sailing committee last week and the reaction seemed to be favourable.
Basically it is a question of how many (if any) Saturday cruises people would want to shift into these Sunday training sessions (or whether people would prefer to retain the Saturday cruises and race/sail on Sundays also).
There should also be scope for informal cruises on Saturdays or Sundays (as happened on a few occasions last season), but obviously there would be no tractor available for these unless they coincide with racing that is already in the programme so we would need to organise some towing facilities.
These are the suggestions to date, but obviously if anyone wants to provide some input and didn't get a chance to on Sunday then please let me know.
In terms of the upcoming season, the first event (apart from the next working party) is the "boat preparation" day scheduled for 29 March 2008. The intention behind this is that everyone gets their boats down to the club and we spend the afternoon rigging and fitting out for the season (with some advice and support from other sailors available where needed). It has also been suggested that we use this as an opportunity for a more detailed discussion on cruising plans / suggestions for the season.
As part of the plans for the season I am planning to put together a laminated A5 list covering everyone who intends to cruise next season to try and facilitate communications whilst on the water. This would have details of each boat and helm together with mobile telephone number (if carried) and a note of whether a handheld VHF will be on board. This should hopefully avoid a repeat of a couple of occasions last year where changes in cruising plans whilst underway led to some confusion.
Could everyone who is intending to cruise this season let me have the following information:-
1) Boat make and name
2) Helm / owner name (and crew if regular)
3) Mobile telephone number (if carried on board)
4) Whether handheld VHF carried on board
5) Home / emergency contact number and name
I will then use this to put together laminated cards with this information on. It should also mean that whoever is co-ordinating each cruise can tick off the boats which are sailing on the day which should help them to keep track of the "fleet". There were some events last year where boats set off with the fleet and then went off to do their own thing - which is fine, but whoever is co-ordinating the cruise needs to know who is taking part with the organised cruise and who is not.
Finally, a few people have commented that there has been no Wayfarer / Cruising newsletter in the last two editions of Mainsheet. As a fleet we need to pull something together for future issues (I am not quite sure what the date for submission of the next one is, but will find out at the next sailing committee).
My suggestion is that we agree between ourselves that somebody will produce a (brief) write-up of each cruising event that takes place (I don't think we need a rota for this - it is probably easier to just agree between those who are there on the day who will do it). If these are emailed to me then I am happy to put them together into an article to go into Mainsheet with a general paragraph about plans for the season etc. However, I do think we need to do split up the work for producing the actual write-ups for each event (not least because not everyone will be present at each one) - hopefully this should also make the resulting article a bit more interesting! Alternatively if anyone is prepared to take over responsibility for this entirely then please let me know (as it would be much easier for me!).
Cheers,
Jon Bloor
Tell us what you think - your comments, contributions and photos are very welcome.
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