Dear Member
How wonderful it was to open the Club site on 29th March and welcome our members back! There was great weather for the first few days, but it turned pretty brutal by the bank holiday Monday! We have had windsurfers, cruising sailors, racers, training groups and an open meeting! We are well and truly open for on-the-water activity!
Step 2 commenced on Monday 12th April but will only see one change as far as the Club is concerned: The Club racing OD duties will be run as per the rota on DutyMan – so please, if you race, double check when you are on duty.
For Step 2 we will continue with no wet bar and back-to-back racing on Sunday mornings with 3 starts. While it is still cold, and the pandemic as it is, we want to give people the maximum racing and the minimum time mixing ashore. So you turn up, have 2 great races and then go home!
(Please remember to sign on separately for both races before going on the water.)
Although we can re-open changing rooms in Step 2, as we did last summer, we have made the decision not to at the current time. This is both due to lack of governmental guidance and, more importantly, resources. We don’t have the resources to police and clean the facilities, but we are keeping this under review constantly and will update you when this changes.
For Step 3 (no earlier than 17th May) we are looking forward to returning to normal Sunday fleet racing with a morning and afternoon race, fleet starts and having take-out available from the wet bar.
And It’s All Free!
As you know, existing members are not being charged for April & May. This is costing your Club about £30k, so if you want to contribute to this cost you can donate here.
Wednesday Racing
Please remember that the racing will move to the later start time of 7.00pm from this week.
Car Parking
Some of you spotted that the Sailing Club’s bottom car park was being used as a Severn Trent overflow car park on the afternoon of Easter Sunday. This has been happening throughout lockdown and has bought in much needed income to your Club. Our car park empties on a Sunday afternoon and so we agreed to this that afternoon and it paid for all our rescue staff for the day. When members are not paying for the staff it is great to have another source of income.
We control when Severn Trent can pay to use our car park and it won’t be when it is full of members’ cars but, when it is not, it makes sense to make the most of the facility, particularly in these financially difficult times. We have an excellent working relationship with ST’s on-site staff which allows for daily communication which benefits them and the Club.
| EASTER SAILING EVENTS |
| It was a fantastic days racing at the Draycote Double for Good Friday. The day started with the wind more from the east than forecast but the 12 knots as promised. 40 boats signed on for the two back to back races, the fleet was split into two starts which both went away clear, very clear. The wind held well but started to shift left and back again and then left and back again but this didn’t stop the fleet enjoying two great races. Congratulations to Alice and Oliver (420) who took the win, Dave and Ben (Merlin) in second and Millie and Jess (Feva) in 3rd. Full results HERE |
There were 27 boats signed on for the RNLI Pursuit on Easter Monday, including a strong 420 group with 5 starters.
The breeze was light to start with the Topper 4.2, Topper and Tera Pro getting away nicely. The wind increased in strength becoming shifty and and gusty, and very hard for the sailors to settle down. There was lots of swimming and many boats retired due to the combination of gusty wind and also being bitterly cold.
Congratulations to Ed Dalton (Sprint 15) in first, then Millie & Steve Irish in second (420), and third went to Imogen & Dave Wade (420).
Pursuit race series results can be found HERE.
| TOPPER TRAVELLER OPEN MEETING |
| Our first open meeting since reopening went well on Saturday. Mike Powell has done a write-up here and with photos from Macolm Lewin. |
