Newsletter  September 2005

 

 

Overall this is turning out to be a good sailing season - for most people. Yes the water is low at the moment but not very low and it’s September and soon should fill up. We have plenty of boats out on the water racing and “social sailing”, and a noteworthy number of Delph sailors are travelling to compete in Club Open events and in National Championships.

 

Open Meetings at Delph

By my count we have hosted 3 Open meetings at Delph since the last Newsletter.

 

RS200 :            4th June

25 boats competed with 5 races on the day, two back-to-back before the lunch break and three also back-to-back in the afternoon. Serious dedicated sailing! The courses set and racing were good, despite the very shifting winds, with crews well worn by the end of the day. Chris Pickles and Laura Westall were the first Delph crew and came second overall.

Phantom :        18th June

14 boats took part in the first Phantom event to be run at Delph. The racing went well and was clearly enjoyed by the competitors. Julian Abel was first Delph sailor, in 12th place.

 

Enterprise N.W.Championships 3rd & 4th September    report by Tony Cropper

On a gorgeous weekend from both wind and weather, 21 boats from 13 clubs attended the Enterprise NW area Championships at Delph S.C.

On Saturday in race 1 as might have been expected Shane MacCarthy and Richard Salt (23144) sailed and were followed home by Jon Woodward and Alex Halliwell (23089) and Phil Shewin and Chris Blendell (22536).

With a change of course for Race 2 some picked the line bias, with C&H Adams (22272) and Rob and Rachel Cocking (19540) first to the windward mark. There was much place changing as boats tried to correct the pecking order. At the finish 23089 was followed closely by Ges Brown and Chessie Saunders (23118) and 22272.

On Sunday the wind and weather held and in race 3 a group of five or six boats got away from the fleet and were battling each other. Unfortunately a collision when the helm got his leg caught in the mainsheet in trying to bear away resulted in the retirement of 23144 and 23089. This threw the race and event open. 23118 won by a long way from Anthony Woods and Sam Woods (21793) followed by 22536. This left a tie for first place and several closer low scores.

In Race 4, run back to back, 22536 won from 23089 followed by 21793 and 23118.

After a late lunch it was all to sail for in Race 5 and so there was a very competitive bunch at the front, 22536 won from 23089 and Paul Lanson and Paul Holdsworth(21333), 23118 was fourth having done several turns. Coming off the water the sailors were not sure of the outcome since the Ent National Circuit Sis allow for two discards. First Place was decided on a tie break. At the prize giving there were prizes for several under 16 crews and other special prizes as well as for the leading boats.

First Delph boat was Karen Taylor with Anita Cropper in 7th place, with Andrew Taylor and Kathryn Hayfield then Iain and Neil Grundy, close behind.

 

Thanks to all those involved in organising and running these Opens.

 

Delph ‘Travellers’

A goodly number of members are competing at other venues pretty regularly and achieving impressive results. To illustrate this in the limited space of a Newsletter, I’ve taken the easy way out, which is to show competitions and venues where people have been competing and to highlight some of the results, where I have been “spoon fed” information. Most results can be found on the Results Notice board, in the Sailing Committee Minutes also on a Noticeboard, and where available Tony Cropper has put these on the Club Website.

RS200 competed at/in:   Lord Birkett, Yorkshire Dales, West Lancs, Staunton Harold, La Rochelle (where Chris Pickles competed for the Royal Navy), Abersoch, St Mary’s Loch, and in the Top Club Championship where Chris Pickles and Laura Westall came second.

Enterprise:                   Masters at Northampton SC, Elton Open, St Mary’s Loch and the Enterprise Inlands,

Miracle:                        Open at Lake Bala, Nationals at Brixham (see below).

Phantoms at                 Abersoch, Ullswater and the Nationals at Llandudno.

49er:                             Simon & Stephen competed the 49er at Glossop, Abersoch, Loch Lomond, and the Nationals at Paignton.

Solo’s:                         At Abersoch, Bala and a number of Open competitions.

 

Miracle Nationals at Brixham. 1st - 5th August              Report by Rene Savelli

Only 4 boats from Delph made the journey to Brixham - Tim & Eddie, Martin & Mavis, Richard & Mike, Rene & Angela.  (No gold fleet here!).Glorious week for sunshine, though light winds, except for one day, caused some delays so that the OOD could set the perfect course.

Richard came first in the bronze fleet and won a spinnaker which he will collect at the Open Meeting at Draycott on the 17th /18th September.

The event is nearer to home next year - Bala in the second week of August. Make a date!

 

NSSA Regatta at Grafham Water SC -                                     Report by Patrick Manning

Six Delph young sailors represented Lancashire at the NSSA Regatta in a team managed by Karen Taylor. Delph sailors were: Robert Holmes, Jack Hopkins, Tom Haslam, Sam Higab, Tom Dawber and Phillip Manning.

This was a large event with 154 entries in the Allcomers Pursuit race. Amongst many good performances, Robert Holmes came 13th in the Topper fleet, Ton Dawber 2nd in the Laser radials, Phillip Manning 5th in the RS300s, Robert Holmes 7th in the Mount Haes Trophy and Phillip Manning 3rd in the Mount Haes Trophy Allcomers Pursuit.

 Well done to you all in making a great contribution to the County’s achievements and to Karen who puts so much work into sailing for young people.

 

There were many fine achievements and ‘personal bests’ in these competitions, as well as just a few best forgotten.  Well done to all you Travellers and thank you for being good Ambassadors for the Club.

 

Delph ‘Sail-out’ at Coniston                        3rd & 4th September

A good, sunny sailing weekend at Coniston. Beforehand it looked as though we would be few in number for this weekend away, in the event 22 people camped or B&B’d, with 9 boats based at Coniston Sailing Club.

Once again the Club made us welcome, the Commodore John Johnston acting as host and organising a power boat for our use on the Saturday and Dinghy Racing on the Sunday. There seemed less Coniston members around this year and only two boats raced in their cruiser race in the morning and none in the dinghy racing, which was a disappointment for us.

On the Saturday we cruised down the lake virtually to the end, in a light but good wind - mostly a fetch with occasional tacks and returned to picnic at “Horseshoe Bay”. After which we returned up the lake again with the wind (mostly) ahead -so no spinnaker practice for Rene.

On the Sunday we all had a go at racing, in light and shifty winds, one race before lunch and one after. The winner of the Kendal Mint Cake series was Mark Starbuck in his Solo.

Many thanks to Coniston Sailing Club. This was yet again an excellent weekend, well suited to sailors of all abilities and their families.

We are considering going to an alternative venue, Ullswater, next year, again for the weekend following the August Bank Holiday. Any views on this?

 

Delph “8” Hour Race                 Saturday 20th August

This race was originally planned many years ago as a training race for sailors competing in the Southport 24hr race. More recently it has additionally been a bit of a fun race, for teams of sailors to compete in something different. This year nobody from the Southport team competed and with only 4 entrants, this was one of the few Club events to basically flop. This was disappointing for the race and catering team and for the competitors. The race was won by Chris Pickles and Laura Westall, who sailed non-stop for the 6 hours of the race.

We will review this race for the 2006 season, looking at if we should continue and if so, when in the season it is best held. If you have views on this please let me have them.

 

Protesting

Racing is a self-policed activity and the racing rules have the provision of “protesting”, as a means by which perceived infringements of the Rules can be investigated and appropriately dealt with. This is not to encourage confrontation, nor time wasting on trivial matters but is vital in maintaining the integrity, safety, quality and fairness of our racing.

Moaning at the Bar after racing is pointless! If you think you have been wronged - protest the other boat(s).If you don’t know the procedure, then you really should find out. 2005-2008 The Rules in Practice by Bryan Willis (ISBN 1 904475 14 0) has many explanations of the application of the rules to different scenarios, with indications of the rights and responsibilities of boats “A” and “B”, who might be in conflict.

 

Race Duty

This year we have had more boats regularly racing than for many years. This is great but does increase the workload for the race teams, so much so that we are considering increasing the size of the designated race teams from 4 to 5. Race teams are set up to have an acceptable mix of skills and experience for an event, so clearly it is extremely difficult when people do not do their allocated race duty. If we expect to have racing organised, then it is vital that we fulfil our allocated race duties. I hope all members understand that the Club is an organisation run by volunteers and as members we have obligations (hardly onerous) associated with our membership; race duty is one of these.

However we have seen a concerning trend this year, where some members allocated a duty have: failed to note the date of their turn to be part of the race team, at the last moment found a clash with other commitments and have failed to obtain a stand-in or having signalled a problem, have failed to notify the race officer that they had obtained a replacement. On one Sunday last month this was the case with 3 members of the race team. This puts the O.D. under unfair and unnecessary pressure to call on friends to do additional duties to get an adequate team, or cancel the afternoon’s racing, as nearly happened last month.

Emergency situations can always occur, these are a different matter, which will always be accommodated in a supportive and sympathetic manner.

So, do your race duties, if you have to change a duty then do it in good time. It is your responsibility to organise an equivalent replacement and to notify the OD, giving any necessary contact details for your replacement.

 

Friday Night Training

Training on the water has finished and we are now running a package of shore based: lectures, practical sessions and demonstrations, for 6 weeks. These started with an introductory session on the 9th of September.

Thank you to the small team of instructors and helpers who have turned up week after week and worked hard, to make all the Friday evening activities such a success.

 

Instructor Training

We feel we need additional qualified Instructors. So, in preparation for next season we are planning to run an RYA Instructor Course this Autumn, if there are sufficient candidates. This is for sailors with reasonable experience and competence. From the course (if you pass) you will be awarded an RYA Instructor qualification and Certificate, get the satisfaction of training new sailors in future years, and what you learn on the course will undoubtedly improve your sailing, whatever your level. So why not go for it!

You can find out more by contacting Louis Moulden and signify your interest and intention, by adding your name to the pro-forma on the Training notice board adjacent to the Bar.

 

Next Season

Friday evening training has been a mix of formal RYA training, “social” sailing and “Taste of Sailing” this year and something of a marathon for those organising and running it. So we are going to re-think this for 2006. The aim is to include all 3 elements in the calendar for 2006, but you may find that these occur on different days and/or specified periods in the season only. If you have views on this please contact me, or any member of the general Committee.

 

Return of trophies

It is that time of year again when we need your trophies returned - a little earlier this year, to ensure they can be engraved ready for the Annual prize giving in November. So, please return your gleaming, cleaned trophies, to Tony Cropper, or via the box near the Bar, as soon as you can this month. Thank you.

 

New Members

Welcome to new members:

 

            Bernard and Carolyn Gibbon and Juniors Jane and Allison                         sailing a Miracle.

            Andrew and Fiona Underwood and Cadets Charlotte                                  sailing a Topper

and Thomas                                                                  Omega.

            William and Catherine Walmsley and Cadets Alexander, Jennifer and Elizabeth.    

            Mick and Yvonne Smith and Cadets Harry, Abigail and Grace                    sailing a Topper.

            David Mole and Cadets Peter and Molly.

            Alex Holland (Cadet).

            Andrew Avery, Jane Weston, Grace, Stuart, Samuel                                 sailing a Laser and a

                                    and Thomas                                                                              Topper.

            Wendy Gaddes and Cadet Elena.

            Tessa Derbyshire (Junior).

            Gill Ferris.

            Saul Shimin (Cadet).

            Ben Ballister.

            Bill Chadwick                                                                                         sailing a Mirror.

 

“Meet the Committee”             Friday 28th October

We will be holding a Meet the Committee evening for all members new to the Club in 2004 and 2005. This is an opportunity to get to know each other, to clarify how the Club works, to get your impression of the Club……and so on. We will organise some light refreshments, probably cheese and wine for the adults and something more appropriate for the youngsters.

 

Bits ‘n Pieces

Ø       We now have for the first time, hot water to the two hand basins in the Gents changing room, also we now have drinking water piped through to a sink in the Galley

                        -           Thanks to Keith Ashworth for these

Ø       The Quiz Night special, well organised by Karen and Andy Taylor, was the usual calm(ish) and (un)disciplined event, most enjoyable and raised £240 towards Southport costs

Ø        A good afternoon’s racing at Jumbles SC by a relatively inexperienced Delph team who performed well, resulted in a win for Jumbles

Ø       The RNLI Handicap event raised £194.10 for the RNLI,

Ø       There will not be a November bonfire this year.

 

Forthcoming Sailing Events

Southport 24hour Race            17th and 18th of September

We have planned to enter two boats again this year, however at the time of writing we are struggling to have sufficient crews for the B boat. Hopefully we will have two teams, sailing Karen Taylor and Robin Baycroft’s Enterprises.

This race is always a great spectacle, so a late reminder for those of you on email, do go along and support the team, on either of the days. The race starts on Saturday at 1200hours, guess when it finishes!

 

Return Match Against Jumbles at Delph Saturday 1st October

This is a friendly, enjoyable competition which provides an opportunity for some of us “non- winners” to test our skills against sailors from another Club. Racing will start at 1330hours, following a lunch for sailors and race organisers.

If you wish to be part of the team racing or help with race management, please contact Rob Cocking.

 

Social Events

 

Autumn Social:                        Saturday 8th October

7.30pm for an 8.00pm start. After many requests for a repeat of the Indian evening of three years ago, we are having a Northern Indian menu of: Pappadom & relish starter, Chicken Korma, Dall, Rice and Chapatti, with a vegetarian option of Chickpea and Mushroom curry.  There will be melon & raspberries or lemon sorbet to follow.   Price is £12.00 each.  Please book your place asap, on the list at the Clubhouse, or phone Pat on 01772 704874 or email: patricia.tucker@zen.co.uk   Final numbers by the 5th October please!

Halloween Night Saturday       29th October

Enjoy an evening of goulish fun and laughter, at Delph’s Halloween Night,  Fancy dress essential, can you beat last year’s spectacular sights? Come and sample toxic and non-toxic potions. Family and friends welcome.  Price is just £4.00 for an adult, £2.50 for children, including Delph’s wizardly Hot Pot. For more information/tickets contact Hilary Baycroft.

Annual Dinner and Prizegiving           19th November

We are back in the Great Hall at Bolton School again this year.  Menu and price haven’t been decided yet but the Band is ‘The Belmonts’..

Pantomime -A Call for Cast Members.             Pantomime Date:         21st January 2006

After the International success of the Pantomime, there will be a second helping next year, if enough volunteers come forward. The working title for this family Panto. is “Snow White and the Seven Sailors”.

Gill Stevenson is pulling this together and has wonderful opportunities for you in: acting, singing, miming or dancing parts. So, please contact Gill by the end of September on: tel. 07977056975 or email gs00/c2705@blueyonder.uk. Rehearsals will start on Friday 4th November.

 

Well this has turned out to be a longer than usual Newsletter, reflecting

the activities of a lively Club, I hope somebody out there reads it!

 

                        Good sailing   John Tucker    Commodore