What do you look for in a sailing club?

A new year is nearly upon us and it holds and heralds change, new things, new places, the passing away of what is now and the beginings of new adventures.
I have mentioned in my previous post the decision to change boats, selling my Enterprise and buying an Albacore and that we will be moving to a new area. Well I can now say that in August we will be moving to Blackpool where, in September, I will begin work as a Deacon with the Blackpool Methodist Circuit working in two housing estates. We are hoping that Sally, my wife, will also be stationed to the same circuit as a Presbyter to take pastoral chrge of two or more Churches in the Circuit but we have yet to hear of exactly where she will be stationed in the area.
So we will be living in a new area, in a new house, making new friends and discovering new places. We will need to find a new sailing club to join, one that offers us the best combination of accessibility and opportunity to participate in club racing. The search for a new club has begun. Using the Yachts and Yachting website club locator  I have found two clubs really close by; The Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht club  and Ribble Crusing Club, both within 20 minutes drive and both offering tidal sailing. There are other clubs but the travelling time is significantly longer.
The two clubs offer quite different sailing venues.
BFYC is on a small river, the river Wyre, with a limited sailing tidal window, RCC is on the seafront at Lytham and accesses the sea via a jetty across the saltmarsh and mud but it is not clear what thier tidal sailing window is or if they have one (I suspect they do).  I can envision that with strong winds and big waves launching and landing at RCC could be 'challanging' to the point where sailing is unsafe whereas BFYC would not have the same issue.
One of the problems I have with using their websites to explore them is that their sailing programs seem a bit sparse and I don't know if this is a case of 'everybody knows what's going on' assumption of the webmaster or if they really are that sparse. Neither seem to do much frequent/regular racing on any day other than a Sunday (which is a bit of a problem for us) and of the two BFYC seems to do more. I did note that RCC do use a waterfront lake for 8 races on Wednesday evenings between May and July which would be very good but I'm not sure I want to join a club for the sake of 8 races!
It may be that we have to content outselves with just doing a bit of cruising in which case probably the BFYC offers an interesting area to sail and explore but then equally so might RCC.
In terms of membership RCC has a much lower joining fee the subscription depends on when you join. The BFYC entry fee is the same as the subs and both would apply fully no matter when you join and that's not a good incentive to join in August.
I guess we shall just have to wait and see which one turns out to be the best option. Until then I have much work to do, a boat to prepare for the new season and at least the first half of the season will be sailed at Ripon Sailing Club.

Another season gone!

Crickey Time flies! The lack of posts on this blog is a pretty good indicator of the significant drop in sailing this year and it doesn't look like being any better next year BUT I am still sailing - well not now. The last sail of the year was at the end of October and currently my boat is tucked up in the garage awaiting some winter attention.

This last season has seen some interesting developments - I've managed to win some of the club trophies and even took home a bit of silver from the NWNSA regatta! Very unexpected! I have been sailing a lot more with my wife, Sally, but I have to say that we are finding the Enterprise too small for the pair of us. At some point next season we will be buying an Albacore and selling Goosey. It's sad to let let a much loved boat go but I can't justify keeping her and not sailing her - its the fastest way to see a boat rot! Boats need to be sailed, they come alive when they sail and die a slow death when they are neglected - especially if left out in the elements. Also it looks like we will be moving again next August and so we will need to be looking for a new club in our new location (can't say where just yet - I do know but I am not allowed to publish details) The good news is that we will be able to sail on tidal waters again (so yes near the coast!). So all change again next year.

Getting my fix

Yep its that time of year again. Time for the highly addictive sailing bug to kick in! And it has. I spent perhaps the shortest time ever preparing a boat for the new season - no more than 10 man days of work, quite possible as few as 7. And it shows. Not the best paint job, not the best varnishing (mind you I think some of that is down to the new 'Compass' varnish) but she looks ok and ... well.... I just want to get sailing so as longs as she is protected from the elements all will be well. The Boat cover did get a good waterproofing treatment which it desperately needed. Unfortunately I did it in the back garden and the grass now has what looks like a giant cloths iron burn on it - I really should believe the warnings on the tin but hey it'll grow back!

One thing I did notice was the rise in the cost of paint and varnish! Wow has it gone up! I estimate a 15% jump in a year. However I think it is still a relatively cheap sport/hobby, Insurance £50, club membership £150, Enterprise Association £25, and maintenance cost approx £100, total approx £275 and that should keep it on the water all season. No doubt there will be other costs but not a great deal.

I took Goosey down to the club yesterday late afternoon and rigged her up and had a quick sail in the very calm conditions. A few little things to tweak but she's in good shape for the season. I won't be doing much trailing this year due to financial and time constraints but we hope to do Norfolk week in the summer.

Boat work begins

Saturday 26th February. In need of head space, fresh air and something else to do, and with the sunshining away like mad I decided to do some boat work. So I wheeled the old girl out of the garage and with my daughters help I began the task of removing all the fittings, inspecting and and cleaning, packing the bits away so that I can find them all again when the vital painting and varnishing has been completed.
I have noticed that sometimes screws fool you. You think you have put in nice decent stainless steel screws and what happens? One rusts and another sheers! The rusted one did eventually come out but the other has left me with a slight problem - a screw stuck in the wood and I don't want to even try digging it out. So now, when I replace the fitting, I have to somehow resite it in such a way that it all still works. All good fun. I'm sure I'll work it out.

Oner of the things I am aware of is the need to keep an eye on all those areas that are showing signs of water ingression. The tell tale signs is a darkening of the wood, but in a boat of over 30 years of hard sailing there are quite a few places where the damage has been done but its not getting any worse. So I'm looking at a few of the black bits; on the hog just at the back of the centreboard casing and a bit near a knee on the port side, midway, and wondering if there has been any change since last year - has the dark bit grown? What do I do if it has? I guess at some point I'll get a boat builder to take a look at it and see if any remedial action is needed. But for now it will be ok for another season.

So having removed all the fittings a good wash out with the hose removes the grit and grim of the last seasons sailing and now she is ready for the prep work - the sanding down - filling and any remedial work that needs doing (and there isn't much) - and then she can be painted and varnished.
I can't do much until April when I have more time and the weather is warm enough to allow the paint and varnish to dry but little by little we shall get there. I'm aiming to get it done so that we can do some sailing in the latter half of April.

Cold Turkey

The sailing season finished at the end of October. Wild Goose is now tucked away in the garage, safe from the horrid snow and ice (all except the mast which is hanging from fence posts and waiting for me to strip down and protect).
For the last two months I've had my head in books studying and the last month has been a little more manic with essays to write so I have not thought too much about it but today I have been thinking 'How good it would be to go sailing' - but not in this weather! I hear the hardy types saying 'Do the winter series' and I could have done a winter series but my wife doesn't do winter sailing and I am not so keen on it either, plus drysuits are just a tad too expensive.

So Youtube sailing vids it is then.....until the new season begins! Ah Boat work first. Well that's something to look foward too.

NWNSA 2010

This last week I took part in the North West Norfolk Sailig Association regatta, crewed for the first time by my wife, Sally. But rather than me telling you stuff in my usual way I thought I would point you at Sally's account written up on her Blog: Eternal Echoes.

maybe I will write something later.

TTFN

The birth of a Race Officer

OK so I am down on the duty roster to be RO on the 14th July and I have never done it before; I've been on the team, helped with the flags, timings and processed the results many a time but never been the RO with all the weight of responsibility for the course etc. We have an open day coming up on the 10th and I though I could get some top tips and handy hints and maybe a bit of practice then so I was feeling quite relaxed about the prospects of being RO.
That was until last Saturday when I received a call from a member of the club who was down to be RO on the following Wednesday and for family reasons needed to swap with someone and would I do it. OK well I knew that I had to do it so I said yes. I meant to read up on the RO instructions and even downloaded the pdf from the club website, I even skimmed through it but not enough to really know it. But work pressure pushed it back and in the end I planned to give it my full attention on Wednesday afternoon after the informal races and before the evening race for which I was to be RO. I never got the afternoon races and arrived at the club with just an hour to prepare for the race.
Fortunately a long standing member of the club with lots of experience was on hand and gave me a run down on what to do. Gradually the rest of the team turned up and I began to assign tasks and responsibilities.The winds were light and from the SSE direction, which was excellent for the club start line, but it meant that there were a number of dead patches close to the south and east banks, also the north end of the lake had dead patches pretty much all around the edges. I set a windward mark in the middle of the south end and laid a course which stuck to the areas where I could see there was wind and put the course up.

Pretty soon we had started the start sequence, fast handicap fleet first then the slow handicap fleet. Everything went smoothly, two boats over the line in the slow fleet and only one went back, the other, even though he was clearly ahead of all the boats, decided that as he hadn't heard his number called continued.

All was going well, I even had time to tack some pictures, until I noticed that the windward mark was no longer where it was supposed to be and the lead boat was on the last leg of the first lap! We called up the rescue boat to reposition the wayward mark and watched in agony as they did their best to get past the fleet at dead slow speed to avoid creating the annoying wash that disturbes the sails in light winds. With only a few minutes to spare the mark was repositioned and this time with enough warp to stop it from drifting again.

The rest of the race went without a hitch. We shortened course after 45mins and all the boats finished within the hour just as the wind piped up! Typical!

With the aid of a teenage mind with a calculator the corrected times were computed and then checked with the aid of an older, slower and more experienced mind (and a calculator) and the few errors corrected. Job done. Not exactly a baptism of fire but the beginnings of a new skill maybe.

The lead boat demonstrates how to roll tack in light winds - so smooth!

The funny thing is that as it turns out my youngest son has his graduation on the 14th of July. Hmmm. I get the idea that there is a far greater mind at work in the apparent accidents and incidents of my life.