Happy New Year TSC
Happy New Year and News Letter. From the Commodore. Trimpley Sailing Club. 2018
Hello TSC members,
Following on from what can only be described as a fantastic 2017 summer the Christmas Santa sail event packed the clubhouse. This was an entertaining event and I can only see this festive gathering getting bigger each year.
The Christmas boat designs and Santa outfits were inspiring and created a jolly and festive occasion. Linda and the galley crew produced a festive spread and a welcome glass of mulled wine accompanied by M Stout’s “best Christmas music ever CD” a good afternoon enjoyed by all.
The first class Santa Boat won by Simon Fletcher and John Cookson in a Viking GP14. Next years winner will need to be very creative to top this.
Ian D and Simon Y battled for the Santa finish line following a race committee review of the photo finish and applying the Santa race rules Ian was awarded the Laser Win. The GP14 Santa race was one by Ben and Keith reducing the weight of their craft by drinking the Santa six-pack.
Matt C completed his first Topper series and was rewarded with a tub of sweets once he had thawed out. All gave a round of applause for this polite little sailor. We have all enjoyed watching his sailing abilities grow and especially his roll tacking since the Langorse weekend.
I hope you have all received some new sailing gear for Christmas and eager to try it out on the Millennium race, new years day.
Last year I asked for more help with events from the general membership and you have certainly delivered, I can’t thank you enough for the support you have shown especially on Sunday Morning Coaching sessions and more importantly welcoming new members to sailing. Just some friendly reassurance in the boatyard a chat over tea it all helps.
This year 2017 we saw our help at the Bewdley Regatta on safety boats bring a £1000 income to the accounts and with the training of their own safety crew to RYA standard this increases our funds outside membership contributions nicely. I have said we support the event again this year so if you have a PLB2 licence or RYA safety please let me know. If you do not hold a licence you can still help by being a crew to a PLB2 helm.
Some new sailors have joined TSC and others we hope to see in spring 2018 joining following a taste of sailing in the late 2017 summer months.
TSC a “community sports club” was achieved this summer with ease, we effectively used Sundays as “Push the Boat Out” when needed and personally I think this has been more fun and effective in finding new members.
This year the TSC RYA affiliated club status was very successful in introducing people to sailing. Both weekend course dates were oversubscribed; this is a good measure that it helps find new sailors and has put TSC on the map. So in alignment with the club plan, we shall continue to support the RYA affiliated club program and invest in short medium and long-term goals of an RYA affiliated and training centre.
This year the intention is to support 3 more DI’s and encourage our existing DI’s to gain SI status in the following years. It has to be said the RYA training is no tick box exercise and the responsibility assigned to the RYA official titles requires our full support to ensure correct delivery and success. From my PLB2 spectator position during RYA courses, it is clear to me only having one DI and one SI is a lot of responsibility and therefore TSC shall be sponsoring to allow double the minimum requirements of RYA officials at events.
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the RYA club conference this year and with Ian D and Joshua S, this enabled us to attend many of the information tracks that the RYA offered on the day.
The RYA has completed a lot of groundwork of what works and how to achieve it. The event also allows you to talk to clubs that have taken a leap of faith in using this information and discuss how they achieved this and the benefits to the clubs.
This year with the GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we have no choice but to change the way we handle and store your data. Simon Y is busy attending webinars on how we implement such a structure and hopefully reduce the workload associated with membership and new applications. The preferred system should also allow members to pay by direct debit and over time I would hope all members will use this as a method of payment. We shall leave payment by Bitcoin out of the equation for this year but will be sponsoring the use of established methods such as Direct Debit payments for membership and events.
As some of you may know the Jaffa engine failed multiple times this year embarrassingly during RYA training and during rescue operations. We shall be replacing this engine in 2018 and certainly before the 2018 training programs.
A space heater has been purchased to heat the clubhouse pre-event and enable the electric heaters to maintain temperature. Please do not operate this heater without passing TSC training, which will be developed for Flag officers first. Until we acquire some grants for insulation and heating this is the best-cost sensitive solution during the very cold spells to get some heat into the clubroom however it does come with some use restrictions.
I know some of you will be keen to fill in your new diaries for 2018 TSC events we have been working very hard to get dates confirmed and we shall release the main event dates for your calendar ASAP. Where possible we shall try and hold event dates as close as possible to 2017 dates. Langorse a date in July has been requested and they are developing their own calendar and unable to confirm just yet.
Plas Meni again as soon as next year events are open I shall get a date hopefully similar to 2017.
Safety Boat Training we have a lot of new members on AOD duty and Jonathan is arranging beginners/refresher training event this year so driver and crew can work better together on rescue and after we shall all be up to speed with the latest methods.
A female only sailing evening during the summer has been suggested I can see how that could be attractive, so I shall be supporting this initiative. There are enough female members and you could invite friends. More on this closer to the longer light evenings.
Helen Chadderton has volunteered for a committee role. I am very pleased Helen will be joining us in March as she is very well known at TSC, increases the diversity ratio and brings lots of ideas and enthusiasm to see them through.a very active family member and mum to the best roll tacking Topper sailor of 2017! Formalities need to be adhered to but I am sure we shall be gaining a TSC supportive and committed committee member early 2018.
Simon has expressed he will be standing down from the committee as GP14 captain. He has been offered a prestigious role in his home community and wishes to dedicate more of his time to this. I shall miss his level headiness and experience at committee meetings. Simon has assured me he will continue to support TSC and the Sunday introduction sessions. Without this input during the summer, we would have struggled to meet the non-sailor demands to give sailing a try and book the following RYA courses.
The committee and I are sure you also wish Simon the very best in his next venture. So who is now going to take his role? Well, such a big role needs to be filled so we have asked two people who intend to sail the GP14 Worlds to step into this role. It would be unfair of me to name them while they consider but if you can guess who they are please help me to persuade them of this prestigious TSC role in maintaining the GP14 club fleet and events at TSC.
The first committee meeting of the year Jan 3rd will be attended by Gareth from the RYA, I have asked him to come explain the benefits of the RYA on board program and how this can help encourage and maintain the younger sailors. This will provide a formal record of what is taught on Sunday mornings and help ensure we continue to provide an enjoyable experience and encourage regular attendance at TSC.
We have had some new potential sailors to TSC with lots of new proud Grandparents this year. Congratulations to you all and I hope 2018 brings you further delights.
Happy New Year TSC
Neil