Newsletter Spring 2015 Looking Forward to the Season

Spring 2015 Looking Forward to the Season
St Catherine’s Sailing Club
www.scsc.org.je
This year looks set to be another exciting and busy one at St
Catherine’s. We have a packed sailing season ahead and I
look forward to welcoming all of you at the club.
You can see from the enclosed sailing calendar just how much
sailing is planned. The House Committee also have an
excellent themed Mexican night organized already and we
thoroughly enjoyed our winter walk from Devils Hole. Perhaps
you too are dreaming already of those summer days, after a
challenging sail you see yourself relaxing and enjoying the
sunshine, the fantastic view and another excellent lunch laid
on by our devoted house team!
Regattas
April 6
Easter Regatta
May 9
Liberation Regatta
May 23
Friends & Family Open Day
June 7
For some of our very keen laser, topper and optimist sailors
training squads have continued through the winter, the laser
squad especially has grown and been extremely popular.
Commodores Cup
In this Island Games year we have been inspired to think big
about what the future at St Catherine’s might be. We want to
be set to benefit from the sailing legacy of a home games.
With this in mind there is a ‘Future Ideas’ evening arranged, a
great chance to talk about how you think club facilities can
be improved in the future.
Jubilee Regatta
This year too we will focus on encouraging those that do the
evening and summer courses to take that next step and have
a go at racing. To help there will be Junior Regatta fleet racing
at our annual regatta, the novice races series and a fun Junior
Regatta and barbeque in August.
I hope you enjoy this short newsletter and very much look
forward to seeing you all at the club soon.
Paul Raimbault
Commodore
June 21
July 10
SCSC 62nd Annual Regatta
July 25
Gorey Regatta
August 22
Trophee Des Isles (St Malo)
September 4
UBS Jersey Regatta
September 20
2nd Bart’s Bash
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2015 Sailing Program
The sailing committee led by Sailing Secretary Ian Moisan have been busy planning this season’s
races and regattas; your detailed calendar is enclosed. As well as the series of evening and
weekend races there are many regattas to look forward to as well. The novice series will run in
August and is especially targeted at those new to sailing; with will have bronze, silver and gold
fleets more experienced sailors can join in if they wish. We are also having a fun junior regatta
and BBQ lunch on the beach, which will be a finale to the novice series and aimed especially at
those new to the club, perhaps having just finished their lessons.
Please take a look at your duties and note the dates. If you are nominated as OOD (officer of
the day,) it’s your responsibility to ensure that the others on the same duty are also available to
help. If for some reason you are unable to make the date allocated you should make
arrangements to swap duties with someone else. The support of everyone is vital for the club and
is what enables us to deliver such an extensive program of races. A huge thank you to everyone
in advance!
Future Ideas Evening
We are a relatively small family club although that won’t stop us from having some very big ideas,
which is exactly what the future ideas evening arranged for 6:30 – 8:30 pm on Thursday 26th Feb
is all about writes Paul Raimbault. At this stage we are simply looking to pool ideas from as many
club members as possible, young and old alike!
The evening is being arranged by club members, our very own architects Alison Horton and
Jeremy Barnes and facilitated by Will Carnegie; who is bit of a natural when it comes to this type
of thing! We will all be focused on making the evening enjoyable and constructive. So it will be
both a celebration of all the great things that we currently do as a club, as well as a chance to
let your imagination run a bit to help us brainstorm what improvements we should target in the
years ahead. Your ideas will then feed into a future club design, which we hope will lead to
enthusiasm for the proposed project and most importantly sponsorship, which will obviously be
key to translating our ideas into reality.
So we have an idea of numbers attending please RSVP alisonmhorton@gmail.com. We are
looking forward to a really interesting evening and hope you are able to come along.
Dinghy Park Maintenance Day
This will be from 11:00 a.m. on Sunday 22nd Feb; so if you can spare a few hours and fancy a tea
and chat afterwards you will be very welcome. This year we just need to clear some boats that
have been abandoned in the dinghy park to free up spaces for members who are active and
need a boat space. I think it’s likely that we will also be sorting out trailers and generally getting
a few things straightened up. It will be a chance to also make sure boats are in their allocated
places to make Dots task of keeping track as easy as we can.
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Winter walk
This year’s winter walk arranged by the House Committee took place from Devils Hole carpark.
Around 50 of us were blessed with clear blue skies for a very enjoyable stroll out along the cliff
path to Sorel then back along country lanes and through Mourier Valley.
Hot chocolate, tea, coffee and a selection of cakes were on offer in the car-park afterwards, it
did get a bit nippy standing around after all that exercise, but a good time was had by all. A quiz
was arranged for the walkers and we even had a route map and collection buckets for
contributions toward a defibrillator that the club hopes to purchase soon. A superb £130 was
raised.
Start of the Winter walk from Devils Hole on Sunday 8th Feb
Hope you enjoy the winning Limerick from the walk Quiz by the Tilly team
There was an old sailor called Fraser,
Who liked to sail in his laser,
All night and all day,
He'd sail round the bay,
But couldn't get it back on the trailer
Prizes for quiz winners will be presented at the Mexican themed fitting out supper. See you there!!
Fitting out dinner, Saturday, 14 March at 7:00pm
See web-site for booking details.
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Family & Friends Open Day
Following a very successful day last year writes Paul Raimbault we will
be holding our second friends and family fun day for all on Saturday 23rd
May from 10:00 a.m. As a reminder the idea of this event is that club
members can invite some of their family or friends along to the club for
the day. Ideally those that have shown an interest in St Catherine’s in
the past or perhaps are thinking about getting involved with sailing,
though would like to find out more before joining. The day will be a
good chance for people to find out what we are all about by chatting
to you and being introduced to other club members. Members will be
on hand to enthuse as well about training opportunities and our sailing
program. The sailing committee will arrange safety RIBS on the water so
there will be the chance for some of your family and friends (weather
permitting!) to either have go at sailing with you or take a short RIB ride.
This should be a good social occasion, get the date in the diary and
start thinking if there is anyone you would like to invite!
Off Island
SCSC Juniors have traditionally expanded their horizons by competing
in many off-island events.
These events are generally open to sailors who race regularly at SCSC
and can complete a race course without assistance. We like to travel
as a team and can often take unaccompanied sailors. The events in
Guernsey and St Malo have taken place for many years and some
great and long-lasting friendships have been made as we provide
accommodation and host each other’s sailors.
The events listed are just a synopsis of what is available, and the
traditional events SCSC sailors attend. But there are lots more
opportunities. For example, two of our young sailors took part in the RS
Feva World Championships in 2014 and finished in the top third.
Sailing in the UK does offer increased training and competition, and
many of our sailors follow the RYA pathway, which starts with zone
squads and junior squads for optimists, toppers and RS Fevas. The next
and more competitive squads are the transitional and youth squads
when sailors move into lasers or two handed boats.
Off Island
March
Optimist Spring Champs
@ Poole YC
May
Guernsey Youth Regatta
Optimist Inland Champs@ Grafham Water
July
Optimist Nationals
@ Pwllheli SC
August
Topper Nationals
@ Weymouth
Trophee Des Isles
@ St Malo
September
Late Summer Optimist
@ Draycote Water
October
Optimist End of Seasons
@ Weymouth
See the Squads page on the club web-site for further information.
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Membership
A few requests from our membership & berthing officer Dorothy Perks
- Please mark your dinghy boat covers and trollies to identify the boat or the owner
- Your dinghy trolleys will be tagged to identify the allocated boat space
- Please could you ensure your boat is returned to the correct space
- Please note that unpaid boats from 2014 and earlier will be moved to the Ports parking area on
Memberships are now due so please complete and return the enclosed form. If you provide an email address we will add you to our club e-mail database so that you receive regular updates
about what is happening. Of course you can also join our face-book site and keep any eye on
the website as well to find out what’s happening.
Winter Training
For many sailors at St Catherine’s sailing is year round. Over the winter months the really keen
amongst you may well have been part of the winter squads program with the optimists, toppers
and lasers all enjoying at least some winter weekend sailing. Justin Horton has been taking a lead
on arranging the optimist squad, Will Carnegie the toppers and Martin and Jeff Speller have been
doing a great job motivating everyone into a touch of winter laser sailing.
Preparing to Sail at Laser Winter Training squad on a sunny 6th December
The laser winter squad has been especially strong with between 15-18 sailors per session.
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Tony Cavey Centre: Sailing and Powerboat Training
Well another season is fast approaching writes Louise Perkins and the
yellow shirted instructors will once again be in action at the club.
Over the winter we ran two First Aid courses and may well run one
more before the summer, so if you are interested in this course please
register this interest via the website.
Training
The Junior Learn to Sail lessons will commence this year on Monday
June 1st. Level 1 and 2 will be on Monday and Tuesday nights, with
level 3 on Wednesday and Level 4 /racing on Thursday. As we now
have full RYA recognition, RYA certificate and if required a log book
can be issued for each successfully completed course. These courses
will be for 6 weeks and start at 5pm – 7pm.
For sign-up details
Please note you must be in year 3 or above to learn to sail with us- i.e.
8 years by 31.8.15.
Adult Learn to sail
In addition, we will be running an Adult Learn to Sail – 4 week course
commencing June15th on Mon or Tuesday nights from 6.15-8.15pm.
Back to juniors, and three 4 day Summer holiday courses will be held
on: July 21-24th / Aug 10th -13th / Aug 24th -27th from 10am – 4pm. These
courses are open to all levels and include on the last day our sailaway day when the whole group heads over to Archirondel. Again
RYA levels will be completed during these courses
We also offer Powerboat training. Pb1 is a one day course teaching
the basic skills in driving and handling a RIB with Pb2 being held over
two days and including basic navigation, boat handling. Full course
criteria can be found via our website. There are 3 places per course
and at present we are putting together some dates. Alternatively, if
you can find a group of 3 and have an idea of when you would like
to do the course then let us know and we try to accommodate you.
Check the website
www.scsc.org.je
Junior Learn to Sail
Levels 1 – 4 evenings &
Summer Holidays
The Ladies who Launch
RYA Power Boat 2
RYA Power Boat Safety
RYA First Aid
RYA Power Boat
Instructors
Again there is a link on the website for you to contact us and register interest in going on one of
the powerboat course. So finally, the bookings go live on MONDAY 23RD FEBRUARY- from then you
will be able to download the forms and post them to reserve a place on one of our courses. Please
feel free to email us with any queries.
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