Welcome to the 2021 Club Forum

Thank you for zooming into this important Club Event:

First off….a THANK YOU to the vast majority of members that have supported all the bulletins of dos and donts that have been issued over the last 11 months, necessitated by the Covid pandemic…it seems like a life time….As you can imagine, the Covid Group and your General Committee took no pleasure at all in having to put in place such draconian measures.

Whist in thank you mode, the hours put in by the Covid Group and other committees over the last year has been fantastic and we members do owe a big vote of thanks to those members for the all the time put in, also to our great band of Night Watch Team Member Volunteers. Thank you to our team of staff colleagues for all their efforts during the last year.

Past Commodores briefed me by saying “Being Commodore is easy peasy, just don’t drink too much at the round of Cocktail Parties you and Pat will attend….” Well, the first year has turned out slightly different than that, not so easy peasy and not a cocktail party in sight!

But let us hope that we may be beginning to turn the corner with this retched virus and we can, just may be, start to see our lives return to some form of new normality and the our Club can fire up again in the not too distant future.

So, now to the Club Forum:

Those member new to the forum process…..It is held at this time of year to give you, the members, the opportunity to ask questions to the panel.

Tonight we have Adam Deary, Vice Commodore Yard & Haven, Tracey Lee, Rear Commodore Sailing & On The Water Activities, Simon Philbrick, Rear Commodore House, Bar & Catering, Kate Mellor, Honorary Treasurer, Tim Edom, Chair of the Membership Sub Committee and Mark Fulton, General Manager.

Some questions have been submitted already and thank you for those.

There will be an opportunity for you to submit your questions live via the zoom chat box and this evening’s Zoom Administrator, Kate Macgregor, will help us through the zoom process. Lorna Whitehead is also assisting with the handling of the questions.

To start….The Flag Officers will each speak for a few minutes on their respective areas of responsibility and interest within the Club; looking at the recent past and turning to look towards the future.

We can learn from the former and work on the later. We will do our upmost to answer the questions as fully as possible during the Forum. If we need to research to give the answer, we will get back to however raised the question, after the Forum.

As in previous Forums, we do not keep minutes of the Forum, by Mark does keep notes so that we can capture these and raise them at General Committee for consideration or / and review.

Our Annual General Meeting is approaching:

I am very mindful that our AGM lead-in is almost upon us. I am sure that in recent years, as a result of the Forum, some members have decided to put in a proposition to the AGM for the membership to consider a Rule or Policy change. Will this year see the same?

Additionally, you may feel the time is right for you to consider standing for General Committee and / or one of the Flag and Officer positions. All Officers and Flag Officers have to be voted in annually.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my years on General Committee and the various volunteering jobs I have undertaken, and if you feel the time is right for you to stand, why not put your name forward?

Finally:

I have been proud and pleased to have been elected as your Commodore and I know that our Club is one of the best around. When asked, especially by prospective members, why I feel that; it just seems to work so well with all the various classes, events, members, the volunteering, fantastic club house, our team of staff colleagues and great access to one of the best stretches of water anywhere….

Whilst being your Commodore, I will do my utmost to ensure that the objects and traditions of our great Club are protected and nurtured and we will journey into the future with confidence.

Now to over to our Flag Officers….

Hello everyone,

Last year Studland became a designated Marine Controlled Zone (MCZ) and there is now a request for comments and suggestions on how it will be managed. The closing date is 15th December 2020.

It is the responsibility the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to determine the management of the Marine Controlled Zone at Studland.

The MMO is considering what needs to be done for the preservation of the environment and marine life in that area.

A meeting attended by representatives from Poole YC, The RYA, The Poole Yachting Association including Parktone and Royal Motor Yacht clubs, and Salterns Marina was held to discuss the options put forward by the MMO and the implications for recreational boating activity in that area.

Broadly there is a consensus that The RYA should respond on behalf of all boating activity, recognising the need for conservation and protection of the seagrass beds at Studland, but at the same time seeking a largely voluntary code of practice. The yacht clubs will each be making their own representations on the specific options and in line with this consensus.

There was a general consensus for a statutory speed limit in the Zone and very much against a total ban on recreational boating; the latter option is the most severe of those put forward by the MMO.

If you wish to make a personal statement to the MMO, details can be obtained at https://consult.defra.gov.uk/mmo/call-for-evidence-mmo-mpa-assessments/ where there is a response form and further information about the consultation.

We will keep you posted as to developments on this issue and thank you for your support in this.

Signed Tracey Lee RC Sailing & On the Water Activity

Brian Snelgrove

Sailing and General Committee

Congratulations to Ellie Aldridge winning a silver med at the 2020 Formula Kite European Championships in Poland.

Another club member’s success!

Angus Kemp has gained a place in the GB sailing team Laser Radial youth squad. He is one of only seven boys and five girls from all of the UK and Ireland. The squad starts formal training early in November with their first international event in Palamos Spain late December. Needless to say Angus is "Really chuffed"

For Angus it all began over 10 years ago with a tiny little six year old in his Opi of Hamworthy beach on the end of a 100m floating line. He was way too young to do Wednesday nights but the Opi Start Race coach at the time, Tim Edom, said if he did OK at the Club Regatta on the White Course he could join in. Angus went on to win the White Course and so his journey began.

After a couple of seasons in the Opi doing the class Nationals (not very well he was ill) Inlands and several national rankers he moved, following his sister, into the Topper. At nine he was the youngest sailor to make the South Zone Squad, which he did for two years, then at 11 he was the youngest ever to make the Intermediate Squad. After a season in Intermediate he advanced to the National Squad, which gave him two more seasons of high-level training. In his last year of Toppers he won every Southern Traveller event, missed out on winning the Worlds by a fraction, ask him about checking toe strap lines! Angus won his last National Series event and then waved goodbye to the Topper and tried out for the Laser National Squad in the 4.7 rig.

This summer he took part in the Greek nationals on the coast off Athens, followed a few days later by the Youth Europeans at the same venue, a couple of days later the Kemps were off to Germany from Athens, along with one of the girls, as they had both been selected for the GB team to compete at the German Europa Cup. Then home, a day or so later Angus was off to Scotland for the Nationals, straight back to Poole the day after they finished to do Parkstone Youth Week with most of his old 4.7 mates. The Impala Nationals followed a day or so later in Weymouth, then Poole Week back in the Laser, with the summer finished off by the Sonata Lift Keel Nationals, sailing with a bunch of his Laser mates, he was only at home for a hand full of days all summer.

Looking at the diary today, he only has one weekend free between now and Christmas, the rest taken up by two World/European qualifiers, squad training with the Radial Squad, open class training, the Inlands plus the Radial lads are also all starting to train this winter in the standard (full) rig so they are in a good position to transition into standard rigs over the next eighteen months to two years, probably helped by the lure of the 2020 Under 21 Worlds (raced in standard rigs in Garda next summer). Just before Christmas he is off to Palamos in Spain for their Christmas Regatta then the 2020 season starts in earnest.

For any of our Junior Sailors coming through Wednesday nights with aims and passions: train hard, spend as much time on the water as you can, perfect your skills and make sure you are as fit as possible. Try different boats when you can, get involved with our Commodores’ Challenge, you will gain huge transferable skills from that alone but most of all make sure it’s fun.

Poole YC’s Ellie Aldridge, a dinghy sailor who only began foiling a year ago, took second in the Open Europeans and lifted the European crown with stellar racing that beat off challenges from Australia's Breiana Whitehead and Russia's Valeria Garashchenko.

"It feels a bit mad," said Ellie. "The racing was so intense; so good. Everyone's improved so much. It's really tight racing. It's ridiculous to think that we have all come so far in the space of just a year. All the girls are pushing each other so much."

Aldridge was also part of the British team, paired with Connor Bainbridge, that was victorious in the inaugural Mixed Relay European Championship, when one day of the regatta was allocated to the Paris 2024 Olympics' format event. The duo just edged out the Russian pairing of Alexey Chibizov and Garashchenko.