Dear Member
So much has happened over the Summer! I will attempt to give a flavour to the wonderful achievements of our members at the very highest level to our beginners at club sailing events.
Sorry this newsletter is more like a book, just a reflection of all that has gone on over the summer!
Headline News
Amazing success from Lucy and Ellie
Lucy Macgregor, four-times winner of the Women's Match Racing World Championship after her victory at the Lysekil Women's Match in August, is the YJA MS Amlin Yachtsman of the Year.
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
J24
My J24 adventures continue. We hosted the J24 Autumn Cup at the end of September. Racing was very exciting on the Saturday as we managed 4 races in very blustery conditions. There are some great photos of the action on the J24 UK association Facebook site. In Cacoon we managed a 7th overall having been over the line at the last race. Joe Cross did very well to achieve 3rd place overall with consistently great sailing, well done Joe and team.
As you will be aware from my previous posts this year has been the qualifying events for the World Championships in Poole Harbour next year.
The event organised by Jackie Hale was a huge success with all the visiting boats providing very positive feedback about both the event organisation and the on the water race team led by Steve Thompson who provided 4 exciting races in challenging conditions.
Poole Yacht Club currently have the first and second ranked boats in the UK! With Cacoon, helmed by Dave Hale in first place and Jambalaya helmed by Joe Cross in second place. For the full ranking list go to the J24 UK class association website. These rankings will change a little after UK boats competing in this years World’s in Miami in October.
Our Youth Sailors
Youth sailing at our club has gone from strength to strength this year. Our youth sailors have been very successful and some of their achievements are noted below. Well done all our youth sailors from those just beginning, to those achieving great success.
Congratulations to the following:
Carlo Consolos Keelboat academy
Our top Topper sailors have made squads again this year
SW Zone Squad: Maddie Smith
ITCA 5.3 National Squad: Ollie Freemantle
RYA UK Junior Squad: Emily Smith, Amber Hale, River Green, Oli Hale
Harry Somerville - Harry is also hoping to be offered RYA Bic Techno 293 (windsurfing) UK Junior Squad
and the other budding topper sailors are super keen and hope to be joining in with the club racing on Saturday afternoons, please help them find the club racing marks if they look lost!
Ocean Hughes – won 7 regatta fleet events this year and has been accepted into South Zone squad.
Next year should be even more exciting. There are so many children wanting to train and race that resources prevent them all sailing on the same night, so we now have Youth Night on Thursdays where the more able sailors will be encouraged to join in with the current club racing and alongside the extra course for Toppers, Optimists and double handers. In fact, some of the families are so excited about the change that some have already purchased 420’s and 3 -4 other families are actively looking for one, so watch this space, we may have enough to re-instate the 420 class on a Thursday.
Wednesday’s Junior evening will remain as is for training up to Start Race with a few extra courses thrown in so the youth can dip in and out. i.e. “Spinnaker” flying.
There was a fantastic atmosphere at the recent Youth Awards night.
RYA Recognised Training Centre
Our centre inspection by the RYA went very well and Katie Hooper, our sailing professional, has done a great job in ensuring all our procedures and practices follow “best practice” advice, well done Katie.
During the Summer Katie delivered much training and there were even yoga classes on our SUP’s!
Events
During August we hosted the Mirror Nationals, again this was a very successful event and once more our volunteer teams were exceptional in making the event such a success.
The R19 Open was again very successfully run in August, the R19 fleet continue to provide great one design racing.
In September we ran our Club Regatta with close to 100 entries. The event was a great success, the atmosphere on the water and in the clubhouse afterwards was first class. Seeing all our members through the whole age range enjoy their racing and the socials reminds us all of why our sport is so enjoyable.
Thank you to all our members who donated cakes for the charity cake stall. The volunteers who sold these cakes raised over £200 for my Commodore’s Charity Julia’s House.
Saturday dinghy and Sunday cruiser racing has started and will take us through to December.
John Yonwin and his sailing team are already well into drafting our sailing programme for 2020, this is a huge task given all the activity undertaken within the club and the events that we run.
Volunteers Thank you evening on Tuesday 8th October (one day of the year when there is no risk of JY asking for volunteers for this or that duty or event!)
We held a Joint exercise with PHC and the RNLI in September (after evening racing) to test our emergency / response processes. This went well and was valuable experience for our volunteer teams.
Yard and Haven
For several years one of the most irritating and uncomfortable issues for members is boats taking up berths in the Haven which are never moved. They are kept in reasonable condition but never leave their berth. We have bye-laws which allow us to remove boats that never move but it has always been difficult to identify accurately these boats.
Our Yard and Haven Team with the full support of the Flag Officers and General Committee have been investigating ways to monitor boat usage.
Yard and Haven will shortly be installing a marina entrance monitoring system on a trial basis. Once we have run and evaluated the trial, we will bring our findings and recommendations to the members. Pontoon Lighting on F pontoon will shortly be in place.
Yard and Haven will very soon be introducing a standard operating procedure for the mast hoist, making members aware of the risks associated with the hoist and the need to perform risk assessments in accordance with national regulations.
House Bar and Catering (HBC)
HBC have been targeting a reduction to the deficit identified in last year’s accounts and are determined to reduce this deficit and help increase our overall annual club surplus.
HBC has introduced special events on the first Friday on the month, these have proved very popular. Mark, our General Manager, has been working hard with suppliers to ensure we receive high quality goods but at very competitive prices. The food I have experienced at the club over the last year I think has been very good. In addition to these measures’ prices have had to rise but still provide exceptional value for money. If you don’t currently use the catering offered by the club, give it a go, it is very good.
Ladies Night
The Poole Yacht Club ladies’ nights have started. The first one was very well attended and gave me a peaceful night at home! I understand that there is now a “whatsapp” group to disseminate information about forthcoming events. Amanda Jones is also closing the season on the 2nd March with a fashion show/talk/cheese and wine evening. This will be in aid of my Commodore’s Charity and will be the last fund raising event for Julia’s House before I step down. Please put the date in your diary now and thank you Amanda for all your fundraising support over the last three years.
Commodores Challenge
This year will be the 25th anniversary of the Commodores Challenge. We are planning to celebrate this milestone by making the challenge even more special. One of the plans will be to invite previous challenge teams back, and hopefully have a race between as many members of the original challenge teams as possible, as a curtain raiser to the main event. Please put the date in your diary and come along and support. Friday 27th December with a weather reserve date on 28th December.
Best Regards
Nye Davies
Commodore
