Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

Tel: 01702 587 563

Yesterday a small number of volunteers met on the slipway at 08:30.  Their task was to lift and recover all 15 race marks, using the SS2 and SS3 that have been freshly serviced and maintained and painted by Toby Speller, John Casson, Paul Farrall and their team of helpers. We then had to unload the rescue boats and move all the marks, chain and concrete blocks to the top of the slipway.  After a quick well earned cup of tea and a hose down, the second job to remove all the chain from the buoys and blocks, end to end the chain, checking it as they went, then to re shackle it all up, replacing marks 2, 4, 7, 9, 12 and 14 with orange buoys (a response to discussions at last years Sailing AGM, course cards with orange buoys).  If that was not enough the buoys, chain and blocks were then loaded into SS2 and SS3 before being re-laid using 2 handheld GPS in a slightly condensed version of last years positions.

You may not notice the subtle change, but the west side of the mark grid is now closer to the Roslin Hotel rather than the Halfway house.  This huge, dirty and demanding task was completed in 6 hours by me and my team of Struan Wallace, John Casson, Alan Grant, Paul Beasley, Paul Morgan and Jack Morgan.  If you see these guys this weekend, give them a big thank you and buy them a drink.  Without them we would have not fixed buoys to start the season.

Enjoy the long Easter weekends racing and the start of the season.

Click on “continue reading” for pictures and GPS files to download.
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Due to poor weather and a very high low tide on Sunday the Cruiser Lift in has now been rescheduled after club racing this Friday.

Will all sailors and members (the Warm Up Race scheduled for 11:00 this Friday) try to ensure that they are clear of the Dinghy Park by 15:00 to allow this work to take place. Be aware that this work also affects the Slipway and Beach.

Thank you to Rupert for a fantastic Rules night on Wednesday.

It was great to see so many people there, from past National Champions and experienced club racers to those new to racing at TBYC, all joined in.  Rupert’s knowledge and engaging delivery or each different scenario made for great discussion with some surprising results and answers.

Everyone engaged in the evening and took away something to progress their boat positioning and awareness around the course.  If you weren’t there, watch out on Sunday, you could find yourself being called!

The evening was a great success and we will be looking to run another later in the season.

Comments and Questions for next time always welcome. Jeremy

Winter prize giving will be held in the bar after racing Sunday. Come and gather in the bar around 3pm to support and celebrate this years winners.

If you have completed any of the winter race series and are scoring finishes in your results (you can discard one DNC) then you to could be winning a prize in the new prize draw.

Enjoy todays racing (12:00 start), see you in the bar for prizes at 15:00.

Don’t miss the start of the Racing Calendar which covers 12 months from Apr15-Mar16. The Calendar is available for purchase at the club bar with an excellent price in line with last year.

The 2015 price remains at £8

We have ordered a similar amount to last year, however if we run out please pay (leaving your name) and we will submit a further order before the calendar starts. All the racing dates in a popular format, with familiar scenes and saving you loads of time writing the programme up somewhere else.

I understand the usual Club Programmes will be with you soon.

Many thanks to Paul & Claire Morgan and their children for kindly supplying us with lovely nibbles on Christmas Eve at TBYC.

Nick Turner and family visit Mombasa, Kenya on a regular basis and he doesn’t miss the opportunity to go sailing. There are 4 or 5 Darts/Sprints type boats there that are owned by guys sailing tourists out to the Mombasa reef which is a sand bar 2 miles out from the coast. They also taxi tourists about for a quick sailing experience plus a bit of snorkeling. Basically anyway they can make a bit of money as they are desperately poor.
In Thorpe Bay Nick had asked around for any old fully battens sails and as Richard Sands had just changed his Sprint 15 sail happily passed it on. Nick then flew out with the sail to pass on as a gift.
You can see by the photos the expression of pure delight of having a Dacron made sail in his hands.
And the crowd of 10 praising Nick kindness – all repeating “God Bless you” and different variations of it, God Bless your family – God bless you for a hundred and fifty years. We had to be there as this story does not give it justice.

Although the 2014 main season is over, it is this time of year when your Class Captains and the Sailing Committee start to work hard behind the scenes putting next years programme together.  The Dinghy AGM is your chance to help by telling us what aspects of the 2014 programme you enjoyed this year and sharing any good ideas you think we could incorporate into next years Sailing Programme.

Have you got some ideas, do you want to help? Then we have a vacancy on the Sailing Committee for Sailing Secretary, let me know if you are interested.

This years Dinghy AGM will be held on Wednesday 12th November 2014 at 20:00 in the Commodores Bar.

We hope to see you there.

Jeremy Sandford and the 2014 Sailing Committee.

Dee Gordon, A Southend Writer will be with us on Tuesday 28th October 7.30 to 8pm start.

Dee will be giving us an overview of her books.

All members welcome

For more details please contact Gaynor Thompson 01702 588239/07776 155933