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Sailing News
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So the 2024 sailing season is now well & truly underway although the wet and windy spring has certainly provided some challenges and mixed conditions to say the least, whilst problems with floating lines, lack of water around proposed racing marks, and missing flags have created their own little bit of controversy!
So far for racing in the harbour we have had 17 sailors (12 HSC) compete in the Spring Harbour Interclub, 18 sailors in the HSC Easter Cup, 15 in the Spring Series, and 10 in the Evening Early Points series.
At sea, 4 sailors braved a not very encouraging forecast for the Chris Allen Trophy -
only to be rewarded with very pleasant sailing conditions once the initial NW had swung around 110 o to the prevailing SW. Whilst this Sunday 9 sailors ventured out to sea for race 1 & 2 in the Summer series under bright sunny skies; a fresh NE F4; and a strong running tide on the windward mark which certainly made things challenging for the sailors.
Results are published here:- https://www.highcliffesailing.co.uk/sailresults
All the sailors venturing to sea have been very complimentary of the new orange ‘dumpy’ bouys which have been brought to replace the old aging (and really hard to spot) pencil marks. There will certainly be no excuses this year then (mentioning no names ‘Dave Holloway’) for not being able to spot the course marks this year - although which way around you are expected to sail them may still be a challenge for some!!!
This Sunday was the first time that we have taken an observer out to sea on the safety boat (Henk Nieuwenhuis) and Henk certainly enjoyed the experience and took some great photos which appear later. Just to recap on earlier comms, we have added a third slot onto the safety rib this year to give members keen to get out to sea, the chance to experience what supporting a sea race is like, and hopefully in due course you will then feel able to volunteer for assistant roles. If you are interested in observing in this way then please check out Duty Man and sign yourself up into any available slot. On the issue of Duty Man there are still quite a few slots in the rest of the race programmne where volunteers are required for all roles. Can I please encourage members (especially the sailing members) to sign up for at least your three expected race duties. The racing programme which continues to go from strength to strength at the moment, can only work with the help of volunteer race officers and safety boat crews. (Duty Man Tip – if you switch from the ‘calendar view’ to the ‘List view’ it is easier and quicker click through on the arrows the programme to identify the duties that are still requiring volunteers).
And finally the club hire fleet has increased with the addition on another two RS Zests which have been named by the clubs Seal’s section, ‘Zippy’ and ‘Zappy’. ……..
So what are you waiting for – the summer is on its way, get yourself out on the water. Nothing beats speeding (or pottering around) around under sail!!
Graham
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