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Barnt Green Sailing Club - News Articles
Our annual OPEN DAY for visitors / potential new members was held on Saturday 10th May. About 80 people turned up and were shown around the club, taking membership details away after their visit. We thank them for coming and hope to welcome as many as possible into membership. A report will be on here soon. Any queries following the day? Contact Membership Secretary, Karen Millington, telephone 0121 445 2695 or to email her click here.
"Beating the Bounds". Barnt Green Sailing Club were pleased to welcome 34 walkers on Bank Holiday Monday 5th May, more..... Three Barnt Green Optimist Sailors have been selected to represent the West Zone Squad at the Eric Twiname Championships at Rutland on 10th/11th May. This competition is only open to members of the RYA Zone squads and only the top members of each zone squad are selected to represent their zone. So it is with much pleasure that I would like to wish Mark Powell, Lucy Best and William Lockett good luck at the event. If you would like to know more about the Eric Twiname Championships, you can find out about it here
A letter for the new summer series, from our Commodore, posted on 10th March 2008. Dear Members The winter is almost over and it will soon be time to blow the cobwebs off your boats ready for the new season. The snowflake series has again been very successful with some very good turnouts; this has been partly due to some mild weather and steady winds. Many thanks to those members who gave up their time to organise the racing and the manning of the rescue boat. The pond is full with a steady trickle pouring over the weir, hopefully we will not get a repeat of last year when British Waterways had to lower the level to repair a culvert. The first important dates for your diaries are the 2 working parties that been arranged on the 9th and 15th March. We have identified several jobs that are required to be completed as a matter of urgency as well as the normal day to day general housekeeping chores. If you cannot make the days this time around then please try to ensure that you put the autumn working party dates in your diaries. The sailing committee has been very busy over the winter period and have made several important decisions. We have decided that to encourage new members into the club we will start a new 2 man handicap fleet with PY between 1059 and 1099, the intention being to encourage RS200 sailing into the club. The rationale behind the change is that we are always looking out for new members, but some are put off joining by our single class racing with boats that were designed 40-50 years ago. (Sorry Lasers 37 years ago). The present fleets will continue unchanged. The new class will initially start with the Larks until it has gained sufficient numbers to warrant their own. The first race of the summer series commences on the 16th March with the first Wednesday evening race on the 2nd April with a I have had 2 reports of road trailers going missing from the Club. If you have taken your boat home for the winter can you please check that you have the correct trailer beneath it. We are trying to identify the owners of sailboards that are stored in the old Club House. Many appear to be abandoned and are taking up valuable storage space. If you own one please make sure that you name it clearly and have paid the £10 storage fee, otherwise it will be removed to the far end and possibly disposed of. We have a vacancy for somebody to take on the role of Training Co-ordinator (senior), it is a simple task of just keeping track of those who wish to enrol on the training courses and forwarding the names to the appointed instructors. This year we again have a wide range of adult and junior sailing and power boat courses; these are listed inside the handbook. If you are interested in any then please contact myself or Karen Millington the membership secretary. Inside the handbook you will find the new duty list please make sure that you are aware of your duty dates. If you are unable to make your date you must arrange a swop so that the duty team is not short. Please do not expect the sailing secretary to do it for you. *********************************************************** The trial run of the Hyrdogen powered dinghy went ahead and can be hailed a great success, a report with photographs has been created by web admin. A link is below. 20/1/2008. Barnt Green Sailing Club is pleased to be hosting the first ever outing of a hydrogen cell powered outboard engine, check here for more information on Valeswood.com. Called the MinnKota hydrogen engine and developed at Birmingham University in conjunction with Valeswood Co. this exciting development should present a spectacle worth seeing, history will be in the making! If members wish to see what happens, pop along, the forecast is for a 12 knots westerly and about 12 degrees at present so it should be pleasant if the rain holds off. Hope to see you there. A report with photographs can be seen here (RB) We are advised that a Laser top mast extension (black) has gone missing since the tornado, possibly blown into the lake or could be around the property, please report a find to Mike Powell. We are also advised that a combi trolley & trailer for an enterprise dinghy has gone from the trailer park, it has the telltale clue to ownership painted on it in black saying ELLIS. If you know of its whereabouts or accidentally borrowed it please get in touch with Roger Ellis.
NEWSFLASH - STORM DAMAGE TO ABOUT 30 BOATS AT BGSC ON 8TH JANUARY. During the evening at approx. 8.00 p.m. a freak storm passed through, lasting around 20 minutes. There must have been massive gusts, Lisa commented " I thought the windows were being blown in, it was quite frightening". On arrival at the club on Wednesday morning to check his boats Bob Suggitt found what he described as "mayhem". At least 30 boats blown either off their trollies, rolled over, some repeatedly or smashed into other boats. In all his years at the club he said this was the worst he has seen. "It even lifted the jetty walkways off and blew them along the shore!" Several Larks have broken masts, three were obvious. Ralph Gordon's Solo has a smashed transom and gunwale, could be a write off! Keith Heyes Solo has a damaged gunwale, Bobs Lark was blown off its road trailer and, still on its trolley was blown about 20 metres to end up by the OOD box with a broken rudder. Many Lasers were simply picked up and turned over, some of them rolling several times. Virtually all the Cadets were blown over, yet, at the Enterprise end of the dinghy park, little was damaged. Bob commented that he was "amazed at how little damage many boats had considering where they had ended up"! Fred, our Keeper, was already on the scene and between them they started to try and tidy up the mess. They were joined by fishing club member Charles Deverell, who kindly helped and the three of them worked hard for ages to get boats back into a reasonable position and to recover the walkways to a safe place. On behalf of us all I would like to say a big "THANK YOU" to Fred Rollins, Bob Suggitt and Charles Deverell. We would advise members to go the the club as soon as they can to inspect any damage their own boat may have suffered and for many, to place their order for a new cover (Many are ripped) with schhh, you know who! ( Gallery here ) Update 31.12.07: Boxing Day handicap race. There were 11 entries and the top three places were :- 1st Kelsey Suggitt & Josh. (Lark) 2nd Bob & Mandy Suggitt. (Lark) 3rd Sarah Alton. (Craft not known)
New Committee and Officers elected for 2008, see Contacts page for details. ************************* Latest info on the 160 club - click here (Monthly cash draw for subscribing members) Have you got something newsworthy to share with fellow members? Please send it to Gordon Padmore for inclusion in the next newsletter or to Robin Brown for uploading to the website.
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K8's Crew here
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Further news items Pending TOP NEWS ARCHIVE HERE | ||||||
Visit the Ladies (Mandy’s) Mondays page here Keith Heyes, as our Sailing Secretary, is posting out duty reminders to OOD’s but still we have some occasions where members are not turning up for their duties. Please write them in your diaries and remember if you cannot make a duty it is your responsibility to swap with another member; it should not be left with Keith to sort out.
The only way our club works is if members carry out their duties to run club racing. It is therefore important that members appreciate the difficult and onerous job that OOD officers and teams have in running races. I am sure they all do the job to the best of their abilities but if you feel you need to offer advice or help please do it in a pleasant and constructive manner. After all whilst we all enjoy the competitiveness of sailing and trying to win we must remember it is, first and foremost, a leisure activity and at the end of the day we all want to go home having enjoyed our day, whether it was on duty or sailing. This is especially important when new members start racing for the first time; please try and encourage them and offer friendly advice. Remember they may not be as competent as you are and may not fully understand all the rules of sailing which even experienced sailors have problems interpreting.
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The "TOD", our trusty old Committee boat | ||||||
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If members have any news or other information they would like to submit for inclusion on the website, please e-mail it to Robin here
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The 2008 Snowflake series started on Sunday 6th January and ended on the 2nd March. Click Final results to see where everyone finished. Kelsey Suggitt crewed by Josh Stuart won the senior and William Lockett the junior trophy! Well done, another great snowflake series! Visit the Snowflake page here Snowflake gallery here | ||||||
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The extra bits of Bittell Banter....
The RNLI has sent the Club a thank you note after receiving £57.07 from the RNLI collection box – That’s a lot of rescues! May we remind members who seek outside assistance during racing that they are expected to put £1.00 in the lifeboat box! Other donations are also welcomed, you don't have to capsize to donate!
The superb sketches featured around our website are drawn by one of our members, Nick Day of Alvechurch and we wish to record our grateful thanks. Nick is an excellent local artist and graphic designer and has painted many local scenes. Contact the club if you would like more information. |
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For more information contact Mandy Suggitt: Tel. 0121 445 6550 or 
