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May 2018

A Message from the Editor

“Ne'er cast a clout till May be out” is a traditional warning not to get too carried away when we get some good weather in May. A “clout” is a piece of clothing but it’s unclear whether “May” refers to the month or the tree. Anyway, I digress. May has started (sorry for the late Mainsheet) and we’re at the first Bank Holiday weekend and the weather is set fair for a few days. Let’s hope it sticks this time and doesn’t revert to February.

We’ve had an excellent record of not abandoning Sunday sea racing with seven race-days held out of seven planned and we’ll add to that this weekend. We’re in the middle of the first Seaford Family Week-end. So gather the children or anything else that qualifies you to be a family (the dog, the au-pair, the Sly & The Family Stone or Sister Sledge LPs) and get to Seaford, pitch your tent and have fun. Details of the Familly Weekend can be found elsewhere in Mainsheet. My front page picture shows a duck swim-ming in the Seaford camp site on Wednesday, but fear not, it’s quite dry now, and the grass has been cut.

Zoe McCaig (Commodore) and the new board are busy getting to grips with the transition to the new regime. Next month we’ll definitely have an article from Zoe in Mainsheet.

Finally, let’s remember the success of Open Day. Throughout the year the club can put on amazing events and with everyone’s participation they linger in the memory.

I’m off to cast all my clouts and trip down to Seaford.

Richard Beal

Mainsheet Editor,

mainsheetnssc@nssc.org.uk

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Open Day

Well, wasn’t Open Day a triumph this year? The weather was kind to us but all the hard work paid-off and we had a most en-joyable and productive day.

The statistics are impressive. The meet-and-greet area had visi-tors two or three deep at times, and were using every bit of technology they had to process enquiries. They were putting the Webcollect system (member management and course booking) through stress tests and had much useful feedback for Terry. Over £1500 was collected in new-member fees and we increased our numbers on the April RYA L1/L2 dinghy courses. Many families were keen to join if we could offer courses for the children.

It’s estimated that about 150 members attended the event plus about 350 visitors. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves which was reflected in the takings at the Piddinghoe galley which did a roaring trade with a very healthy profit.

Thanks are due to everyone who helped out. I think the members enjoyed the day as much as the visitors. Lots of pictures of the event are on the next few pages.

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Cadet Launch Day—7th April

As I drove towards the pond in the morning it was pouring heavily with rain, I had two gazebos in my car and was prepared to set up the day despite the elements being against us. However when I arrived at the pond the rain stopped and even though I wouldn’t call it sunny it defi-nitely dried up and allowed us to have a brilliant cadet launch day.

The idea of the day was firstly to meet some of our new ca-dets before the chaos of Monday nights, (which this year will involve 80 cadets and 60 boats on the water). All our new cadets had a chance to have a taster sail with our more experienced cadets taking them on the water. I was really impressed with our current cadets who were enthusiastic, friendly and keen to share their joy of sailing throughout the day, all with-out me even having to ask them. Mid-morning I meet Aphaia one of our new cadets she had the biggest smile on her face, she had been out for two taster sails and enjoyed it so much she could barely wait for Monday cadets to start.

We also wanted to use the launch day to raise some money towards cadet funds to help buy some new waterproof radios. We ran two events for this, a cadet cake competition and a ‘Sail to France’. The cadet cake competition was judged mid morning by our two expert judges Sarah and Mike. The standard of cakes en-tered was excellent who knew we had such talent-ed bakers and sailors in cadets. First prize went to Bea West for her very

colourful rainbow cake, second prize to Roscoe Harris for his pirate teddy bear cake and third prize to Lo-ra Wheatcroft for her chocolate cake.

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The ‘Sail to France’ ran throughout the day initially sailing around the pond in Feva’s but by the end of the day we had a whole armada of boats joining in to make it an impressive joint total equivalent distance sailed to France and back. A massive well done to all our cadets for their enthusiasm and commitment. Harvey Jenkins and To-by Holmes Ling did the most laps at 22 the equivalent of sailing 7 miles. Saskia was second, Ed Rollestone 3rd, Bea West and Rudi Simpson-Nayler joint 4th and Rosie Hyland 5th. In total 22 cadets joined in with the ‘Sail to France’ and I hear they have collected an impressive amount of sponsorship money too.

The day was finished with a brilliant disco by our resident DJ Harvey and a bring and burn BBQ in the evening sun. As always the day was made a success due to the army of volunteers, a big merci beaucoup to Ian Johnson and friends for setting up the amazing sail to France, thank you Emily and Ashley Cooke for running the taster

sails, Ashley Hyland and team for welcoming eve-ryone at registration, Sa-rah Quinn for organising the galley, Nick Blackburn for getting the site ready and running the BBQ, Si-mon Suter and Andy Ham-ilton for ensuring the kit was sorted and I could ba-sically fill this page with thank yous as you are all so amazing.

We can now look forward to the season ahead of us. For our experienced ca-dets we have pre season Saturday training every Saturday afternoon in

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April, 2-4pm. The first Monday session is 14th May (please note this is a week later than advertised as 7th is a bank holiday).

Jo West

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Ups And Downs

Munar, Amanda Borradaile and Stephen Hamilton are frequent sailors on our waters. Amanda’s a stal-wart of Women On Water and is often crewing for Stephen in his Albacore. Stephen has been renovating Bill Giles old Solo and after over 300 hours of work he’s produced a fine vessel as can be seen in the pho-tos below, where Munar’s crewing for him

Unfortunately, things haven’t gone so well for the Albacore. As you can see from the photo below, some-one has “borrowed” the wheels from their launch trolley at Piddinghoe. Vandals are unlikely to have committed such a precision act so they must have been taken for a purpose. That’s a shame.

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Recorder’s Notes

The Bosun’s Cup was held over the Easter weekend. The weather was ideal for the first two races held on Sunday with a gentle F2-3 NW breeze. In both races my Streaker came 1st, Jazz Turner & Bea Cameron sailing their 420 were 2nd and Ed Thorburn (Finn) 3rd. The following day, Easter Monday, was much breezi-er with a F5 SW and a large swell building. Due to the conditions only 4 boats ventured out and only one race was sailed. Beaching was quite tricky as some waves were almost 2m high but fortunately all 4 boats beached safely. The race was won by Rupert and Chris sailing their Fireball with Jazz Turner & Lucy McCaig 2nd sailing their 420 only 11 seconds behind the Fireball on corrected time, 3rd was Zoe McCaig sailing her Radial.

The following weekend was the start of the Spring Se-ries. The wind was so light, the incinerator smoke was going straight up and we had some light rain. We nearly didn’t bother to sail but the cadets seemed keen to get the RS Fevas prepared so we thought we would give it ago. 4 boats went out, but no Fevas. The ca-dets eventually thought better of the light winds. The wind did get up to F1 so we

managed to get a couple of races sailed. My Streaker won with Penelope Duncan (Radial) 2nd and Bill Wates 3rd (Laser) in the first race and in second race Bill was 2nd and Connie Sturt (Slipper) 3rd.

On 15th April we held the 3rd and 4th races of the Spring Series. Conditions were very nice F2-3 SE. We had a good turnout of 17 boats. With light winds for the first race only Rupert Smith & Chris Turner sailing their Fireball and my Streaker managed 3 laps, most finished after 2 laps. On corrected time the Streaker won Rupert & Chris (Fireball) 2nd and Jazz & Lucy (420) 3rd. With a little more wind up to F3 for the second race we all managed 3 laps but the results were the same.

Due to a light F2-3 breeze dropping to F2 the next weekend we had two races with fairly short courses. My Streaker and the Fireball were going well and as the wind seemed steady the RO let the Fireball, which was leading, carry on for a 3rd lap. This was so frustrating for Rupert & Chris as the wind dropped and the tide in-creased resulting in them taking almost as long to do the 3rd lap as they had tak-en to do both of the first two laps. The rest of us were finished after sailing 2 laps. The Streaker was 1st , Jazz Turner & Lucy McCaig 2nd sailing their 420 and Zoe McCaig (Radial) 3rd. The wind was only F1-2 S for second race and all competi-tors did 2 laps. The Fireball led with Ja-mie Lynch sailing his Dart 18 second over

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the line followed by the Streaker. On handicap the Streaker won with the Fireball 2nd and the 420 3rd.

April was a month of unusually light winds so we are due to get some breezier conditions soon, let’s hope we also get some warm sunshine.

Coming up we have the first of the Family Weekends at Seaford on the 5th & 6th May and over the May bank holiday (6th & 7th May) is the Tufton Beamish Cup, 2 races on Sunday and 2 on the Monday best 3 of the 4 to count.

On 9th May the Wednesday Evening races begin. These races start at 7:15 pm. Please be on time.

The last of the Spring Series races are on 13th May.

On the 20th May we hold the Friars Bay race which is the first race of the middle/long distance series. From out at the Friars Bay buoy you can see the whole coast from Beachy Head to Worthing, with good visibility it can be quite spectacular.

On the 27th/28th May bank holiday we have the Sussex Express Cup, best 3 of 4 rac-es to count.

On the 3rd June the new Summer Series starts.

Laurence Venus

Recorder

Editor’s note: The pictures are from the club’s webcam at Seaford. You can view the webcam from the club’s website, with a convenient link on the top-level menu bar. The black line is one of the mast stays.

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Frantic Frenetic Friday Fettlers

Fridays have been busy lately at the pond. The Sport 14s needed to be spruced-up ready for the rides on Open Day and there’s a lot to be done getting the Toppers ready for Cadet Mondays. Here are some pic-tures from these activities. Unfortunately, I failed to get a picture of Simon Suter being jet-washed to make him a bit more presentable.

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Rusty Box Now Much Less Rusty Than It Used To Be, Shocker!!!!

I’m always grateful for stories, and I’m always keen to thank members for their contributions to the club, but sometimes I do struggle in the presentation of some of our less glamorous triumphs. Keith Jones does a magnificent job welding bits of metal together that club members carelessly allow to get separated.

He’s done it again and restored the Rear Comm (Piddinghoe)’s Peroni Store to its former glory. I hope Keith forgives my sarcasm and accepts the gratitude of the club for his unsung endeavours with the weld-ing torch.

John’s Stoatally Mastepful

Many thanks to John Freeman for his sterling work making a replacement mast step for Stoat.

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Family Weekend at Seaford

The Family Weekends are a new initiative to try to combine a social atmosphere with sailing. The next of these is at Seaford over the Bank Holiday weekend Saturday, Sunday and Monday 5th, 6th and 7th May. and all are welcome (families not obligatory). The Galley bar will be open on Saturday evening in addi-tion to the normal opening times. The barbecue will be lit on Satur-day evening where you can “Bring & Burn” your own food.

Camping is encouraged (£5 per pitch per night, bookable through Webcollect: https://webcollect.org.uk/nssc). There will be safety boat cover on the sea on Saturday for social sailing and cadet training (Fevas and Toppers available for hire), and you can join in the planned racing on Sunday and Monday mornings.

The forecast is good so ignore the picture.

The next Family Weekend is over the weekend of the 19th and 20th May at Piddinghoe.

The Return of “Women On Water”

WOW is back after its winter break. The first session was last Thursday and we’re now getting into the swing of things. Penelope Duncan is there to help and there’s safety boat cover. So come along for some fun sailing on a Thursday evening between 5 and 7 (don’t worry if you’ll be a little late) at Piddinghoe pond. You can hire a Topper or use your own boat. If you’re a complete novice we might be able to get a bigger boat (not quite as big as the picture) rigged so you can go out with an experienced helm to start learning.

All sexes welcome.

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CATZ CHAT April 2018

2018 Sailing Season- we are off and sailing……

So, how has it been this season……..slowwwwwww is the answer, not enough wind for the Cats, but at least we are getting out and moving with no shore break to worry about. Start lines as always are ex-citing and some of us need to understand the rules better, “get out of my way” is not the answer! Or saying “ I cannot stop” really does not assist, god help us when we do get wind. Ok, so that was my apology.

It has been very tactical in light winds, whilst remaining interesting, where are the rest of the Cat sail-ors, come on, before you know, we will have too much wind, so we want to see you out there having fun. For those of you who are struggling with sore knees or joints that no longer bend, you know the answer is to get a Cat, so no excuses.

Already we have had a near De-masting whilst racing, quick thinking by David/Alan with support from the rescue boat, they were able to hold it up whilst a temporary solution was used. (That was not by strapping David to the mast). Note to all: Keep spare shackles/cable ties with some rope readily availa-ble.

What great sailing we had on Sunday 29 April, NE winds and a flat sea. All were very pleased, or most…….the course was set up as a square, perfect for Cat sailors for the conditions and all future Race Officers will be invited to join the Cat Fleet as honoury members. Mixed fortunes, we had 4 Sprint 15 all very competative with the Dart 18 of Colin and Joe enjoying themselves. Chas continues from last season and had 1st and a 2nd , importantly it was fun for all and lot’s of stories in the bar afterwards why and where it went wrong! Yes, I have my excuses and without boring you all again, please all look aound you before making that all important tack, it is impossible (almost ) to stop a Cat at high speed and we really do not want to injure anyone or their boat.

Let us hope the weather holds and we can have more of the same.

If any assistance is required to help get you on the water, let any of us know.

Mike Godwin

Fleet Captain

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Election Results

Following the election at the recent AGM, the new board of NSSC is confirmed as:

Commodore: Zoe McCaig

Vice Commodore: Ed Hall

Rear Commodore, (Newhaven): Bill Wates

Rear Commodore, (Seaford): George Cork

Rear Commodore (Piddinghoe): Nick Blackburn

Honorary Sailing Secretary: Terry Jones

Honorary Treasurer: Ian Johnson

Honorary Secretary: Richard Beal

Additional Board Members:

Duncan Barrows

Penelope Duncan

Simon Suter (Training Director)

Steve Quinn

Noel West

I’ll endeavour to get each of these to do a small article for future Mainsheets with a brief description of their role, and what they plan to do in the forthcoming year. There’ll also be “An Interview With The Commodore” in June’s Mainsheet if she can squeeze it in amongst the dozens of other things she’s doing. Do you have any questions for Zoe, as Commodore? If so, get them to me and I’ll include them in my list of probing queries.

Richard Beal

Mainsheet Editor

mainsheetnssc@nssc.org.uk