Duties Update June 2026
(from Mark Dinwoodie duties sec)
Thank you to the vast majority of members who:
- confirm via Dutyman that they can undertake their duty (this saves the OOD having to contact members the week before to confirm their attendance)
- indicate on Dutyman that a swap is wanted, and request swaps as soon as they are aware that they cannot do an allocated or chosen duty
- turn up for their duty (on time) and complete their duty
- sign in using the duty register at the club to confirm their duty attendance
Following the simple steps above helps make the management of club duties so much more efficient and also ensures that duty teams each day are properly resourced to open the club and run sailing.
Regrettably though, there are a small minority of people that:
- don’t confirm that they can undertake their allocated or chosen duty
- leave it to the 2-week reminder or later to try and arrange a duty swap and then inform the Duties Secretary that they can’t do an allocated or chosen
- don’t turn up for their duties (or turn up very late), and in the case of a handful of members, repeatedly don’t turn up for duties
- don’t sign the duty register (I follow up all those who don’t sign in)
the club and your fellow members would appreciate it if you could avoid the above, as a depleted duties team places an additional burden on the remaining members, and may mean that sailing or courses cannot take place unless a volunteer comes forward on the day. It also creates a lot of unnecessary work.
Thank you to those members who do volunteer on the day or at very short notice to cover duty absentees.
As a reminder, it is the club’s policy that if you are unable to do a duty, it is your responsibility to find a replacement.
We appreciate that there will occasionally be times when a family emergency or a health issue prevents you from undertaking a duty at short notice and in these circumstances, I will do my best to assist you in finding a replacement. However, many late contacts stating duty unavailability are prompted by the two-week reminder, often for longstanding commitments, where swaps could have been requested much earlier with a higher likelihood of success.
It is not fair or appropriate for me to simply allocate a duty that one member can’t do, to someone else with less than 2 weeks’ notice.If you try and swap as soon as you know you can’t do a duty and are unable to find a swap, then if I’m given at least 4 weeks’ notice, I will help try and find a replacement.
By choosing your duty dates by volunteering through Dutyman, you can ensure that you have duties on dates that are convenient to you. Current duty requirements are approximately 2 ½ to 3 duties per membership year.
To try and help with the above, we now email an earlier reminder so that you will now receive reminders at 6 weeks and 2 weeks prior to your duty.
In the last newsletter we indicated how you could get mobile phone push notifications via Dutyman regarding your duties, and you can also automatically upload your duties to your phone calendar.
If you are planning to leave the club at the end of the membership year, please let us know in good time, so that we don’t allocate you duties in the following membership year.
As a reminder, if you don’t attend a duty, your duty will be reallocated to you as the next required duty which may be at short notice, not on a day of your choosing and not your preferred duty type.
Those who repeatedly miss their duties will be referred to the General Committee for review of their membership – regrettably this does occasionally lead to members being excluded and clearly this is not a desired outcome.
Thank you for your help with this and thank you again to everyone who undertakes their duties.
Mark Dinwoodie
Duties Secretary
duties@chewvalleysailing.org.uk
Family Regatta 27-Jun-26
A date for your diaries – the family regatta will be held this year on Saturday 27-Jun-26. Starting from 10am and throughout the day, this is a fun day of sailing based activity for all families.
Weather permitting there will be the annual Round the island race, treasure hunt of Denny island, Fancy dress parade and shore based games for all.
More details will follow nearer the time.
Lake and Cake 16-Jun-26
(from Jo Cudmore)
Lake and Cake on 16-May-26 was enjoyed by 4 sailors despite the dull skies and flukey wind but we had a convivial time drinking tea and eating delicious home made cakes and biscuits.
We are all looking forward to our next Lake and Cake on 06-Jun-26 and hoping for warmer and brighter weather with a nice steady breeze! For more details please contact Jo here
Youth Racing Series
Well done to all the sailors who’ve been taking part in the Youth Series this year. There’s been great turnouts and close racing across the fleet.
The results so far see Bella Broughton leading the way with Ethan Griffiths hot on her heels. However with another 4 weeks to go (12 races) there’s still lots to play for.
For any sailors who haven’t joined in yet, racing takes place on Sunday Afternoons at 1:30pm following Chew Crew. There’s 3 short races each week, we have a quick get-together before going afloat and there’ll be a rib on the water to offer support as required. So far we’ve seen a mix of Teras, Toppers and Fevas but it’s open to any Youth sailor in any class (where are the Lasers..?)
Hope to see you out soon…
Nick and Tom
RYA Training Updates
by Dave Orme, RYA principal
Call For “Pay & Play” Helms
I hope you have heard of, or are familiar with, the club’s popular “Pay & Play” scheme:
https://www.chewvalleysailing.org.uk/training/payandplay/
P&P sessions are not RYA Training. No instruction to customers is offered or expected.
The scheme was created to provide taster sessions for non-members interested in the sport, or informal coaching opportunities for club members. Demand for P&P sessions, particularly taster sessions for non-members and lapsed sailors, increases as the season gets underway. We usually have a waiting list by summer.
We do try to ensure P&P sessions are delivered by instructors. However, the General Committee has agreed that experienced members can volunteer to help deliver P&P taster sessions. This allows us to manage the waiting list of potential sailors and potential members desperately keen to get out on the water.
If you feel you could and would like to help the club promote the sport and the benefits of club membership as a P&P helm, please let me know.
Instructors and helms can claim a flat £45 fee for delivering each P&P session. This is included in the cost of the session, and is not paid by the membership.
If your own boat is suitable for these sessions you may prefer to take people out in it. Alternatively, the club Quests can be used. I can arrange a rigging/reefing familiarisation session for you if you’d like one.
Dave Orme, payandplay@chewvalleysailing.org.uk
Rya Combined Level 1 And Level 2 Course Completes
Congratulations to (L-R) Oscar, Lizzie, Tim and James who all successfully completed the combined RYA Levels 1(Start Sailing) and 2(Basic Skills) course recently. We lost 1 sailing day to the weather, but all 4 students completed the course well within the 6 days we schedule for the course.
A big shout out to Henry Barnes, David Pye and Martin Reynolds who helped instruct along the way.
Dave Orme, RYA Principal training@chewvalleysailing.org.uk
Help needed please (from Jeff Stratford)
On Wednesday 24-Jun-26 the Police Sailing Section are on duty and as in previous years we will be getting a working party together to go across to Denny Island to prepare it for the Treasure Hunt on the Island during the family regatta on Saturday 27-Jun-26.
Please come and help – join us at 10:00 on Wednesday 24-Jun-26 by the flag pole armed with whatever nettle bashing tools you have, powered or non powered. We will run a ferry service to the island and if we get enough support it will only take a couple of hours.
Rumour has it our lovely Commodore is arranging bacon baps for everyone before we head out.
On the Saturday of the family regatta (27-Jun-26) we could also do with a little help, setting up, helping people on and off Denny Ferry, helming the dory behind the island and assisting those sailing across to land safely.
If you can help please let me know Jeff aka Short Fat Silver
chief-powerboat-instructor@chewvalleysailing.com
Boat park tidy up continues…..
We’re now 2 months into the membership year and alas a small number of you have not paid for your membership or removed your boat(s) from the boatpark if you are not renewing.
Please take action before the end of June, otherwise your boat(s) will be relocated to the upper boat park, in which case you will of course be notified, and your space reallocated to a paying member.
Obviously if you have not yet paid your membership, you must not sail your boat.
Other sailing updates
(from James Williams, Vice Commodore)
Twilight Thursdays and Discover Racing
We are now well in to the swing of Thursday evening sailing, having completed week 1 of Discover Sailing. A reminder that the lake is open for all to sail between 18:00 and 20:00 for the next 4 weeks, before the Police Group run FUN Thursdays (see the calendar for the dates). Future weeks of Discover Sailing (great if you’re not yet confident enough to participate in club racing want to know what it’s all about and start to feel a bit more confident. We meet (rigged and changed if possible) by the main club flag pole at 18:00.
CVLSC in the Med
Club member Ian Perry has been cruising in the Med, and has had a replica of the club burgee made up (see photo below). If you want the details to be able to make up your own for your own adventures then let me (vice-commodore@chewvalleysailing.org.uk) know and I’ll pass you on.
Sailing limits and exclusion zones
We’re getting increasing reports from Bristol Water about CVLSC members sailing extremely close to infrastructure or outside our boundaries. I would encourage all that aren’t 100% sure to check where the limits are to make sure they stay inside them.
In a similar vein, Bristol Water have asked that we where possible we stay a mast length away from furniture such as the cages and the Bristol Water ponoons. They are reciprocating in kind by designating the zone between the Southern pontoon, the committee boat mooring and the northern most slip out of bounds for fishing.
Andy Jones
Commodore