There’s lots of important information to update you with this month. Please do take the time to read through all the following information to ensure you don’t miss something and help things run as smoothly as possible:

Membership Renewals (01-Apr-22)

It’s renewal time again. Please can you renew your membership & boat fees by 01-Apr-22. Your Renewal Reminder emails were sent out this week (02-Mar-22), as the current membership year finishes at the end of this month.

Please check that you have received your reminder (do look in your Junk Email folder in case it’s dropped in there) – and if you can’t find it, let the Membership Secretary know as soon as possible.

If your circumstances mean that you are not renewing for 2022/23, please also let us know – you’ll find a link in your renewal reminder for this. We need to know as you may have a deposit on a gate key to be refunded, and we’ll need to take you off DutyMan as we’re currently rostering duties for April, May & June.

Another reminder if you usually pay your fees by Direct Debit – we do not automatically debit your account on 1st April. You still need to log-in to your WebCollect account to check & renew your subscriptions, then select Direct Debit as your payment method to provide the necessary authorisation for us to collect your fee.

And finally to help your renewal run smoothly – please check that your details on your WebCollect account and Dutyman are all up to date.

Contact the Membership Secretary (Rosie Bowers) if you have any questions, or would like guidance: membership@chewvalleysailing.org.uk

First Aid Course – Saturday 09-Apr-22

The full RYA course needed by all instructors, and at £25 a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere. It will run from 0930 to 1700 in the bar area with 2 places still available

Please book through your webcollect account.

Powerboat familiarisation – 19-Mar-22 & 09-Apr-22

For people who are new to CVLSC and have done their PB2 elsewhere or perhaps did it many years ago we offer one to one introduction/refresher sessions to our RIBs, the equipment we carry, launch and recovery and a short session afloat pointing out obstructions and RYA training notification updates. These sessions are free and designed to give people confidence, demonstrate our procedures and help reduce damage to our equipment.

To book or ask any questions email jeffstratford@btinternet.com

Advanced rescue helm course

This is not an RYA course but is run by RYA Powerboat instructors and helps develop the skills needed to competently rescue people from the water and deal with a variety of rescue scenarios. The only prerequisite is that you hold a PB2 certificate.

We strongly encourage all our RIB helms undertake this course as a follow on to the PB2 qualification and recognising this the cost is fully subsidised by the club.

There are 5 courses running this year, the first two are fully booked with the backlog from 2020 and 2021.

  • Course 3 is on the 14-May-22 – five places remain
  • Course 4 is on the 24-Sep-22 – eight places remain
  • Course 5 is on the 15-Oct-22 – seven places remain

To book email jeffstratford@btinternet.com

PB2 training

The dates for this years PB2 courses have been agreed and we will very shortly be contacting those on the waiting list from previous years. If places still remain we will then publish details and how to book through a future news

News from the Sailing Committee:

Class race day – Sunday 06-Mar-22

This Sunday is a class race day, with 2 morning races planned from 11am and another two afternoon races. There will be a prize giving after racing in the bar for the day, and for the two previous class race days

Volunteers needed – club RIBs etc

We are looking for a group of volunteers to help spread the load of maintaining the club RIBs, Dory and Committee Boat. If this is something you think you may be able to help with please speak with me or one of the sailing committee to find out more

Paul Nichols
Vice Commodore

Calling all Ladies

Lake and Cake returns on 23-Apr-22!

Hilary and Jo are looking forward to welcoming Chew Ladies to our first Lake and Cake of 2022!

Lake and Cake is held one Saturday afternoon a month from April to September and is a great opportunity for sailing, making friends and eating cake!

We know there are lots of new Lady members and we hope that you and all our old friends will come along and join us for an afternoon of sailing followed by tea and cake!

There will be a real mixture of sailing abilities and after all the COVID restrictions we know some sailors will be feeling a bit rusty! We are planning to buddy up those feeling less confident about their sailing ability with those who are more confident.

If you are relatively experienced and would be happy to be a buddy please let Hilary or Jo know and what dates you may be available

If you would like an experienced buddy to help you to rig or to share a boat with or to sail alongside you on the water please let us know your name, sailing experience and whether you have a boat or whether you would like to try out a double handed or one of the club dinghies and we will do our best to ensure that you all have a fun afternoon on the water!

You can contact us via the WhatsApp Social Sailing Group (please contact Jo Cudmore to be added)

We aim to meet outside the training room rigged and ready at 1:45 and are normally off the water by 4 to meet in the bar for tea and cake and sailing chat. We all donate a pound for tea and bring along a cake, if you don’t manage to bring a cake then it won’t matter as there are always plenty to go round.

The Lake and Cake dates for 2022 are: 23-Apr-22, 21-May-22, 18-Jun-22, 16-Jul-22 ( also Ladies Trophy Day),  03-Sep-22 and 24-Sep-22.

Pizza Evening 30-Mar-22

Don’t forget Antonia and Ben will be hosting another fantastically tasty pizza evening this month on Wednesday 30-Mar-22 from 17.30 to 19.30.

Chris Face

Finally, I must sadly advise members of the death of Chris Face, a longstanding member who will be fondly remembered by many. Chris contributed to our club across many areas over the years and was very heavily involved in helping train many young sailors now enjoying our sport. He was a complete enthusiast about anything sailing related, and always keen to share his knowledge and experience. Chris’s practical skills created many training aids still in use at the Club today, for example the model yacht mounted on a ‘wind direction’ board with a large fan! He was also a master ‘knot tier’ – there is still a board with his knots in the training room – the lake and cake ladies and any other group wanting instruction in knotting were treated to his fun, knowledgable demonstrations.

I am advised the funeral will be held on 14-Mar-22 at Haycomb for those that would like to pay their respects.

Andy Jones
Commodore

After the recent storms a reminder of calmer times!

A webcam capture during one of the storms that battered the club

Hopefully, warm balmy days such as this aren’t now too far off

Jo, above and Hilary below, are planning to kick off this year’s Lake and Cake with plenty of sailing, advice, fun, chat and of course cake!