Youth Programme Update

The combined stage 3 & 4 course a few weeks ago was a great success, with all 9 participants gaining new qualifications. Well done to Anna, Caroline, Emily, Julian, Lys, Meg, Pip, Rob & Will and big thanks to Camilla and Chris for running the courses.

The final planned session of Autumn Chew Crew will take place this Sunday. There’s been much enthusiasm for club racing, with 8 Toppers, a Feva and a Pico competing last weekend! If your young person is keen to keep Chew Crew going into October, please email the youth team at chewcrew@chewvalleysailing.org.uk.

There are still spaces available on the Seamanship Skills course on 26/27 October. This is an advanced module, for those who have already achieved their stage 4 qualification. It can be booked here:Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club: 2024 RYA Youth Course – seamanship skills (webcollect.org.uk)

Garage Doors Please take care!

Duty teams and all members should please take care opening and shutting the garage doors – as was recently highlighted by an accident there are gaps in the slats where it is possible to trap fingers.

There is a rope handle that has now been affixed that should be used to pull down the door if you are doing so from the outside, and warning tape etc now in place as a visible reminder while we consider if any further action is necessary.

Lake and Cake 05-Oct-24

The last Lake and Cake of the year is on Saturday 05-Oct-24
Let’s hope there is a brief Indian summer to help us enjoy the day!
I am looking forward to seeing you all at 13:35 rigged and ready to go!!
I hope that we will manage a few Trek and Treat meetings over the next few months so keep an eye on the Club Facebook Page and the WhatsApp group or contact Jo here !! 

Wingfoiling Demo Day 12-Oct-24

We are currently making plans to host a wingfoiling demo day on Saturday 12th October at the club. More details to follow but the plan is to get Mike Chapman ( son of Simon and ace wingfoiler) along together with Slingshot who make boards, foils etc to demo wingfoiling, showcase the sport and also demo and try out kit.

We will be inviting wingfoiliers from BCYC for this day only to join us also to make more of an event of it and give them a chance to get on the water as they are still not able to sail at BCYC

RYA Combined Level 1 And Level 2 Course Completes

In ideal conditions, with ideal students, the RYA’s Combined Level 1(Start Sailing) and Level 2(Basic Skills) course can be completed in 4 days. Well, after the serious disruption of the blue-green algae sailing suspension which resulted in the re-scheduling of the course you can draw your own conclusions about this crew who got their RYA certificates in 2 weekends.

Congratulations to Holly, Dario, Alan, Callum, Izzy and Catherine – thanks for sticking with us through the disruption and doing so well. We’ll see you all on the water!

A big shout out, of course, to Henry Barnes who was Senior Instructor for the course, ably assisted by Nick Martindale, Camilla Blakesley and Tony Clutten. Congratulations also along the way to Nick for qualifying as a DI, and to Camilla for getting her Senior Instructor ticket recently.

Dave Orme, RYA Principal training.cvlsc@gmail.com

Member Travels

The summer events season has started to quieten down, but the quality of the events on has not diminished with everything on the radar in September being a Championship.
Ollie Houseman (pictured above) won the National 18 Inland Championship, taking both the Maddison Cup for line honours and N18 Trophy for handicap across the series at Tamesis.
2 Chew boats (Derian & Andy Scott and Bill Chard & Josh Preater) ventured out to Lake Maggiore for the Fireball Europeans. Top result was Derian and Andy’s 3rd place in R3 in a fleet of 72.
On the asymmetric side, Chew boats made up half of the fleet for the RS100 Nationals at Eastbourne Sovereign SC, with 2nd through to 6th being extremely closely fought. David Smart and Steve Jones were narrowly beaten by Andy Jones, finishing in 2nd overall.

The normally upright Steve Jones checking for weed at the 100 nationals!

The club was also well represented at the RS700 Nationals at Hayling Island SC, with Sam Simmonds attending his first Nationals, Elliot Booley, James Clark and Rob Higgins. James won 2 races to miss out on 2nd by a single point, while Rob counted all 1sts and two 2nds to finally win the national championships by a comfortable margin. 

Barts Bash/Family Fun Day

A huge thank you to everyone involved with Bart’s Bash and Family Fun Day on September 15th. An amazing turnout of 52 boats for racing in the morning was made even more pleasing by the number of first time racers and junior sailors taking part. Thanks to your donations we raised £285 which goes to the Andrew Simpson Foundation to help those less fortunate than us to get out on the water.

In the afternoon a huge number of people managed to visit Denny Island (the most Jeff can remember), a good number in some amazing fancy dress! A particular thanks must go to Jeff Stratford and his amazing team for the nettle bashing and walkashore / pallet setup in advance, but especially the incredible and muddy effort to get everyone on and off the island.

Chew Challenge

On Sunday 20th October is the next main sailing event for club members – the Chew Challenge. This year is the 200th anniversary of the RNLI and this day is in part to contribute to them helping to do their amazing work. There will be a handicap race in the morning and a 70% pursuit in the afternoon with prizes for A and B Handicap as well as Top Club. We’ll also pull out results and give prizes for any class with more than 6 boats. Please do share the poster below with your class associations or local clubs, it must be the cheapest visitors day around!

OOD Course

A recent addition to the calendar is on Sunday 17th November. We are running a OOD refresher course at the club, to run through the general OOD procedures etc to give newer members some familiarisation or longer term members a reminder. Details will be in the next newsletter (mainly start time – it won’t be all day!), but mark the date in your diary if you think it would be useful, and think of the questions that you would like to ask us.

Hopefully this will become a regular feature, we’d like to do similar days on Saturdays and Wednesdays as well to give all members a chance to attend.

Steve Turner

Finally I must sadly bring news to members of the death of Steve Turner who died peacefully at Southmead Hospital on Wednesday evening, 18-Sep-24. His devastating illness appeared almost out of the blue, incapacitating him over just a few weeks and in the end was mercifully short.

Steve joined Chew in the mid 1980s, almost immediately joining the then very strong Fireball fleet, making strong and lasting friendships and of course meeting Helen. When Steve started working away a lot, they bought a Laser to share, and then another one so they could both sail – better than trying to sail together, they discovered!! After a few years Steve decided to try a Solo. He enjoyed a different challenge AND control lines and a rudder that actually worked.

When he retired from work he started helping Alan Coventry look after the powerboats and after a while became the club PB bosun, a role he carried out for 9 years. Seeing that the status quo was becoming untenable, Steve initiated the essential move away from ‘voluntary’ RIB servicing and repairs as carried out by Alan and previously Mike Bracey. He brought in mobile marine for annual servicing of the engines. Recognising that the Avon sea-rider RIBs we had, which were perfect for our purposes at Chew, were no longer being made, Steve instituted a programme of regular engine replacements, re-tubing of the RIBs in turn and, with Alex Knight’s help, treating the bottoms to make them more resilient. As a result the Club experienced fewer breakdowns which interfered with the intensive sailing/training/open meeting programme. He started the process of improving the launch trolley carriers to cause less damage during launch and recovery, which John Rogers has now taken on to completion. Our sea-riders, though now becoming aged, looked like new and are set to last for many more years. The Bosun’s job became more manageable.

Steve was a great supporter of the lovely old committee boat. He had assisted the late Mike Meloy in setting up the first mooring for the boat so, when that mooring was accidentally lost, he planned the laying of a new one in great detail. He enjoyed masterminding the periodic launching and recovery of the committee boat organising his helpers in almost a military fashion to ensure the manoeuvre went according to plan.

Steve has been a stalwart servant of the Club giving up so much of his time freely as Bosun, also as one of Jeff Stratford’s army of powerboat instructors and using his Olympic experience to demonstrate and assist with mark laying at our open meetings. His huge contribution was recognised in 2022 when he was awarded the presidents cup.

He was great company and will be missed by all who came into contact with him.

Funeral arrangements:

Thursday 10-Oct-24, Haycombe Crematorium, Bath, 1:45
and afterwards at the sailing club.
there will probably be a live stream too- details to follow.

Helen would be pleased for anyone who would like to, to come to either or both to help celebrate his life and give him a good send off.
Please, no flowers or sombre clothing. Donations to RNLI and Southmead Hospital Charity

Andy Jones

Commodore