News
Social Dates for 2008
Fitting
Out Supper
Friday 4th April 19:30hrs
Frostbite Series Finishes
Strong winds resulted in only
four races being sailed out of the six scheduled for the two Frostbite
Series. There was close racing
throughout with anyone of five being able to win the series with one race to
go. After the strong winds, the last
races were held in light to moderate winds providing excellent racing. Overall results are given below:
Frostbite 1:
1st Mike
Pritchard Laser 3.0pts
2nd Alan
Trusler Laser 7.0pts
3rd Roger
Day Phantom 10.0pts
3rd Kevin
Milton Phantom 10.0pts
5th Jon
Paton/Paul
5th Tom
Rogers Laser 14.0pts
Frostbite 2:
1st Mike
Pritchard Laser 3.0pts
2nd Kevin
Milton Phantom 7.0pts
2nd Roger
Day Phantom 7.0pts
4th Alan
Trusler Laser 7.0pts
5th Jon
Paton/Paul
6th Nick
Ross Laser 16.5pts
Bonfire
Approximate 30/35 members
and friends turned up 4th November for the annual bonfire and boat
burning. Derek Harbours Mirror Sooty and a Fireball joined the remains of the
“Smokers” changing room Portakabin to make a large bonfire.
The Sea Cadets brought along
a large selection of serious fireworks which when added to those brought along
by other members gave us a display which lasted about an hour. Thanks to
everyone who brought fireworks.
Match Racing
2005 saw our first
match-racing event at Attenborough for many years. It was an enjoyable if not protracted event
and was intended to be repeated in 2006.
Unfortunately we encountered such strong winds that year that the event
had to be cancelled.
This year’s event
bought us a pleasant breeze and fine weather.
The event was structured to run over one day and thanks to careful
planning and organisation by Mike Pritchard, Alec Richardson. Thanks are also due to Mark Last who valiantly
organised the start from the committee boat and was relied upon heavily as the
“man with his finger on the pulse”.
The match racing had twelve
entries split between two groups. Each person sailed everyone else in their
group once with one point being gained for a win. After 30 races the overall group positions
were very close as shown below. In Group
A Alec came second as he beat Roger.
Group A
Points Position
Steve Coupe 4 1st
Alec Richardson 3 2nd
Roger Day 3 3rd
Max Brereton 2 4th
Nick Ross 2 5th
Keith Brereton 1 6th
Group B
Points Position
Mike Pritchard 5 1st
Jeremy Straw 3 2nd
Brian Dennis 2 3rd
Kevin Milton 2 3rd
Robyn Pritchard 2 3rd
Paul Warren 1 6th
The top two in each group
then progressed to the best of three semi-finals. In the first semi-final Mike Pritchard raced Alec
Richardson. Alec won the first race by a second but then Mike won the next two
closely fought races to progress to the final 2-1. In the second semi-final, Steve Coupe took on
his sailing partner Jeremy Straw, eventually winning 2-0. In the final Mike Pritchard beat Steve Coupe
2-0 to win the overall event.
The
annual inter club Tripartite competition between Attenborough,
Sutton-in-Ashfield and Swarkestone was held at Sutton was held on 24th June.
For the third time in a row, after only winning once in the previous 12 years,
Attenborough won in light and variable winds washed down with lashings of
pre-flood rain.
A
great turnout considering the conditions with ten boats from Attenborough
entered out of 24 total entries; Max Brereton, Keith Brereton, Brian Dennis,
Steve Coupe and Jeremy Straw, Ray Kemish, Kevin Last, Kevin Milton, Jon Paton,
Mike Pritchard and Nick Ross with Mark Last as shore coordinator. The club
trophy is based on best five club positions in each race and all ten ASC boats
featured in the top five in at least one race and Ray showed how well the ASC
Comet sailors perform.
In
the individual event Attenborough also did well:
1st Tim Hand, Sutton
2nd Mike Pritchard, ASC,
3rd Mike Reckless, Sutton
6th equal Brian Dennis and Max Brereton, ASC
Max sailed really well and won the first Junior prize
but unfortunately didn't get the bottle of beer given to other winners. It is
worth noting how strong we are as a club sailing club - Sutton get typically 7
entries a race and Swarkestone took only four to Sutton. We may not have any
superstars but have an increasing number of good club sailors who have an
enjoyable race wherever they are in the fleet.
Next
year the event will be held at Attenborough on the last weekend in June.
Club
Open Day - Record numbers attend
ASC
enjoyed another successful open day yesterday, 2nd June, with 108 people enjoying
boat rides - almost a 50% increase on the numbers that attended last year.
Queues were forming by 10:30, and eventually 6 boats were being used, including
the RS Vision currently on loan to us from LDC Racing. Perhaps we were helped
by the superb weather, pretty much perfect for attracting people out of doors
and for taking beginners sailing. Many thanks to everyone who helped out both
on the day and on Friday preparing the compound.
Many
Thanks to Mike Pritchard for the excellant "Start Racing"
Presentation which took place on the 8th March at the Visitor Centre. As you
can see from the photo above the turnout was absolutely excellant - it was a
big room but it was difficult to get a seat! Hopefully this will just be the
start of a programme of developing members.
Powerpoint
OOD Presentation
Following
the recent OOD training courses, Roger Day has forwarded to me his excellent Powerpoint
presentation which I assume accompanied the talks - you can download it by
clicking here! If
you don't have powerpoint installed on your PC, you may need a view program
which you can get here.
Sailing
video
I've
uploaded a 3 minute video that I made last summer onto the website. It's just
over 10 Mb so should take about 5 minutes to download on Broadband - I'd
intended to make a longer one but the winter came before I could shoot some
more footage. Anyway, click HERE
to download and enjoy!
No
point trying to cover it up for any longer, ASC is about to welcome it's first
Finn sailor. Roger Day has apparently always wanted one, despite sailing a
normally vastly superior Phantom. He has attempted to keep this quiet, but the
pre-season trials were photographed by one of the club members. Click here
to see Roger's new beauty being launched for the first time.
The social
sec. has issued the following list of social engagements for this year;
Away
Day to Carsington or Blakeney Point (TBA)
Monday 28th August 10:00am - 5:00pm
Laying
Up Supper
Friday 1st December, 7:30pm
Christmas
Social & Prize giving
Sunday 18th December, 3:00pm
Any
further information regarding social events, please contact Jonathan Adams.
News
is pretty thin at the moment, being the off season and all. However...
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- Bring your own dinghy sailor guys (pipes and/or beards please - although these may be misconstrued as effigies of members of the committee - any resemblance is purely coincidental).
Anybody that wants to donate wood please
bring it down to the club before the Friday. A few helpers early on Sunday
(12:00) to prepare the bonfire (gather the boats together) would be useful.
Please register your interest if you can with a member of the committee,
Yahoogroups etc - and if enough people attend the soon to be Ex-Bosun may be
persuaded to get some nice beer in....
Eee
by eck, lad, the old days - it was grand then, eh? Hoodies, chavs, mobile
phones, we never had them in 1979! Just the gentle lapping of water against the
bank as the kingfishers dived over the water and the otters played.
Yes,
the ASC website allows you to revisit the old days, thanks to Nick and Dave
Barrowcliff, through a series of photos from t'early days of ASC.
Frankly
amazing to see that the lane was even worse then than it is now! Well, I
suppose not everything was better in the old days......
ASC
Questionaire
For
those who have recently opened their AGM reminder mailings you may have noticed
that contained within this envelope was a lengthy questionaire. My usual
response to such a document is to promptly recycle it, but under the
circumstances I would implore you not to do so. Mike Pritchard is collating the
responses and these will be used by the committee to decide on the future
direction of the club and to target improvements. So, if the dog has eaten your
copy, or you got jam on it etc etc here is a link to a downloadable version, so
you can print it out and give it to Mike.
ASC
have now finished the survey of old and abandoned boats, and the committee now offer
those boats whose owner could not be traced a number of boats for sail.
The
list of boats, and instructions on how to bid for these boats can be accessed
by clicking on the link below;
Notice
regarding orphaned boats
Following
an extensive survey of boats within the ASC compound we have been unable to
identify the owners responsible for the boats detailed below.
Unless
the owners responsible make themselves known to the Secretary beforethe end of
September 2005, paying the necessary due fees, Attenborough Sailing Club will
assume ownership of the boats and determine appropriate disposal to recover
outstanding fees. This may include closed auction to ASC members, open auction
to the public or scrapping. If anyone is able to provide information or knows
who these boats belong to, they should contact
Close
Season Training Evenings
Following
the success of the Jim Saltonstall evening a number of other events are
scheduled to keep sailing in the frame during the close season.
- Rules Evening Wednesday 16th February,
19:45 hrs at the Club House
Building
on Jim Saltonstall event the evening will be split into three parts:
Overview
of basic rules
Discussion on typical scenarios
You the Jury - a couple of mock protests to clarify the rules
- OOD Evening Wednesday 9th March, 19:45hrs
at the Club House
What's
involved in being an OOD? Evening to discuss OOD duties, setting a course,
starting, rules, Sailing Instructions, finishing. A must for those who are OODs
and those who aspire to one day be setting Olympic courses
Racing
Rules of Sailing talk from Jim Saltonstall and Laying Up Supper
An event not to be missed! ASC have organised
a session on the Racing Rules of Sailing, to be hosted at the Victoria Hotel,
Dovecote Lane, Beeston on Saturday 8th January. Guest speaker is Jim
Saltonstall, an RYA coach frequently described as "A legend amongst all
those that have been through the Royal Yachting Association's Youth Training in
the last few years". This promises to be both an entertaining and
informative evening. There may be a small charge on the door to cover the cost
of the room, probably around £2 per head. Jim's involvement with the RYA Youth
Squad means that this isn't just an evening for adults either, so bring the
kids. The Commodore's comments were as follows "Jim is an extremely
entertaining and informative speaker on all aspects of sailing, racing and the
rules. I have heard him speak to large audiences at a few occasions and he
never fails to enlighten, explain and entertain. This is going to be one of the
best evenings you will ever have attended and those that miss it will be
kicking themselves". The event starts at 8 pm.
Closely
following on behind, on Saturday 22nd January, is the overdue laying up
Supper. This is to be held in the function room at the White Lion in Beeston.
We have managed at enormous expense to book the services of a group of musicians
who's artistry and fame go far before them. They are called Fire in the Belly.
Once again this is going to be an extremely popular event. Get your names down
early.
Boxing
Day Pursuit Race
The
inaugural ASC Boxing Day race started with a beautiful clear blue sky and near
still airs, and it's fair to say that those who attended had pretty much
resigned themselves to a gentle drift round the pond. However, the promised
winds materialised around 25 minutes into the race, strangely co-incident with
the Phantom starts. We continued to enjoy a Northerly wind for the duration of
the race provided an entertaining and very pleasent days racing. Many thanks
for Brian and team for running this event and congratulations to Roger Day,
Terry Swan and Mike Pritchard for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Juniors,
Novices and Masters regatta
An excellent turnout of 19 boats
enjoyed a series of three races last Sunday, 11th July in the annual Juniors,
Novices and Masters regatta. Conditions on the day were changable, with a northerly
wind changing frequently in direction and strength. The OOD, Mike Pritchard,
favoured shorter courses, thankfully avoiding No.1 mark on all courses.
Suprisingly, the Masters trophy was
closely contended this year after a total lack of entrants during 2003, with 5
boats vying for the Trophy, including Duncan Dearman, who we haven't seen so
far this year. I decline to comment on the rapidly aging status of the club!
The eventual winner was Bob Ceurstemont. The Novice fleet was won by Iain
Pendry, with Alan Trussler coming a second, and sporting a radial rig that
seems to suit him very well indeed. The Junior fleet was down in numbers
slightly from last year, missing the Marlows, and was won by Jonathan Turnbull
Ross, improving on last year's second place. Congratulations to all involved
and full results on the results page!
Tripartite
2004 at
Didn't actually count, but around 10
boats from ASC made the journey from ASC to Swarkestone Bridge Sailing Club for
the annual Tripartite race, and we all enjoyed a vry enjoyable day's racing.
Swarkestone is very different place from Attenborough, being very long and
thin, but still lots of trees and islands so we felt quite at home. In total in
excess of 25 boats which meant for a very congested start line, but our thanks
go to Swarkestone for putting on a great event and for making us feel so
welcome. Weather was also changeable with some real squalls blowing up during
the races adding the excitement / fear (delete as appropriate).
Praise especially for the junior
members of the ASC who frankly did us well proud on the day - some sterling
performances from the Topper fleet helping ASC register a 2nd place overall on
the day.
Wearing
wetsuits over the winter seasons
Following a recent committee meeting where Steve Penn presented his findings
and recommendations into Terry Swan's recent mishap, the committee has passed a
new by-law making the wearing of wetsuits and drysuits mandatory between
the start of November and end of March. This
decision will then be put to the AGM in November 2004 for ratification. You can
read the appropriate Committee meeting minutes here.
Lots
and lots of work completed at the club over the Winter period has ASC look very
different for those returning after the Winter layup. A brand new
"Jetfloat" plastic maintenance free pontoon has replaced the old
wooden and metal one, this new system should be damn near maintenance free and
we expect it to last a long time. A lot of money but very well worth it in my
opinion! You will notice the absence of the old concrete garage (increasing
surplus to requirements following several break-ins), and the absence of the
old "Wendy House". Provision for a shower has been made, with the
road gang above digging a trench out for the water pipe. There's still a lot of
work to be completed, but this is an excellant start to the upgrade of the
facilities at the club. Given the decision at the recent EGM to accept the
lease with a 10 year break clause which should pave the way for dredging of the
lake, we can look forward to a busy 2004.
Upcoming
Events At Attenborough Sailing Club
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Thursday 19th February |
Extraordinary General Meeting |
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14th March 2004 |
Sailing starts again at ASC – see you on the start line! |
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14th April 2004 |
The start of Wednesday Series 1 |
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7th May 2004 |
Fitting Out Supper |
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16th June 2004 |
ASC Graduate Open Meeting |
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27th June 2004 |
Tripartite Race at |
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11th July 2004 |
Juniors, Novices and Masters regatta |
AGM
Report
This year’s AGM was, despite the weather, a well attended affair,
passing largely without incident. The main points were;
- The re-election of the
existing committee with no changes.
- The nomination of Mr. Ted
Booth as an honorary member of
- A significant debate on
the subject of the lease. Steve Penn informed the AGM that he felt that
the process of negotiation with Butterley was coming to an end. The
RYA’s legal department have sent a letter to Butterley, and was
waiting for a response from Butterley’s solicitors. It was agreed by
the AGM that an EGM shall be held in early in the new year where the
various options can be outlined and discussed by the membership as a
whole.
- Following a concern about
the large fleets racing this year, the experiments tried last year with a
separate Laser fleet have been extended! It was decided that one of the
Summer series will have a separate Laser start, whilst a second Summer
series will have a fast & slow handicap, with the breakpoint between
the two fleets set to 1115 (just faster than an Enterprise). Snowdrop,
Frostbite and Wednesday series remain unchanged.
ASC
On Tour with the James Cook
Twenty four members and ex-members of ASC enjoyed sailing on the Ocean Youth
Trust Ketch "James Cook" for two weekends during October 2003.
According to Jenny the two trips were markedly different, the first trip not
enjoying the best of sailing conditions and the second trip enjoying a little
too much in the way of sailing conditions (for me anyway).
We arrived in dribs and drabs at Royal Quay Marina on Friday afternoon after
a long haul up to
When everyone else had finally arrived - and expressed similar concern about
the amount of space between the bunks we sat down to an extremely pleasant
dinner, all 18 of us crammed in round one huge table. Steve, the skipper of the
"James Cook" introduced himself and the staff, including ASC's own
Jenny Mellows, we all talked a little bit about what we wanted out of the
weekend, discussed safety a little, facilities for smoking (much to the chagrin
of Terry Swan), the operation of the sea toilets, and then the location of the
nearest drinking establishment. Having inspected the sea toilets, we could all
see the sense in the staff's advice to use the toilets onshore. We also
listened to the weather forecast, punctuated by words like "moderate to
rough" and "6 to 7"......
Following late evening refreshments in the bizarre atmosphere of the
"Earl of Zetland", we returned to the "James Cook" and
retired for the evening, or at least attempted to. Carl, I think, began to
regret his decision to opt for the top bunk. Jon Adams, having allegedly bagged
a bottom bunk, returned to find Terry Swan's gear in his bunk, and his gear in
a top bunk (so he says). I didn't have the pleasure (is that the right word?)
of watching anyone other than Jon attempt to get into the bunk - suffice it to
say it's probably the first (and hopefully last) time it ever takes two grown
men to get Jon into bed. Cheryl Wood began her first of two nights in the
company of 11 men. The increasingly typical banter carried on for about 45
minutes, dying away only to be replaced by the synchronised snoring of Richard
Wood and Roger Day, and the increasingly regular use of the sea toilet, with
all the pumping that involved. Surprisingly, once wedged into the bunk and
zipped into sleeping bags, the bunks were really comfortable. According to
Carl, I was also snoring, but I never heard a thing.
Next morning we were issued with safety harnesses, waterproofs, and given a
basic familiarisation with the boat. After about 90 minutes preparation we left
North Shields, destination Blyth, a small fishing village about 8 miles up the
coast, and home to the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club. Everything was
reasonably calm until we left the safety of the
It was noticeable that the James Cook doesn't point very high, and after
about 4 hours and a couple of huge tacks it started to become obvious that
sailing to Blyth was going to be a protracted affair, the sea was building, and
Steve made the frankly welcome decision that we'd better motor into Blyth. The
Royal Northumberland Yacht Club's clubhouse, is, like ASC, a floating barge
(actually an old lightship), but this is where any similarity ends. Most people
headed for the bar or the showers whilst a dinner of roast lamb and veg was
prepared, we all met up again at about 8pm as dinner was served. Following a
return to the bar, we managed to achieve the commodore's started aim of
drinking the bar dry before heading back to the James Cook for coffee and a
late-night supper of Peach and Pineapple crumble, augmented by Kevin Milton's
suggestion of porridge oats. Very very pleasant. Most people had noted the
previous night's "head" activity and visited the onshore facilities
and because of this a better night's sleep was had by all, with the exception
of Jon Adams - by this stage both father and son had abandoned all of hope of a
decent night's sleep wedged into the bunk and had opted for the saloon benches
instead.
Next morning saw the James Cook leaving the harbour at about 10:30 am, and
heading South East with a following wind. At this point the dinghy sailors on
board were introduced to another difference - an involuntary gybe on a Laser
can be unpleasant, but on the James Cook it could be disastrous, hence the
yacht sails downwind like an asymmetric dinghy - in huge broad reaches. The sea
state was more pleasent, the crew were more used to the movement of the sea and
we were able to hoist four sails, including the huge Mizzen Staysail. We were
also very lucky with the weather, which was excellant - reasonably warm and
very sunny. After 4 hours at sea we entered the
All in all a fantastic experience, certainly for me a learning curve in
terms of getting used to the boat and the seasickness. I certainly left wanting
more, perhaps just a couple of days isn't really long enough to really
appreciate the boat. I'm not sure if the crew would have us back again, I kind
of got the vibe that the prefered maturity and sophisticated humour of the
usual crew teenagers was sadly missing this weekend! So, thanks to Steve,
Caroline, Cat, Mark and Jenny for putting up with us, and hopefully we might
get an invite back again. Perhaps the Royal Northumberland YC might not wish to
see us again so soon, unless the bar takings are down. And obviously special
thanks to Jenny for organising the whole trip.
Dates
for your Diary
May is looking like busy month for the club,
please note the following dates for your diary!!
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Tuesday 6th May |
Steve Cockerill / Rooster Sailing talk |
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Friday 9th May |
Quiz Night / Fitting Out Supper |
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Sunday 11th May |
Graduate Open Meeting |
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Saturday 17th May |
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Steve Cockerill, proprietor of Rooster Sailing,
and more relevantly Laser Radial and Blaze National Champion, will be coming to
ASC on Tuesday 6th May to do a presentation on all aspects of sailing –
racing skills, boat trim and balance, rig tune – you name it, he’ll
be discussing it. The evening talks incorporate video explanations and live
action on all areas of the sport of Sailing. Steve is well known as a technical
author and sailing coach with articles published in the
The Fitting Out supper will follow the same
format as last year's quiz night, with pizzas arriving mid evening.
The Open Day is scheduled for the 17th May,
plans are in place for food, a large marquee, and sailing all day. If you are
able to lend a hand, either before the day to tidy up, or on the day to help
out with taking visitors sailing, behind the bar etc, please let the comittee
know. In addition, if you have a suitable boat, eg. GP14,