Orford Sailing Club Winter 2025 Newsletter Hello Everyone Welcome to 2025. The Centenary Year ended with a bumper Laying Up Supper and a full house in the Town Hall. Tom Cunliffe was our guest speaker with a few bonus words from Arctic Sailor Ella Hibbert. Ella is hoping to circumnavigate the Arctic single-handed in one season to draw attention to climate change. You can follow her journey here. https://ellainthearctic.co.uk/ Ella has promised to come and speak to us again! Winter repairs continue and it has been lovely to see some winter sailing. See the reports from the Rear Commodore Training and the Rear Commodore Maintenance in this Newsletter. I look forward to seeing you all this year. James Tomlinson, Commodore Tom was a very popular speaker Two Arctic single-handed sailors compare notes. David Foreman & Ella Hibbert A few bonus words from Arctic Sailor Ella Hibbert James Robinson, Ella Hibbert, Tom & Ros Cunliffe & James Tomlinson
SAILING The winter is the time for the sailing sub-committee to sit, to consider and ruminate over the Calendar for the coming season, look at the tides and schedule fixtures accordingly so that there are not clashes or a lack of safety boat cover. I am pleased to say that the calendar is well in-hand and ready to be published. Some exciting highlights are: After the success of last seasons’ two-day Centenary Regatta, we are keeping the two-day format on Saturday 16th & Sunday 17th August, as it makes for a much more relaxed and enjoyable event with the Summer Party on the Saturday night. The Junior Regatta is on Friday 1st August and following the two-day theme, there is a further two-day Junior & Youth Open Regatta on Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd August with a Barbecue on the Saturday night. Note: the “open” aspect of this Regatta means that non OSC members can take part and we are expecting a sizable contingent of junior racers joining us from Aldeburgh YC. Please do put your name down to volunteer for OOD, AOD, SB Helm and SB Crew. The link to the Duties spreadsheet will be sent out shortly by email. We are having a push to recruit more OODs and AODs this season as we are dependent upon just a couple of key people who do multiple duties, and we would have to cancel fixtures were they not to continue. It is often a struggle to get the necessary volunteers. There is a free OOD/AOD training course being held at 10:30 on Sunday 27th April (2 hrs) for those who would like to volunteer but are not confident of their abilities or are perhaps a little rusty and would like a refresher. You can book on to the course with this link: https://osc.sailia.co.uk Further courses can be run if this date is not suitable. Contact me if you are interested in being an OOD/AOD and would like to know what is involved – the views from the Bridge during a race are exceptional and it’s a rather lovely way to get involved in the action of sailing without leaving dry land. We now have a decent pool of qualified safety boat helms and crews. However, you are strongly urged, however experienced you are, to take the free powerboat refresher course to keep your skills up-to-date and to share knowledge with our Chief Instructor Matthew Riley. The boats do change, so it is important to keep abreast of those changes. You can book onto the powerboat refresher courses following this link: https://osc.sailia.co.uk/?folderID=80 Looking forward to some fine sailing weather and seeing you on the water. Troy Batley, Sailing Secretary
CLUB BOATS With the success of the training programmes and Feva racing successes last year we have a plan to update the club’s sailing dinghy fleet. We decided to replace the two older Fevas with the newer Fevas we have on loan from the RS manufacturer for the winter training. We hope that the old boats will be snapped up by someone in the club for the coming season. Matt and Miranda are dealing with the sale of these boats. We are also selling the two blue Hartley 12.2s and these are on the club website under “boat for sale”. It would be great to sell them to club members so please contact me (07768977845) to view them. Once we have sold the Hartleys we plan to get two Laser 2000 dinghies to provide a transition boat for adults and students exiting the Feva dinghies and wanting something more competitive to sail. We continue to search for Toppers to keep the training fleet up to scratch and have had two garden stored boats donated by a past member which have been gratefully received and I am now in the process of renovating. Hugh Kemp, Club Boats Maintenance There are two Club Fevas FOR SALE call Matt 07713938973 £1,400 & from £1,600 Club Hartley FOR SALE £1,700 call Hugh 07768977845 Club Hartley FOR SALE £1,900 call Hugh 07768977845
TRAINING RYA Courses We already have many enquiries and bookings. Some of the Topper courses are full. Make sure to book via Sailia to avoid disappointment. Instructors be sure to let us know if and when you would like to teach this summer. Winter Weekend Race Coaching A resilient group of sailors supported by a wonderful parent body and support staff has met over a number of weekends to sail Fevas. This Squad started in October and have been braving the freezing temperatures to learn more about racing. The weekends have proved popular and extremely effective for improving the performance of our Youth Racers. The last weekends are scheduled for March 22nd and 23rd with a final weekend in April if possible. Winter week ends Race Training & a muddy slip Very well done to all participants, instructors & helpers
Instructors Two of our DI’s are currently in the process of qualifying as Senior Instructors which will be of great help for the summer programme. Taster Sailing This will start up on Wednesday 28th May. We hope Orford School will supply us with several keen novice sailors. OSC would also like to organise an extended Taster Day one weekend when local families could experience being on the water. Date to be confirmed. Powerboat Courses These may be available pre season on request, so please contact us with enquiries. Junior Regatta Troy has already written about the extended Junior Regatta. We very much look forward to welcoming juniors from AYC to join us. Safeguarding for RYA/OSC We would like to thank Paula Kerr and Gus Nisbet for kindly taking on roles concerned with safeguarding. Sheena Barrow, Rear Commodore Training Learning to keep warm CRUISING The group met before Christmas and have an informal dinner booked for the 22nd February and discussions have already taken place regarding Cruising intentions for this year. Cruising boats now number 22 as the group has grown. Our friends at the Woodbridge Cruising Club have already booked in for their annual visit for 2025! The Cruising members of OSC hosted the Royal Cruising Club East Coast Dinner on October 24th last year. A prestigious event for our club in its Centenary Year.
The Royal Cruising Club East Coast Dinner November stripped of her wings & ready for haul out With the days starting to get longer many of us will be returning to our boats to prepare them for 2025. David Robinson, Cruiser Captain
MAINTENANCE & SAFETY BOATS There has been very little maintenance work at the OSC clubhouse during the winter so far, except for the Commodore who has been busy on the bridge trying to identify where the walls are still leaking. Also he has renewed and strengthened the rails in the Outboard Motor Shed to increase the storage capacity for club members. Just to demonstrate the battering the pontoon receives in heavy weather the hammerhead failed before Christmas and needed repair. The failure was from an original part of the pontoon which is testament to its strength. This was repaired by the Commodore and the President. The hammerhead failed before Christmas The clubhouse has been fully open this winter, because of the Winter Race Training weekends, and the Safety Boats and six of the Fevas are still in the dinghy Park and not in their usual winter quarters. The Safety boats are all serviced and working well. ‘Oscar’ is having new sponsons and her hull repaired. The Spring Series starts on the 29th March, so a certain amount of maintenance work must be done before then, but the Working Party on the 21st April (Easter Monday) will be a busy one. The Club Bosun has asked to be relieved of his Grass Cutting and Mud Clearing duties so these tasks will be undertaken by new teams this year. The grass cutting by the team that currently cuts the village greens in Orford, and the mud clearing by volunteer club members experimented with pumps and hoses and scrapers on the 22nd February. Jonnie Howard, Rear Commodore Maintenance Migs Howard, Vice Commodore & Safety Boat Maintenance
HON. SECRETARY UPDATE You can now renew your membership via Membermojo. An email has been sent with instructions. Many thanks to all who have already renewed their membership. If you need any assistance, then please do email me at honsec@orfordsail.org.uk. Claire Davidson, Hon. Secretary CLUB SHOP Embroidered clothing with the Club Logo is available to all members from the Club Shop. OSC Club Shop A selection of club merchandise is available to purchase. To see the full range, prices and order information visit www.orfordsail.org.uk
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