Orford Sailing Club
Spring Newsletter

FROM THE COMMODORE

Dear Members,

A Happy New Year and let us hope for a fine summer so we can enjoy all that Orford and the Club can offer! The Club had a very successful season in 2009 with lots of activity on and off the water. It was particularly pleasing to welcome a number of new families to the Club and to see so many young participating on the water.

CLUB BOATS

We have purchased a new Rigiflex support boat, which together with the existing RIB should give us good cover for our racing, training, family and taster sessions. The Jolly Sailor has been fund-raising for "Boats for Kids", which will go towards another Club Topper – the Toppers having proved very popular allowing a class race of 8 entrants!

YEAR BOOK

We did plan to only publish the Year Book every 2 years as an economy exercise but, because of its value to members, have since decided to revert to an annual publication with the help on advertising. Mike Bellegarde has been successful in getting sufficient revenue to cover costs but if any member would like to advertise in future do contact Mike. The 2010 edition will be sent out in the early summer when the membership data has been received back from members.

TRAINING

You will see from the training schedule that we have a full programme again this year – you are urged to apply for courses as soon as possible as there has already been a lot of interest.

Family Sailing evenings are shown on the Calendar again and we plan to hold Taster Sessions for local youngsters to give them a chance to sample the river and sailing.

CLUB CALENDAR

We hope you will plan your diaries around the Club calendar! We start with the AGM and Working Party over the Easter weekend and then as well as regular racing there are the customary social events (drinks parties, the summer party and BBQ), picnics down the river and Junior and Senior Regattas – this year there is the Commodore's Sail Past at the end of the Senior Regatta with a fancy dress competition for captains, crews and boats !!

INSTRUCTORS

Following an RYA Instructors' Course in October, we are pleased to congratulate the following on their successful completion of the course: Chris Gill, Alex Marshall, Ned Aufenast, Matt Kerr and Jo Iliff.

We hope to repeat the course next Autumn and give more young members the opportunity to achieve an Instructors qualification and thus assist with Club RYA Training.

UNMARKED CLOTHING

A number of items including lifejackets, buoyancy aids and waterproofs have been left in the changing rooms – these items will be available for collection at the working party Monday next Easter. If they are not collected then they will be added to the Clubs stock of clothing. Please ensure that all your sailing items are clearly marked.

COMMUNICATIONS

We continue to explore ways of communicating with members more readily through the Club website. As a first step we plan to have Broadband at the Club with a wireless router so that connection can be made to the internet from the Club premises. This can be followed by a webcam and a link to our weather station, showing current weather conditions at the Club and on the water via the Club website. We hope this will encourage members to visit the website where current messages can be displayed and accessed.

MEMBERS' LOGS

John Colvin won the Day Trophy for the log of his summer cruise in a Wayfarer in Sweden – this is available in the Clubhouse in printed form and as a CD.

I hope that this brings you up to date with Club and Orford news. Having served as Commodore for three years I shall be standing down at the AGM so this will be my last Newsletter. Our Vice Commodore, James Robinson, will be put forward for election at the AGM and I am sure you will all give him your full support.

With best wishes,

Mike Pearce
Commodore

Orford Sailing ClubSpring Newsletter