Commodore's November Newsletter

Published 13:13 on 29 Nov 2022

It is with great excitement that I look forward to leading the club over the next two years. I am very grateful for the great work the retiring Committee members delivered and I am looking forward to working with both the new and old Committee members and the general membership to continue this journey of success.

During the AGM, I set out the key elements of the plan which I will work with the Committee to deliver, namely:

• Club sustainability
• Greater recognition of members' contributions
• Revisit the strategic plan
• Completion of the Eastern Dinghy Park project
• Consideration of refurbishment of the inside of the club house

Whilst I am sure this will come with challenges along the way, I call on all our members to assist with turning this plan into reality. Many hands make light work, so whilst you may not be on the Committee itself, you too can make a difference by feeding your views back via your Fleet Captain and assisting when asked to do so. As with all clubs, the more you put in, the more you will get out. I look forward to working with you over the next couple of years.

Introducing the Committee

Whilst we have a fabulous Committee, do you know who we all are? For those of you who do not know the Committee members, there are pictures of us just inside the club entrance and in the main area just before entering the bar area and these will shortly be updated to show the new Committee members. Whilst you may know names, you may not know that much about the individuals, so I thought it would be good to post some bios as part of the monthly newsletter, starting with me.

Introduction to the Commodore

I am a keen Laser (ILCA) sailor at the club and have been a member for over 20 years. I am happily married to Danielle who sails an ILCA and can occasionally be spotted on a windsurfer. I have two daughters, Michaela (who may have taught you to sail) and Hermione. Both are ILCA sailors, but are currently at uni. Professionally, I am a Chartered Electrical, Control and Instrumentation Engineer working in the chemical industry. If you would like to know anything about ILCAs, I have been sailing them for over 30 years, so please don't hesitate to give me a shout.

Dinner Dance

Just a gentle reminder that our formal dinner dance takes place at the Heyrose Golf Club on 3^rd December. The deadline for purchasing tickets is Friday 25th November. If you have already booked and either not paid yet or made your menu choices, you need to do so by 25th November. Don't forget it is open to friends of members as well.

The night has been organised by Dianne, our Social Secretary, and it promises to be a fantastic event with some excellent menu options and a live band to entertain us. What a great way to end our 75^th year celebrations and becoming the RYA Club of the Year.

Budworth Sailing Club : Dinner Dance 2022! Tickets now available (budworthsc.org.uk)

Any queries, please contact Dianne via social@budworthsc.org.uk or tel: 07379 600551.

Gybe Talking

Over the winter period, you can still get your weekly fix of sailing-related chit chat, with our winter training series Gybe Talking. Thanks to Tony Wilcock for the name.

The series kicks off on Thursday 1^st December in the club bar, with:

Maximising your boat speed - led by Ted Garner

Ted is a hugely knowledgeable and entertaining speaker (as anyone who attended the AGM will know). Ted is the only person I know who can get multiple laughs out of a resume of Committee meetings.

The series will continue through the winter as follows:

The talks will start at 7:30pm and are typically an hour in length. They are mostly free, with the exception of the splicing evening, for which we will make a charge to cover costs.

Please sign up for the events via the Budworth website, so we know how many to expect.

Commodore's Top Tip

Whilst we have been enjoying some unseasonably warm weather this Autumn, we are now at a point when a wetsuit, drysuit or equivalent layered system is compulsory whilst sailing. This is purely for safety reasons. As the temperature drops, the risk of hyperthermia becomes very real if you go for a dunk, even if the sun is shining. Obviously, you need to decide on the appropriateness of the kit you choose, but if you opt for a layering system like me, Rooster Sailing has some excellent options. Please talk to one of the more experienced sailors if you need some help. We still have some secondhand kit for sale - please contact Jon Chapman.

Annual General Meeting

It was great to see so many of our club members gathered for the AGM this year. Once again this was a great opportunity to celebrate the ongoing success of our club. As your new Commodore, it was also my opportunity to thank our retiring members including our long term Racing Secretary, Russell Page, and our new Rear Commodore, Bill Kenyon. It was my great pleasure to present to this photo montage to Bill to remind him of his time as Commodore.

RYA Community Awards Lifetime Commitment Award

Most of you will have met Bill over the last couple of years and will have appreciated the huge contribution he made at the club. However, many of you may not be aware of his pre-Commodore contributions to the sport including the organisation of the Junior 12 hour and 24 hours race teams, coaching juniors, Better Sailing group and support of the Open Days to name but a few. To this end, with the support of others, I nominated Bill for an RYA Lifetime Commitment Award and it was my pleasure to announce at the AGM that the award had been bestowed on him.

End of Season Prize Giving and Laying Up supper

One of the great things about taking on the role of Commodore is being able to award prizes to the best sailors in the club and celebrate their success with them. This year, I also included some non-sailing awards to celebrate some of our Unsung Heroes who I had identified during my time as Vice Commodore. We celebrated Jon Chapman, Chris Hearn, Alison Hubbard, Dianne Owen, Mark Philpot, and Jackie Purvis. I intend to carry this through into next year as well to celebrate some of the huge efforts our members put into running this great club.

Alex Cleaver and Mark Philpot have done a fantastic job of pulling together slide packs for the evening which can be found at Budworth Sailing Club : Budworth Annual prize giving (budworthsc.org.uk)

Our thanks go out once again to the Galley team and Bar team for the fabulous food.

The sailing is not over yet

Whilst the main sailing series have finished for the year, we still have a Frostbite series running up until Christmas. Please come and join us.

See you at the Club.

Cheers,

Hugh