DALGETY BAY SAILING CLUB NEWSLETTER - JUNE ROUNDUPDALGETY BAY SAILING CLUB NEWSLETTER - JUNE ROUNDUP

June 2011DBSC

SAILING ROUNDUP - including round inchcolm racing report -

PLANS FOR NEXT SEASON- Full article -

HONDA RIB CHALLENGE- read more -

MainsheetMainsheet

S U M M E R H A S F I N A L Y A R R I V E D - I t ’ S t I M E t o g E t S A I L I N g

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ell folks, the seasons really picking up and with more and more sailing being apparent on the water its time to dust off those sails lying in the garage, dig out the foils, pop down to the club and give the boat a clean and get it into the water. .....It will ease the “guilty” feeling and god knows, it has to be better than sitting on your backside watching the telly after a day at work?

Donald AdrianCommodore’s Foreword

WWhy not try popping down on a Wednesday and get the boat, and your backside wet? With the new initiative where the training is gently moved from the Tuesday training night to the Wednesday sailing night, to let train-ees see what racing is all about, you will be in good company if it all seems a bit new and a bit intimidating. Ian Renilson, Cheryl and their teams will extend you a warm welcome and try to buddy you up with someone who can help you sail round the cans, in the correct order, without looking like a total nugget!!

We held our first regatta and its apparent we forgot to pay our subs to the “Big man” upstairs. With the wind howling on the Saturday, and it being only marginally better on the Sunday, the club managed to run enough races to at least provide some sailing for both experienced and novice fleets. Huge thanks have to go out to the volunteers who gave their time to provide rescue cover, galley and food as well as the sailing and safety side of things, A special thanks also have to go to Ian Renilson and the Regatta committee for his efforts in making this all happen as well as the bar staff who were run off their feet when the race officer thoughtlessly decided to call it a day early and the punters made a bolt for the bar!! Well done Jean and Lindsay.

The keelboats have also kicked off and while the numbers are down on previous years some really good sailing has been had on both Friday night club racing as well as the Forth Inshore Group races. With the club run-ning the “Gavin Adamson” FIG race its reassuring to see that our club managed 2nd and 3rd overall albeit yet again.....without fail...yet again....Brief N Counter was the top DBSC keelboat..surely its must be getting really monotonous and David has to be struggling to find room on the creaking trophy shelf to cram in another piece of ropey looking silverware.

What’s new this month........

• Club representatives have attended a new East and Central Scotland Sailing group. This is the new vehicle we shall use to access the RYA with regard to shared training, liaising with other local clubs and tying together initiatives, sharing resources and organising events in a local group. We could really do with some help on this one in the shape of additional reps for the club. Really only needs attending a meeting say once a month for a couple of hours, gather and co-ordinate the actions and represent the clubs interests ......fancy it or a bit of it? Let me know and we can make sure the role fits in with what you can manage.

• Vacant Committee Roles; we have a number of vacant roles within the club. These include the po-sitions of training co-ordinator...a challenging job to face up to, but when you see people you have helped to train, the satisfaction is outstanding...some will continue up the ladder becoming instructors and such like...lets face it though, it’s a massive role...but you don’t have to do it all on your own but if you decide to take on the challenge...you will be a shining star, welcomed with open arms into the fold like a long lost friend so how can you fail!! With that in mind; the role of Rear Commodore Social has been filled...We welcome on board, Ca-triona Garner, and wish her the best of time with us! We wait with anticipation to see what she has planned...

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Commodore’s Foreword

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• The Club Bar is open and the licence changes are now in place. This means that we can be a little more flexible regards parents and children attending training functions and using the club house for changing as well as using the bar itself. In essence the under 16,s must vacate the licensed premises (in essence the whole club house) by 10 pm and those between 16 and 18 may remain until closing time. Please be aware the 10pm closing has been amended and the bar staff will apply a degree of common sense about when to close. No point in staying open if nobody is there... and conversely if it’s busy, and after 10pm, the staff will remain open until closing time. Please remember it’s the members money that keeps the club house and bar open, and the bar staff paid, so its case of try-ing to spend our collective money wisely.

• The Tuesday group, who carry out so many of the tasks to keep the club house, grounds and infrastruc-ture of the club in good order are always looking for any assistance. If you are free on any Tuesday morning then do pop down and introduce yourself where something marine based will be thrust into your hot sweaty hands to either be repaired, painted, cut or disposed of.

• We are shortly intending to reinforce the clubs shore defences. You may remember the horrendous storms last year, and the damage caused where the sea defences were breached. It is the intention to kick off a roll-ing programme of placing additional rock armour in the most strategic places to prevent further club shoreline and property being damaged. This will entail some pretty hefty kit coming on site including tipper lorries, excavator and JCB to move the shore defences into place so please exercise common sense when using the clubs facilities. We will try to minimise disruption but would appreciate your co-operation and understanding during the works

• With these works, and other more minor works planned, we may need to move boats to allow the works to be safely carried out and to minimise risk of damage to member’s property. This will be carried out in accordance with the clubs handbook but the Harbour master we will make every effort to contact owners beforehand. If no response is forthcoming then he will carefully move the obstructions to a safe area so if you come down and your boat ain’t there......it’s because Ruary has probably moved it!!

Anyhow...end of diatribe so if you have something to say, a suggestion to make, an offer of assistance or even want something different to happen, be it sailing or otherwise, then please give me a shout and I’ll do my best to make it happen.

Donald Adrian,commodore@dalgetybaysc.org

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ROUND INCHOLM RACEKeith Cuthbert

unday 19th June was the annual club round Incholm race which is open to all boats including dinghies and keel-boats.This year a total of 15 boats took part including the 2 trimarans with Lindsay Henderson is his new awesome F31 and Lionel Mills in his new slightly smaller but very nifty Magnum 21.The wind was light at around 6-8 knots with the tide flooding up river.As always happens with this race early on it became clear that there were 2 schools of thought on how to get around the island, clockwise or anticlockwise.The leading boats of myself in my RS100 and Gavin and Finlay in their RS200 decided to go in-shore up to the island and round it clockwise whereas Dave & Isa-bel Burnett in their K6 decided on the anticlockwise route. Although

I didn’t run aground I understand that Gavin and Finlay did hit the putty once or twice in their search to keep out of the tide.I could tell once I got past the ab-bey on the island that my route was definitely the better option as I passed the K6 after the half way point around the East side of the island. Surprisingly I did not ex-perience the usual massive wind shadow once on the East side.Being a dinghy I also managed to slip between the island and the large rock at the harbour side of the island. Something the bigger boats dare not do!The F31 went clockwise like Gavin and myself but in the light airs he struggled to make a huge impact downwind – that boat needs a kite!The majority of the rest of the fleet appeared to go with Dave with the anti clockwise route.Once I was clear of the island the

Westerly wind was steady and I could tell with the tide advantage also pushing me up river I was go-ing to lay the finish on the one port tack.For me it then came down to try-ing to achieve line honours over the F31 who once turning upwind started going like a steam train. He was hunting down my little RS100 and if the beat had lasted any long-er he would have caught me, but in the end I just finished under one minute ahead over the water.Further down the fleet there ap-peared to be a Mr. and Mrs. bat-tle going on with team Greer in the radials. You can tell who won that battle from the results.It is clear that going clockwise paid off on corrected time for the first 2 boats so that is my take on how I won the race.The alternative Richard Higgins take is - RS100!!! Bandit handi-cap!!!

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Photo: Ian Renilson

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Last year (2009/10) there was a shortfall of £8000 between mem-bership fee income and club run-ning costs. This was a consequence of the fee restructuring agreed at the 2009 AGM. The shortfall was offset by bar profits last year of £10,000.

The 2010 AGM decided to revert to the historical proportional fee levels that applied to the vari-ous membership categories. The increases applying to the major-ity of members due to this rever-sion were such that total projected membership fee income was set at a level that was £6400 short of estimated overhead costs for the current year, to be offset by an estimated bar profit of £9000. Even so, the “bottom line” in this year’s AGM approved accounts was for the club to sustain a loss of £3400.

Up to end May, at the two-thirds financial year point, the bar is only slightly above a break-even posi-tion despite revision of bar open-ing hours to save on costs incurred during historical known loss-mak-ing periods. Unless there is a sig-nificant upturn in bar custom over the next 3 months, all indications are that in the current financial year, the club will sustain an over-

all loss in the order of £10,000.

Current conditions within the li-censed trade in general indicate that the bar can no longer be relied upon to generate the additional in-come the club needs to maintain required re-investment in our in-frastructure. All indications are that without this source of fund-ing, the club is looking at an on-going shortfall in future years of £10,000, at current prices, be-tween annual income and expend-iture. This is approximately 7% of club annual expenditure.

The consequence of the depar-ture from the principle of mem-bership fee income covering club overheads has been a dependency on the club to generate sufficient profit from its operations just to meet annual running costs. This at best has been at the expense of funds required to maintain neces-sary investment in club infrastruc-ture and in reality has resulted in the club drawing upon accumulat-ed reserves to sustain our opera-tions. Without change, the club is looking at about two years before moving into insolvency.

Scope for cutting cost without a corresponding cut in service pro-vision is virtually nil. Traditional membership appetite for “add-on” charges additional to the member-ship fee rules this out as a realistic option to be re-visited. Pressure upon the management committee to generate sufficient profit from club operations to cover expected running costs places an onus on club officers that is at odds with their primary responsibilities. DBSC is a non-profit making body, not a commercial operation.

At this year’s AGM, the manage-ment committee intends to revert to the traditional formula of set-ting membership fees at a rate sufficient to meet the club’s pro-jected annual running costs. Ad-ditionally, in the absence of any reliable indications of a sustain-able upturn in bar trade, the only viable alternative means of main-taining the club’s capital reinvest-ment programme will be by add-ing a capital expenditure element to membership fees. This will not include an element to replenish the net loss in reserve funds over the past two years. Realistically, therefore, prior to an increase to cover rising prices, a minimum 25% increase in membership fees is likely to be required for 2012 to put the club back into financially sustainable state. The management committee does not regard this approach as the easy option but realistic alterna-tives need difficult choices, only possible by clear membership consensus. The committee would therefore welcome any views, feedback and suggestions from members that will assist in iden-tifying the most acceptable way ahead. Please send any feedback to treasurer@dalgetybaysc.org.

t has always been clubpolicy that membership fees are set at a level that

generates the revenue to cover the club’s annual overhead running costs. In the 10 years to 2009, this was achieved to a 99% accuracy level. Consequently, the club’s capital investment has tradition-ally been funded by profit from the club’s trading activities, the prima-ry source being bar profits.

ICLUB FINANCESW i l l i e A l l a n

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he sailing season is now in full swing with lots going on. We have had our first regatta, which was a specific event for Lasers/ Topper/ & Oppies (with 75 boats), and the main regatta at the end of August is not far away – there will again be a separate Novice Fleet. Club sailing is building very well with some fantastic turn-outs, and the Tuesday evening training will be stopping soon to persuade novice sailors to join-in with club racing on a Wednesday evening. The monthly ‘Special Saturdays’ have been very special and great fun with something for everyone and more planned.

It is great to see the club boats being used more frequently for club races – it helps to boost participation – and so booking is advisable. The Wednesday evening races have been particularly well attended since the introduction of 2 short races – that seems very popular – not to mention hectic on the racecourse with 30 boats on the water – thank goodness for the separate Novice Start!

When the Tuesday training stops at the end of June there should soon be an increase in the number of novices com-peting on Wednesday nights – so please make them wel-come and could the experi-enced sailors please take the time to give advice, and make allowances on the water. We were all novices once!

We have been running race training on some Sunday mornings on an ad-hoc basis when it is convenient. We hope to formalise this to run on every Sunday through the summer, but for now just look out for the notices in the weekly e-mails – and feel free to join-in whatever your standard.

Everyone who can should take their turn at club duties to run races &/ or help with safety cover – it’s the only way we can run racing safely & reliably. The club operates the ‘Dutyman’ system, which should be used to confirm duties and arrange swaps. It is important that you register with the Dutyman team and confirm via Dutyman that you can do your duty. The duties themselves are easy enough and normally good fun – just ask if you have any doubts about anything. The ‘Duty-man’ system actually works very well if you give it a chance. For further informa-tion please look at:http://dbscweb.wordpress.com/racing/dutyman/

SAILING ROUNUPI a n R e n i l s o n

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Other useful information on website: Home: http://dbscweb.wordpress.com Sailing Calendar: http://dbscweb.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/club-calendar-2011/ Crew-Finder (register to get a sail!): http://dbscweb.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/crew-wanted/ Race Results: http://dbscweb.wordpress.com/racing/results/ Using Club Boats: http://dbscweb.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/need-a-boat-to-race-in/

We hope you are having a great time sail-ing at Dalgety Bay this year – there are a lot of exciting and fun things going-on – so if you are not already participating come along and find out how you can get involved.

Forthcoming Sailing Events:

Sunday 3rd July – Round St David’s Pole – combined dinghy & Keelboat eventMonday 25th to Friday 29th July – Youth WeekTuesday/ Wednesday/ Thursday 26th to 28th July – evening ‘Sprint’ series:• Two races each evening• 7 pm start• 2 fleets with separate starts – Handicap & Novice (no separate Asym-metric fleet)• Open to non-members• Entry fee & prizes:o £5 for memberso £10 for non-memberso FREE for Novices • BBQ on Thursday 28th July (sepa-rate charge)23rd July – Special Saturday – details TBE20th August – Special Saturday – details TBE27th/ 28th August – Main Regatta – clear your diary for sailing or helping!

photo: andreW greer

photo: andreW greer

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NOVICE RACINGC h e r y l Ta y l o r

Wednesday evening novice racing will run from 8th June – 24th August (series 2 and 3).

Start Times • 8th June: 1915 so you need to be at the club by 1815 to get rigged and on the water • 15th June: 1915 so you need to be at the club by 1815 to get rigged and on the water• 22nd June: 1915 so you need to be at the club by 1815 to get rigged and on the water• 29th June: 1915 so you need to be at the club by 1815 to get rigged and on the water• 6th July: 1915 so you need to be at the club by 1815 to get rigged and on the water• 13th July: 1915 so you need to be at the club by 1815 to get rigged and on the water• 20th July: 1930 so you need to be at the club by 1830 to get rigged and on the water• 27th – 29th July: Sprint Series: 1830 each night• 3rd August: 1930 so you need to be at the club by 1830 to get rigged and on the water• 10th August: 1930 so you need to be at the club by 1830 to get rigged and on the water• 17th August: 1930 so you need to be at the club by 1830 to get rigged and on the water• 24th August: 1930 so you need to be at the club by 1830 to get rigged and on the water

Also if there is enough demand there will be Novice starts on a Sunday afternoon, racing starts at 1400 on Sun-day’s.

There will be instructors at the club on Wednesday evenings to help you out.

If you don’t want to helm but would like to crew, try the crew finder: Are you a boat in need of crew, or a sailor look-ing for a sail? Well, at DBSC we’re committed to getting you on the water. All you need to do is send an email to crew@dalgetybaysc.org* with the following details and you’ll be added to the list be-low: No guarantees, but we’ll do our best! (Sailing members only)

Procedures for the use of club boats: The club dinghies are pri-marily for training purposes, however they can be used by members with the permission of a member of the training team. Juniors who regularly attend Tuesday night training need to have gained a stage 3 certificate or better to use club boats at race times. Juniors are not permitted to take club boats out other than on Tues-day & Sunday training ses-sions, club racing, and under the authority of the training team during occasional events

such as the Open Day. Club boats may only be afloat if there is adequate rescue cover to deal with all those on the water.

If you wish to use one of the club dinghies and you believe you conform to the above cri-teria please text Stewart Moss with your request (which boat type and which race) at least 24 hours before the race and he will let you know if you are eligible and the availability. Mbl: 07740205887.The boats available are:9 Optimist DinghiesDon’t be put off by the pic-ture, it doesn’t take 6 kids to move them, they are in fact great boats for small begin-ners to learn and hone their sailing skills in a very robust and stable platform. They are not lacking in excitement either and can be great fun if competing in a fleet.

6 ToppersThese boats are ideal for the slightly older and more expe-rienced child and can easily be sailed with two to give a bit more stability and a great shared experience.

6 PicosThese boats are very versatile and can be sailed by children or adults, single-handed or doubled up with a small jib for extra speed. They are very ro-bust and are often used by the experienced racers in a fleet race when there is too much wind for their normal speed machines.

1 EuropeThis boat is fast and respon-sive and great fun for the more experienced sailor.

2 LasersWe have two Lasers in the fleet one Standard Rigged for and one Radial Rigged (nick-named Bill & Ben, Ben being the radial) These boats are fast and responsive and great fun for the more experienced sailor. There is often a reason-able Laser fleet racing so they are an ideal opportunity to gauge your skill with the rest of the racers.

1 RS FevaThis 2-person dinghy is fast, exciting and has an optional gennaker to give even more thrills. It is very popular with the older children but can

easily be sailed with an adult and child. These boats were designed to set new stand-ards for recreational sailors, families, clubs, schools and holiday companies. The boats are easy to handle, fun to sail, versatile and highly durable. In fact, the RS Feva was the outright world’s best selling two-person sailboat in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

1 Laser BahiaThis is one of the clubs bigger boats used on Tuesday nights for teaching adult beginners basic principles of sailing. It is a stable yet fast boat but not overpowered and its construc-tion makes it easier to right if capsized. It can be sailed by two or a whole family for some extra excitement.

1 Laser StratosThe Stratos is a great boat to join in the racing with a gang of people in a stable and fast environment. This particular boat was raced at the club for many years and was often amongst the leaders.

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KEELBOAT NEWSJ o h n S i m

e are now half way through the DBSC racing season, or 40% through the overall sailing season if you are like me and bring your boat ashore towards the end of September. Gosh, there’s a sobering thought and one that may be the reminder you need to get your boat launched soon. The season will be gone before we know it.

It could not have escaped many people notice that the number of keelboats sitting on their moorings against those still ashore is a bit out of balance. We know there are often a number of personal factors that cause a boat not to be launched, and this year we have had the added factor of really horrible weather (bet all those ashore were glad of their situation on Monday 23rd May when the 80mph winds hit), but we would welcome your comments and feedback if there is something the club is not doing to help with get-ting you sailing your pride and joy. The flip side of course is, we will have to look long and hard at some boats that have not been on the wet stuff for a number of years now. As well as taking up boat park space, some occupy tender slots. The Har-bour Master and I have been doing some work so that those showing no sign of launching this year are now located furthest away from the slip. Those that are active will be stored closest to the slip. We intend to maintain that approach, so we can very easily identify the inactive boats, that in turn will be subject to further discussion round storage.

Returning to those that are active, some highlights of the season so far - The first Friday series is complete now and special mention must go to Rodger Harvey Jamie-son, skipper of Seeaway (and loyal

crew member Renny Thomson), for their speed gain this year, which has been the result of much hard work and practice over the last couple of years. Looks like some glassware due come the prize giving. The storm on the 23rd, we only had limited boat movement and nobody broke free, so congratula-tions to everyone for keeping their mooring in good condition – phew! Our sympathy’s go out to our friends at Burtisland Sailing Club, who lost two boats. Unfortunately we had to cancel the Fife Regatta due to our in-ability to find enough helpers. While disappointing, it was the right deci-sion as we would not liked to have gone short handed, struggled on and put the good name of the club at risk by running an under par event. We are one of the most active clubs on the Forth, but our size and reduced active member numbers this year mean we may have to drop this one from the calendar. The Gavin Adamson was a very cold and in spells windless day. But credit to all the boats and our Race Officers, as the course was completed by all boats bar one. The BAD Cup has been postponed due a number of rea-sons totally out with the control on DBSC, which is a pity as Captain Sarah had done a great job whipping up a team. We will publicise the new date to everyone as soon as we have it agreed between the three clubs. The Fruit Cake Series (Mick Grimmer named it, not me) is re-ceiving good feedback and we are half way through. Down wind starts, along with a finish in the dark (round about 9pm) remain. Cruising wise, we had planned a night in Port Edgar (or rather in some eatery ashore), along with some cruises to other destina-tions. So far the weather has spoiled

any attempts to date, but we are still keen to make it happen, so keep an eye on the weekly emails you get from the club.

It does looks like the bad weather is behind us, and the Scottish Summer has finally arrived. There are lots of sailing opportunities coming up for the remainder of the year, so hope-fully we will see more of you on the water soon.

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n the 14th May the Club held their heat for the 2011 Honda Youth RIB Challenge. The event en courages younger power boaters to test their skills against a pre-set course and the clock with the winners going on to the regional finals. Slow Cool Collective this is NOT but as many were to find out the Zen of the SCC still applies at the most critical times – that man overboard drill.It was a great day with some fantastic driving from the competi-tors and from the parents at the end who couldn’t resist having a go. Needless to say the times from the parents couldn’t get near their children but we did convert some bystanders to our ways and signed up a few more faces to the next Level 2 course.Almost 30 younger members took part in the two age catego-ries (11 – 13 and 14 – 16) and kept the instructors on their toes burning round the slalom style course. A big thank you to everyone who came along for the day to help out, it was great fun and very competitive.In the end the winning times were very close and it was a real shame that we were restricted to only one winner in each age group but congratulations went to Andrew Greer and Nathan Albury who went on to represent DBSC at the Scottish Region-al Finals at Port Edgar on Saturday 11 June.On a particularly dreich day they went up against a number of other young people from clubs across Scotland and really did themselves proud. The event at Port Edgar was well supported by RYA Scotland and RYA UK who had brought the official Honda RIBS for the competition. Both 60HP and considerably

more powerful than the DBSC boats.Despite never having driven a RIB before the Club heat and practicing on a 30Hp engine, Nathan coped brilliantly with the added power and applied all his learning to the new course coming third in the 11 - 13 age group and only 20 seconds off the winning pace. He’d managed to master the tricky skills of steering and throttle together as well as reversing and high speed manoeuvres all in a couple of weeks but it came down to that pesky man overboard drill – you gotta stop the boat. Big thanks to Sandy, James and Andy who gave up their time to help with the training. Now we just have to work on that stop-ping thing and we’ll nail it next time!Andrew put in a fantastic two rounds on the tight course at Port Edgar but, like Nathan was caught out on his second round by the man overboard – even if you are fast, you still gotta stop the boat. It was an absolute flier of a round until then and the supporters on the pontoons all felt every second as he fought to reposition the boat and get the life ring back onto the buoy. As it turned out even Andrew’s first round – the practice round - was fast and in the end he was piped to the winning slot by only 3 seconds, the tightest and cruellest of margins. Both Nathan and Andrew were a fantastic credit to DBSC and themselves and were deservedly loaded with goodies from the RYA and Honda for their efforts. No doubt they will be back next year at the Club heats for another crack at it. Until then seek your RIB’ing destiny in the Slow Cool Collective Zen for MOB – stop the darn boat.

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OHONDA RIB CHALLENGEJ a m e s A l l a n

here have been reports going around that there is a beautiful and startling red sight in Dalgety Bay SailingClubs moorings area. I am pleased to report that Aliens have not landed but that Orion is now in its properelement on the water after its long and suc-cessful refit, despite David Williams , of Brief n Counter fame,prediction that it would be August 2012 before this was completed. It has taken part in 2 of the Friday nightseries for keelboats already and is eagerly looking forward to Sunday’s 4 Inches race.The news was so startling that the Royal Air Force sent the Red Arrows up North to do a brilliant displayover the Bay area to celebrate this event. There was also loads of people out on the grounds watching sothey could witness that Orion had actually left the mooring and taken part in the race which took place on Friday24th June.It is great being back on the water again in Orion and look forward to more keelboats taking part in the racing.

ORION RETURNSL i o n e l B o o t h

TUESDAY NIGHTSC h e r y l Ta y l o r

Tuesday night training has been successful this year with 51 attendees. We managed to

get sailing on most nights although due to the weather we did have one theory night.

Thank you to all of the instructors and helpers, Tuesday nights would not oper-

ate without them. For those of you who are able to sail a boat on your own

please come and join in racing on Wednesday nights or Sundays, if you are keen but want to sail

with an experienced sailor or instructor then get in touch

with Ian Renilson who is co-ordinating the crew

for the Stratos and Bahia. More details about Novice

racing elsewhere in the mainsheet.

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TUESDAY NIGHTS

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CATRIONA McDONALD’S STOREY fter six years of instrucing, three summer seasons abroad and numerous Club Youth Weeks I felt it time to set myself a new challenge and approach instructing from a new dimension. With the help from my club, Dalgety Bay Sailing Club, I started to prepare myself for the RYA Senior Instructor course. The nerves started to kick in once receiving my letter regarding course itinerary, dis-cussion topics and practical sessions. Friends had taken great pleasure in tell-ing me about their horror stories from their SI course and all I could think was, ‘I am not going to pass this!’…My preconceptions of the SI course could not have been more wrong, as soon as I arrived at Cumbrae I was made to feel very welcome and at ease. Having introduced ourselves we anonymously noted down our ‘wor-ries’ and ‘goals’ regarding the 4 day SI course, and stuck them to the wall. It was remarkable when reading fellow in-structors doubts as the majority of them turned out the same, realising we were all feeling the same pushed away some

of those pre course jitters.The most challenging part of the course was teaching ourselves as instructors to move away from the Autocratic ‘you WILL be doing this’ method and sway towards a Democratic, ‘what would YOU like to focus on’ approach. As we were using fellow instructors as guests on our sessions the autocratic approach seemed pointless especially as individuals already held a vast sailing knowledge. Practicing the Democratic approach meant we could bounce ideas of each other, taking in and responding to new suggestions and instructing tech-niques, advancing towards more upbeat, challenging, interesting sessions. Hav-ing an open floor of discussion before sessions was a successful way to benefit fully from fellow instructors teaching methods. It felt strange training ourselves to move away from the textbook RYA instructing method which we have all been practicing from numerous years, but gradually the more we opened up to one another the easier it became. Comparing Day 1 to Day 3 showed

an astonishing change in our instruct-ing methods and we were soon on our way to becoming ‘democratic’ Senior Instructor’s. Cumbrae Sailing School has a vast array of kit ranging from a selection of Lasers and Pico’s to Bahia’s and Stratos’ to RS400’s and Dart 16’s. With access to such a great kit we as sailors were able to push our personal sailing skills as well as enhancing our coaching knowledge. The RYA Senior Instructor course was an incredibly rewarding course, learn-ing an immense amount, improving coaching techniques, sailing skills and all round general knowledge. I would recommend it to all those keen instruc-tors ready to set themselves a new chal-lenge, push personal boundaries and look towards instructing from a new perspective.

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ow, how much fun can you have with 2 Picos on a wet Saturday in only an hour? Well if you took part in the Special Satur-day Ins-and-Outs tournament you would know that the answer is Awesome Amounts, and then a bit more, because the prizes were chocolate!!The rules were simple, you started attached to Nova and if you were on the left hand side of Nova you sailed up the left hand side of the course, round a buoy then up through the wind-ward gate and retraced your course back to Nova where you crossed over to the right hand side and did the same on the other side of the course. If you were on the right hand side of Nova you sailed the opposite course. First back to Nova was the win-ner. Then the next 2 competitors started. See the photo of the course for a better explanation. The races only took about 5 minutes so no one was hanging about for long.The racing was exceedingly close as the photo of one of the crossovers shows. And just how close became apparent when we finished with a 3-way tie for first place. It looked like Alastair Higgins

had won when he beat his Dad, Richard. But his Mum, Kirsty had beaten him in the first race, so maybe she had won. But Richard had then beaten her, so they were inseparable.So the Higgins’ house was the place to be after winning all that chocolate and ably assisted by their various and swapped about crews, Jenny, Mia, Annabel and Ian (Renilson). Fiona Geer won the banana prize for putting up with Brian in one race (note to self; don’t put them in the same boat ever again). My favourite picture of the day is Richard and an exhausted Annabel, although she soon recovered after a few Haribo.

I a n B a i l e y

WSPECIAL SATURDAY (IN’S & OUT’S)

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PLEASE NOTEIt has been brought to our attention that dur-ing our recent dinghy regatta - topper/oppie

travellers - a blue PVC Topper boat cover (top) has been misplaced. The cover can be easily

identified via black marker writing; Sarah Jef-fries, sail no. 45806, HSC (Helensburgh Sailing

Club).

If you notice this cover around the club grounds, or are aware where it may be please

get in contact with Donald Adrian; commodore@dalgetybaysc.org

With our anual Youth Week fast approach-ing at the end of July (25th-29th), the pres-

sure is beggining to build.

To make these training events run without a hitch, the club relies purely on volun-teers; many exhausting hours have been

spent - and continue to be spent - organis-ing the Youth Week.

It’s always a challenge to source volunteers to take up some of the most important roles during the 5 days. However, this is where your needed; we need volunteers to help out in the galley, who keep us all fueled

with amazing lunches. If you are free from 9:30am onwards or even 10am - 2pm,

please get in touch.

Tuck shop volunteers; it’s the best part of the day for many of the youths, and not

to mention the instructors. If you are free from 3:30pm till 4:30pm, we would love

to hear from you.

Please remember, even if you don’t have children involved in Youth Week, you can still volunteer. It’s all about showing your

support towards the club.

If you are able to lend a hand - even if it is only for an hour or so - contact Glen Hal-

stead via; glen@glennh.com

Looking for help to improve your skills on the water?

Whatever your requirements, there’s more thank likely a way the team at Dalgety Bay

Sailing Club can help you - even if places on the course you want are full or we’re mid-way

through the season.

No matter what your needs are - do let us know and lets have a chat to see what we can do.Start the conversation today by emailing;

commodore@dalgetybaysc.org

SAIL TRAINING

100 CLUB DRAW WINNERS

Congradulations to the following lucky mem-bers that have won, June’s 100 Club Draw.

1st - £25 - Mick Grimmer2nd - £12 - Lesley Henderson

3rd - £5 - Neil Tomlinson

IT’S EVERYONES

Please remember, the mainsheet is ‘yours’.

If you have something which you want everyone to know about; this is place for it.

Make sure your article is included in the next edi-tion of the mainsheet email;

mainsheet@dalgetybaysc.org

Have exciting pictures of sailing?Have exciting pictures of events around the club?Don’t hesitate: make sure people can see them.We’re always looking for pictures to include in

the mainsheet and the website - if this is the case contact Andrew Greer through;

media@dalgetybaysc.org

WE NEED YOU

EDITOR: ANDREW GREER (media@dalgetybaysc.org)13