Frensham Pond Sailability Newsletter No. 5 - Spring 2003

From the Ant & Dec of Frensham Pond

Section 1 (from Ant!)

Hello Sailors - this is your captain speaking, once again.!

I hope you have all had a suitable rest and are now champing at the bit to start sailing again. I am sure you all know the starting date, but just to remind you all, it is Thursday April 3rd. at 10.00 am, followed by Saturday 5th. Weather permitting of course.

Access Sailing

Our Access Open Meeting is on Wednesday 7th May, first race 11.00 am. This year we will have 4 single seaters and 3 two seaters available for racing. I will be a very disappointed if they are not all being raced and hopefully at the front of the fleet.

Between now and then we have some serious basic racing practice to put in, starting on April 3rd. As last year Jim Steventon will be leading the instruction on Thursdays, and on Saturdays probably me.

The information will be enough to get you around the course without to much hassle. Most important, please do not be put off by the fact that there will be experienced sailors at the Open Meeting. There will likewise be sailors at exactly the same level as yourselves, as those of you who raced last year will know. Have a go, its great fun and you can have a good laugh about it as well as meeting other people.

As we will be racing three 303 two seaters, now is an ideal time to pair up with someone if you feel the two seater is more your cup of tea. Hopefully you will learn a little from each other and also manage to come off the water still talking to each other. Our original two seater is going away this month to have the centreboard sorted out, it will be back in time for the Open.

I plan to write to every club owning Access Boats encouraging them to come to Frensham on May 7th. I hope the weather is just like last year, which was a brilliant day.

This year Burghfield Sailing Club has joined the Access Travellers circuit. You will see that it is the last meeting of the season, we must make every effort to attend as it is about only 45 minutes from the Frensham down the M4.

2.4mR Sailing

This year our 2.4 Open is on a Saturday, September 27th. We are expecting a good turnout of visitors as, hot off the press, we have just learnt that the Frensham meeting has been included in the RYA fixture list as a 'National ranking event number four'. These events, of which there are five for 2.4s in 2003, go to make up a series upon which funds can be allocated by the RYA, for example to provide grants to attend international competitions. This is great news for Frensham. It should be a really interesting day, I just hope the wind is running up or down the Pond so that we get a longish beat, I don't think we will be too popular if the beat is across the Pond, seeing that most 2.4 meetings are held on large waters. As last year we will endeavour to attend as many Opens and training days as is humanly possible.

We are also talking to the Class Association about a training day at the club. Now that we have 5 boats more than justifies a day, we will make it open to any 2.4 owner.

A full list of Access and 2.4 Open meeting dates is given on the last page of the Newsletter.

Waverley Inter-Town Sports Competition

Again I am looking for at least 4 sailors to take part in the Waverley Inter Town Sports Competition on Saturday April 10th. It will be fun racing amongst our-selves, each boat representing a town in Waverley. There will be 3 races of approx. 20/30 minutes duration. The winner will be the town with the least number of points against them. I was hoping that this year each town would provide their own sailors but this is looking unlikely so we will have to do it.

Sailing Training

We are again planning to offer race coaching by experienced sailors (principally Nick Cliborn & John Haine). We are also intending to offer basic sailing tuition , based on the RYA system, to helpers as well as new sailors. There is the possibility of running a formal RYA 1& 2 course if there is the demand for it - for helpers and/or sailors. This would, however, require commitment to a 5 day training course, possible split into a 3 day and 2 day element.

RYA Sailability are about to launch a Certificate of Achievement, containing 12 basic elements of dinghy sailing. We are planning to use this for our schools sailors but it could well be attractive to other sailors as well.

Looking at the summer travellers racing program for the Access, Challenger and 2.4 I am sure there are enough venues close by to keep everybody happy

That's about it for the moment see you all soon. Have a great summer sail.
Good luck and see you all on the 3rd. April.
Ted

Section 2 (from Dec!)

And a 'Hello' (to sailors and helpers) from me also.

No apologies for the length of the Newsletter - but there seems to be a lot going on - mustn't complain! I would just like to mention a few things:

Sporting Challenge 2003

We are about a launch a promotional campaign for new sailors, inviting disabled people who are looking for a 'Sporting Challenge' to join us at Frensham, with a vision of having a Frensham sailor at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008

New Boats

Following the delivery of the 3 new Access dinghies (expected end March), we will have 14 Sailability boats (7 Access, 2 Challengers, 2 Wayfarers, and 3 2.4mR) plus the 2 privately owned 2.4mRs and the use of 8 GP14 training boats. I am looking forward to seeing up to 20 boats on the water on a Thursday in 2003! I would like to record our appreciation here for Hydon Hill Leonard Cheshire Home, Hemihelp, and RYA Sailability respectively for funding the new boats.

Helpers

The capacity limiting factor this coming year will be the number of helpers, particularly those with sailing experience. If you know anyone who might be able to help, please make contact with them and invite them along. We will have a number of new helpers this year and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them and to thank 'old' helpers for their all their efforts and support. We are holding a helpers training morning on Thursday 20 March - all welcome.

Web Site

If you haven't already done so, please have a look at the recently re-created FPSC and Sailability web site (www.sailfrensham.org.uk). It looks great.

FPS Video

Those of you 'starring' in it will be pleased to know that you have made a National impact! RYA Sailability asked for it to be shown at its Annual Forum held at the Alexandra Palace Sailboat show on 3 March. It was very well received. It was also shown on the main RYA stand in the afternoon. (They were all particularly impressed by Hutch's hat!)

Key dates 2003

We will regularly publish a list of key FPSC/Sailability dates as shown on Page 4. I would particularly bring to your attention:

a) Supper evening with Cathy Foster 'Going for Gold - Athens 2004' - Friday 28 March, 7.30 for 8.00. Cost £7 including an informal 2 course hot supper. This is a Club event, all Sailability members welcome. Cathy is one of Frensham's dinghy sailing greats, ex ladies World champion, Olympic sailor etc. At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Cathy was the GB Paralympic team coach and manager. Cathy, with two crew, is now mounting a serious bid for gold at the Athens Olympics, sailing the new Yngling class keelboat (for a female crew of three) at total cost probably exceeding £100k, most of which has to come from fundraising. Proceeds from the evening go to the 'Team Cathy' Olympic fund. Please contact me for tickets - going fast!

b) 10 Hour Race &BBQ - Saturday 7th June - proceeds from the day are traditionally donated to local good causes. FPSC has very kindly agreed that Frensham Pond Sailability should be the beneficiary in 2003. Part of the deal is that Sailability will play a major part in running the shore activities (bar, lunch, cream teas, BBQ etc). We will be looking for as large a team of helpers as possible on the day - those not sailing, sailors' 'other halves' etc. Please put the date in your diary.

E-mail communication

E-mail makes communication so much easier, cheaper and immediate. If you have received this Newsletter by hard copy it means either you haven't got e-mail or I haven't got your e-mail address. If you come into the latter category, I would love to hear from you - please e-mail me at, brian.grimwood@ukgateway.net

That's it I think - very best wishes also from me for a very enjoyable sailing year.

Brian

Key Dates 2003

March 20 Thursday FPS helper training & boat preparation day
April 3 Thursday Start of sailing season
May 7 Wednesday Frensham Pond Access Open
    Hydon Hill boat presentation
May 10 Saturday Waverley Inter-town Sports Day
June 7 Saturday FPSC 10 Hour Race & BBQ
June 29 Sunday Hemihelp Sports Day
July 12 Saturday FPSC Golden Jubilee Day
August 25 Monday FPSC Regatta
September 27 Saturday Frensham Pond 2.4mR Open
October 30 Thursday End of sailing season
November ? Friday FPS AGM

Open Meeting Dates - Access Travellers

Frensham Pond May 7th  
Pitsford Water, Northampton May 17th  
Carsington S.C., Derbyshire June 4th  
Swalkstone S.C., Derbyshire June 28th  
Woolverstone, Ipswich July 2nd  
Whitefriers S.C. Cotswold Water Park July 12th/13th National Championships
Notts S.C. July 26th  
Rutland Sailability, Rutland Water August 27th  
Tideway Sailability, London Docks September 6th  
Burghfield S.C. September 20th  

Open Meeting Dates - 2.4mR Travellers

Aldeburgh - Suffolk May 17th/18th  
Poole - Dorset June 7th/8th  
Weir Wood - Sussex July 19th/20th  
Rutland Water August 13th/15th National Championships
Queen Mary - Middlesex September 20th/21st  

National Ranking Events

Queen Mary March 20th/30th  
Frensham Pond September 27th  
Weymouth October 18th/19th  
Rutland November 1st/2nd  
Warsash - Hants November 15th/16th  

World Chamionships

Eckenforde - Germay August 18th - 23rd Disabled & Able sailors

World Disabled Championships

Athens - Greece September 5th - 13th

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