Sailing Committee Update February 2022

Published 12:56 on 26 Jan 2022

Well here we go again - get your wetsuits and dry suits ready, check those sails and the rigging because the season starts again at the beginning of February (although it's a bit too cold for some yet !). The Sailing Calendar is posted on the website, but here's a quick summary of what's coming up in the next couple of months :-

Wednesday Afternoon Series 1 starts on the 2nd February.

• From 2nd - 16th Feb, the first race is at 1330 and then back to back.   
• From 23rd Feb to 23rd March, the first race is at 1400 and B2B.

Frostbite Series for dinghies starts on 6th February and runs to 20th March.
This series is single fleet Mixed Handicap racing with 3 back to back races each Sunday - 1st start at 1100, 2nd start not before 1145, 3rd start not before 1230. Total races 21 with 8 to count.

Spring Series for Dinghies
This series will start on Sunday 27th March and run to 15th May. This series returns to the usual format of 3 fleet starts (Medium, Asymmetric and Slow / Junior) with 2 races in the morning (1030 and not before 1115) and two races in the afternoon (1330 and B2B).

Cruiser racing  
There is no Cruiser Frostbite Series, but the Spring Series gets underway on 26th March. However cruisers can be on moorings from 1st March. If the weather is kind there may be requests for Saturday racing before the 26th March, in which case the start of the Cruiser Spring Series can be brought forward.

Duty Roster
As ever the races can only be run if we have volunteers for RO / ARO and Safety Cover! Duty Roster is in the process of being set up so please be patient, but it is already shown for February.

Later in the year
Looking further ahead, watch out for a few changes that have been made to the racing schedule :-

•  Wednesday Evening Series - this will start on 30th March. Please be aware that there will only be two fleet starts - a Fast handicap and a Slow handicap. Classes that were in the medium fleet last season have been reallocated either to the Fast Fleet or the Slow Fleet. The medium fleet suffered with particularly low turnouts last season and this step has been taken to improve the racing enjoyment for those members. The new fleet lists are shown on the website :- Racing Fleets Handicaps 2022. This change relates only to the Wednesday Evening Series, NOT Sundays, they are unchanged. (Also please be aware that the PYs shown on the website will be changing in line with the new ones to be issued by the RYA after the Dinghy Show).

• Summer 2 Series - this short series runs from 24th July to 28th August. This year we are going to try a different format with a Ladies One Day Race Series on the 24th July, then 31st July to 28th August a Team Race Endurance Series. Details are still being worked on, so watch this space. 

• Open Meetings - There is a full programme of open meetings in the calendar and starting quite early this year with the Solo Winter Championships being held at Carsington on Saturday 19th February. Other highlights this year include :- the British Keelboat League team racing event 28th / 29th May; the 3 day Hansa UK Nationals 17th-19th June and the Topper National Series event 17th / 18th September.
  
  
• The Commodores Cup is planned for the weekend of 9th / 10th July.

So plenty to look forward to. Look forward to seeing you all on the water.