BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter November 2015

Contacts:Kath Liddiard (Commodore)01443 227928

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Becky Goddard (Treasurer) 01749 346818

We welcomed Blu Parsons as a guest and prospective member at the November meeting.

Future Trips

1.1Phil Steele will skipper ‘Quartette’ for Jane’s Christmas Party sail on the weekend of December 19/20. This is now fully booked.

1.2Phil will skipper Spellbinder from Gosport for a midweek sail on Monday 18 January to Wednesday 20th. There may be two places available for this.

1.3Phil will probably skipper another trip on a PYC yacht in February, date to be decided.

1.4Alan Howells has proposed a weekend or long weekend trip from Plymouth, possibly in March. Please let us know if you are interested.

1.5Chris Baxendale has suggested a week’s sail next spring from Plymouth or Falmouth along the south coast. This is some time away, but would anyone interested in this please let us know.

News and Notices

2.1Christmas Meal.

Our venue this year is the Olive Shed, situated on Princes Wharf on the Bristol harbourside, just along from the M-shed museum. An advantage is a large pay-and-display car park just behind it. Gordon Ogden has made a booking for TUESDAY DECEMBER 22nd. The Olive Shed has said that they will open exclusively for BSA that evening.

Gordon sent the menu choices spreadsheet to all who have booked some time ago. Will anyone who has not replied to Gordon please do so as soon as possible.

2.2Membership renewal.

All memberships expired on October 31st and a renewal form has been sent to all members. About 20 membership renewals are still outstanding. If you haven’t yet renewed please bring the form with your subscription to the meeting on December 14th. Alternatively, either send it with a cheque to the Treasurer, Mrs R A Goddard, 29 The Old Silk Mill, Coombe Lane, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5XA, or pay by bank transfer to the account of Bristol Sailing Association at Barclays Bank, account number 40853062, sort code 20-13-34, using reference BSAsub and your surname. If you pay by bank transfer please email the Treasurer becky@thesilkmill7.fsnet.co.uk to advise her and give any change of contact details.

IF YOU HAVE DECIDED NOT TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP IT WOULD BE MOST HELPFUL IF YOU WOULD EMAIL THE SECRETARY jockplayle3@waitrose.com TO TELL US.

2.3Alan Howells has heard from Leon Barbour (Phoenix member) who sailed with him on the cross Channel trip to Port Blanc and Treguier this Summer and was acting skipper on the return. Leon normally sails with his wife, and decided to join Alan’s crew to gain more experience of a skipper’s responsibilities when managing a crew, before taking his Yachtmaster exam. He thanked Alan for the experience gained and advised that he has since been successful in his Yachtmaster Offshore exam.

3.Recent Trips

At the November meeting, in lieu of sailing reports, Steve Arnott, who joined BSA earlier this year, gave a talk on his experience in his first year of sailing. As Steve put it “from novice to Fastnet Race crew mastman in one year” was a steep learning curve. Steve was crew in the 2015 Fastnet Race and therefore also in the qualifying races such as Cowes – St Malo and extended ‘round the cans’ in the Channel. He said he had learned a lot the hard way, but of a very specialised nature, and was looking forward to a more rounded sailing experience cruising with BSA.

Farewell to Lady Emma. Lady Emma has been sold, and Becky Goddard was to report on her and Bob Buchanan’s last sail. However the weather was so bad that sailing was out of the question, and their weekend comprised using Lady Emma as a static hotel, a Gosport meal in the Royal Spice, and ferry trip to the IoW visiting Osborne House. They rounded it off with a champagne ‘de-launch’ toast on board.

At the October meeting Peter Wakeling reported on a Baltic cruise he skippered on the CSSA East Coast Division Najad 380 ‘Freya’. This report was unavailable for the October newsletter so it follows below. It describes very different sailing (and berthing procedure) from that usually experienced by BSA.

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Trip on Freyja, skippered by Peter Wakeling

Bsa Nov 2015 1