Mere Views - Jan 2010
January 17th, 2010 by: the WebmasterIce yachting anyone?
The final sailing event of 2009 was the Boxing Day open which was a great success, given the unpromising conditions, with 30 competitors. Coming in between two very cold spells the sailing was preceded by a spot of ice skating as the competitors attempted to negotiate a flooded and frozen car park.
The actual sailing took place in a lightish shifty southwester and was very close. In the doublehanded class RS200s dominated with the eventual winners Matt Mee and Emma Norris from Hollingworth beating locals Tony Taylor and Sarah Tyson. Graham Tinsley won the singlehanded class from Andrew Brown. Haydon Griffiths from Leigh and Lowton won the junior class in his Optimist.
Thanks go to all the volunteers who provided race control, food and drink through the day. Alison Hubbard, Dawn Savell and Michelle Ditchburn in the galley, Tom Hubbard and Millie Cowan in the bar, Mark Philpot and Carol in the OD box and on rescue EJ Mann, Tony Wilcock and Steve Hubbard. Apologies to any I forgot. £150 was raised for the RNLI.
There was ice in the margins of the lake that day, a few days later we had a complete covering which still persists. Reports suggest it has been 100mm thick or more There were footprints in the snow last weekend and I remind everyone that walking on frozen lakes is not recommended for a long life.
Working Parties
The usual reminder that working parties begin next weekend, 24th January. There’s lots to do so shake off your “oh the snow’s all gone” blues and get to work again!
Also another reminder that the club would love to look after your surplus tools, anything from paintbrushes through spades to electric drills and saws. Bring them along with you any Sunday but preferably this Sunday!
Catering volunteers needed!
As I’ve said before, this coming season we are desperately short of catering volunteers, which has prompted us to change the system for Sunday Sandwiches (more anon). Meanwhile we have six working parties to provide hot food for and only enough people to man the galley for four of them. We are also short for open meetings during the season. If you are not currently part of the catering team but you’d like to spend a working party morning cooking up a big chilli, or a hearty soup instead of digging or painting, please let Commodore Alison Hutton know. She is setting up a meeting to discuss the catering organisation next weekend and we’ll be sorting out a rota at that meeting.
Membership
If you haven’t rejoined yet could you please let David Alexander know your intentions ASAP, it makes his job a lot easier if he can divide the “no reply” pile into “resigning” and “rejoining when funds permit”, or even “Oops, here’s the cheque”
On a similar note, if your boat is still at the club and you haven’t paid for winter storage, get your skates on please. Today the club drive was like the M6 at times as people celebrated the end of the freeze by taking their stranded boats away.
Ian.