Sailing Report September 2011

It has been a great year for the race team at the CCYC. Our Race Committee has organised 18 regattas and helped man the black group line for Cowes Week. At times it has been challenging to get all the parts that make up a regatta, running smoothly but we have succeeded wonderfully and increased the status, (as well as the income) of the Club no end. We started the year with great weather for the Sea Fever Regatta. Ian Lallow set some memorable races for the new Sunsail First 40s and as always the competitors made full use of our Club House!
Next we had the first of six Etchells Regattas culminating in us holding their Nationals for the second year in a row. At times it seemed like we were destined to spend the whole year in Osborne Bay due to high winds on every one of their weekends – however the race team overcame this to give the Etchells great racing with some short courses by Peel Bank, with a final foray onto the Brambles. A big vote of thanks to our Social Committee for organising the after race ‘nibbles’, it really helps to keep people in the club and spending money after the racing.
With members showing an interest in laying marks and other roles on the Committee Boat we held a two day course on mark laying and gained 11 new volunteers! This has enabled us to have two RIBs at most of our events and Murray and John now have several understudies in Leon, Will, Jasmine, Richard, John Nelson, Chris & John Greenham, Andrea, Liz and Tony. Even if they are relegated to using the orange RIB – no chance of prising the blue rib from Murray, he has too much beer hidden in her!
With news of our race management spreading far and wide we took bookings for J109s, Sonars, FF15s, Beneteau First 21s, and Contessa 32s, our team is becoming slicker and more well honed with every event. A particularly good moment was seeing nine Contessas rafted up in the marina, enjoying a pontoon party, they are really keen to come back next year.
Our season finale was our inaugural ‘Forts Race’ which was incredibly well received by all participants. A full report follows elsewhere, a big thank you to Dave Taylor for donating such an original trophy; and Harken, Crewsaver, English Braids and Winning Tides for the wonderful prizes.
This year also saw the debut of our second committee boat ‘Big Blue’, courtesy of our Rear Commodore Sailing – with CCYC banners on her bow. She is already becoming well known in the Solent.
Training is the key to running these events well, so several members took advantage of the powerboat level II course run so expertly by Sussex Sailability – thanks to Kevin and his instructors for a brilliant weekend. Our own mark-laying course proved incredibly useful, and we will repeat it early next year together with an additional Race Team course to introduce new volunteers to race timing, flags, scribing and other race officer duties. We are also hoping to have a National Race Officer next year, and if anyone has an interest in qualifying as a Club Race Officer then there is normally an evening course run in Cowes over the winter. Please let me know if you feel up to the challenge – we can give you lots of practice in 2012.
We run our entire racing with volunteers and we are very fortunate in having such a dedicated group of people for these events. I don’t have room to name them all here, so thank you everyone who has helped make this such a remarkable year. We all really enjoy it, there are opportunities to learn seamanship with anchoring and mooring, meteorology, tides, and of course it’s the best spectator seat in the house! There is something for everyone to do whether it’s helming the boat, hoisting the flags or just making the tea. We always have room for someone extra so if you want to come along, look at our schedule on the web page or notice board then give myself or the club office a call.
2011 is not over yet – and after a year’s grace forced by our marina closure the CCYC Boxing Day Race will return! Keep your eyes peeled for more info.
Next year promises another busy season with a welcome return of 40+ Flying 15s for their Southern Championship. I will be looking for volunteers for marshalling, measuring and moving boats. I am sure we will give them our usual warm welcome and then we can look forward to hosting their Nationals the following year!
Recently the club felt the departure of lifelong member Roddie Cunnington to ‘Oceans afar’. Roddie, who supported racing at the CCYC so avidly over the years, very kindly left the Club a legacy of £2000 with which it was decided to have the old blue RIB re tubed. It is now grey and very smart it looks too. We have decided to dedicate our newly refurbished RIB to Roddie and it will be named ‘Roddie’s RIB’. The naming ceremony will take place on Saturday 12 November during the Rear Commodore Sailing‘s thank you party and prize giving. All who knew Roddie are welcome to attend.

Andrew Millband
Rear Commodore Sailing