Spring 2012 Newsletter

Another season has kicked off with opening day now way back on the 15th September. It was attended by a good number of members and supporters. Thanks to Ken Nesbit our Club Patron for officially opening of the season and presenting trophies to the race winners on the day.

Congratulations to Sam Lee and Maddy Lee for taking out the senior trophies and to Ben Baynes for winning the opening junior trophy.

Committee

The Club held its AGM back in June and elected new officers and a committee as below;

Of special note is our new Club Patron Ken Nesbit. Hector Dawson has accepted a position as a Vice President of the club. Vice President Paul Pritchard has accepted the position of Club Custodian. His club involvement is broad; he also has a leadership role with the LOTSW team.

Thanks also to Kathy for her efforts as Commodore over the past two years; she now takes up the role of support in the immediate past Commodore position.

Finally big thanks to all who have offered to help out and contribute throughout this season.

The Camp also celebrated the launching of our six new plastimists by members of the LOTSW and sailed off by junior club sailors (see photos on website).These craft have already been well used during the camp, after-school learn to sail days and by other coaching groups. They have found a new home in the end boat shed stored under the opti rigs.

Thank you to the Canterbury Community Trust for funding two-thirds of the purchase of the six boats. A big thank you also to Jan Eveleens for arranging transport of boats down from Auckland and to the Corstons for storage over winter and transporting them to the club for camp.

Rescue / Support boat course

We had a good group of 10 members attend a rescue/support boat course run by Ross May on Saturday the 13th October. The course which has been run for the past 4 – 5 seasons takes a day and is split between tuition in the club and on-the-water skills.

Due to a severe storm on the second day the course was completed on the Monday evening following after school sailing. There was however a group of 4 who did brave the stormy conditions to see how our craft handled.

Anyone keen to do the course please let Caro McKenzie know as we will make a new list of persons and book Ross again when available. It is the intention that once the course has been completed you will be able to go down on the roster for rescue boat work during the season.

Club History

The club will celebrate its 75th Anniversary in January 2014. Already there are plans for celebrations on a suitable weekend close to that date (likely 25/01/14). There is an organising group comprising mainly our more senior members, however we will be asking for support and help from members (current and past) to become involved. There will be many more updates regards this event, however please pencil the date in and let Paul Pritchard know if you happen to have an old craft which was sailed at the club many years back and is still able to be sailed or at least rigged on land.

Working Bees

Always a difficult one as there’s always more work that needs doing than we have time and resource to handle. Anyway we all do our best and thanks to all those who have contributed during the off season.

Most notable project over winter and still happening now is the re-build of the main jetty. Huge effort has been made by Winton and the LOTSW to get this project to where it is today along with the many helpers that have turned out. Winton has drawn detailed plans and scheduled the work for each day which was generally achieved or surpassed.

Unfortunately due to the ongoing repair and maintenance that is required around the club it has become a necessary to have working bees throughout the entire year.

Earthquake damage

You will notice around the club especially the concrete hard areas and exit drive that there has been damage caused by the recent earthquake events. We are working with our Insurer to get a settlement on a claim for the affected areas and once finalised we will be in a position to start working on reinstatement. In the interim please take care around some of the damaged areas where the concrete has cracked and lifted causing hazards.

Hard space

The club has limited space for parking of craft and as everyone should be aware there is a cost by way of hard fees which are paid for with membership fees. There is a plan in place to remove all craft from hard space which is not paid for. Obviously the hard areas and decking for parking craft are expensive to build and maintain so it is in the interest of the club to collect revenue from these parking areas.

Please check the website under the Membership page for costs and make payment to get a sticker for the craft so it can be identified. To those that own a craft and it’s not paid for please at least let us know and discuss the issues or have it removed.

To those that have paid but find it difficult to find a suitable position please be assured we are working to fix this problem so that paid boats will have a allocated space as has been the practice in the past.

Finally it is good practice for craft to be tied down securely. It is disappointing to see boats tipping over and damaging others due to a lack of reasonable care.

Coming Events

Please note our full programme is on the website
Club regatta (Sponsored by Luneys) 24th and 25th November.

Helpers still needed for rosters on kitchen, start/finish craft and start box and rescue craft. Please let us know if available. Nigel 385 1187 or nsoper@xtra.co.nz

Website

The club has developed a new website and we invite all members to please visit it. We hope to have the site updated regularly with results and attachments such as this newsletter. thoughts how to better use the web site.