I have been out on the water at FOSSC on several occasions recently, including the sailability sessions, where one points out topics of interest to your “passengers”. Spring has certainly arrived and the wildlife around the lake has taken the better weather on board. Last Tuesday evening, we saw five goslings resting on the bank round by where the Wheelie boat is kept and a proud mother duck was teaching her eleven chicks how to feed around the edge of the water. What I also found interesting was that you could still see the bottom of the lake and if you crept around quietly, see large fish feeding on the bottom. I cannot remember seeing the water look so clear in May before. Could it be due partially to the hard efforts with the barley straw last month, one asks.
Berthing is organised and controlled by Malcolm Sheppard, (myfosscpost@gmail.com) who has spent countless hours poring over spreadsheets and walking around the boat park. As a result of his efforts, the boat park is becoming a tidier and more presentable area. The task of maintaining the boat park will be on-going and there are two important items that members with berths can do to assist Malcolm.

Security at the club is an important topic as many of us keep our sailing boats there and the club itself has a significant amount of assets in the boat house. Since the new boat house has been in operation, it has been a standard practice to close the shutter doors when there is not a lot of club related activity going on in the boat rigging area. The majority of people tie their boats down and this practice should have two objectives:

Most members have rented an access key from the club with a view to being able to access the facilities at anytime. This key operates the padlock on the main gate as well as the main door of the club. At busy times the gate is often left open but please can I ask you, when you either come to the club or leave the club when it is quiet, to consider locking the gate behind you. If you see people in the car park who are not actively involved with boats, you can politely inform them that you are leaving the premises and will be locking the gate. If they are members, it gives them the opportunity to check that they have their club key available. If they don’t have a key, they have the opportunity to leave before you or get locked in the park. I have done this on more than one occasion this year and not had a problem with this non-confrontational approach.
Why am I highlighting this point? On the recent Bank holiday Monday, the last members to leave left the gate open which resulted in a number of non-members vehicles being driven onto the site and a sailing dinghy sustaining considerable damage. If you don’t currently have a gate key and would like one, please contact the membership secretary (adhunteruk@gmail.com).
Phase three refurbishment of the clubs facilities was mentioned in last month’s newsletter and included an outline plan of what is currently being proposed. Comments to the plan were invited by the end of May so that firm plans and costings can then be drawn up for presentation and approval at a special membership meeting to be scheduled during the summer. If you have any comments or queries regarding the proposal, please either email me (coates_david@hotmail.com) or come and speak to me when I am at the club. At the end of May I will be reviewing comments received with the committee and John Jordan.
The new junior club held its second meeting on Saturday 05 May and was well attended. The formal part this time was regarding the colours of buoys on the lake and effects of wind direction on launching and coming alongside. The remainder of the afternoon was spent on water based activities. For those with access to the club’s Facebook pages, one of the parents has kindly put some pictures there for members to see. The next meeting will be on Saturday 14 July,  there being no planned meeting in June due to Junior sail training taking place on Saturdays..
FOSSC Junior week is now open for applications. The event will be run between Monday 30^th July to Friday 3^rd August. Further details will be available soon. To register interest, (indicating if you require use of a club topper as these will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis) please email Diana Heming diana.heming@btinternet.com providing name(s) of junior members, FOSSC membership number, contact email address, if use of club topper required. The numbers of applicants is growing quickly, so to secure places, please email Diana as soon as possible.
Sailability  has moved to Tuesday evenings for the next seven weeks, this is to facilitate full use of the lake for Junior sail training on Saturdays. The work currently underway at the side of the club house is to improve the access for wheel chairs given that their changing facilities are now inside the club and easy access via the wet bar area is required.
Social Sailing has started on Friday evenings and is well attended, in particular by family and junior members. For those currently undertaking sail training, it is an ideal way to come and practice your newly learned skills, there are usually instructors available on site to provide advice. For your information, there is a sheet on the notice board in the wet bar area indicating who is in charge for any given week.
OnBoard events is where we give specific groups of youngsters the opportunity to experience sailing at FOSSC. The following list is of the current fixtures and if you are available to take them out for a sail in a club sailing or power boat, please contact David Greenfield. (david2greenfield@gmail.com)
June 18^th (Monday) 6.00pm Frampton Scouts
June 28th (Thursday)6.30pm Thornbury Beavers
July 3rd (Tuesday) 6.30 pm Open Door   Lugger and Powerboats
July 7th (Saturday) 1.00 pm  Wickwar Scouts
July 10th (Tuesday) 6.30 pm Stoke Gifford Cubs  
Sept 8th (Saturday) 12.30  Glos. Young Carers

It would be good if some younger members of the club were willing to help out at the On-board Sessions as the participants relate well to them!
 
Training is one of the key activities of the club and the need has been identified to increase the number of RYA qualified dinghy sailing instructors. Elsewhere in this months newsletter you will find a short piece from Tony Heming on this topic. If it is something that you would be interested in, please email Tony or seek him out at the club.
An apology. I would like to offer a sincere apology to Paul Dix. At the official opening of the new facilities on April 14^th I acknowledged the hard efforts put in by a group of regular volunteers in bringing the refurbishment to a successful conclusion. Whilst I was fully aware that Paul Dix and his company were totally responsible for the design and implementation of the new water system, I was under the impression that financial payment had been made from club funds. What I subsequently found out was that the club had only been billed for materials and that all of the labour had been supplied free of charge. I take full responsibility for this error and failing to publicly recognise Paul’s contribution, which must have left Paul with a very bad feeling at the official opening event. I apologise for this error and hope that members appreciate Paul’s valuable and significant contribution to the phase II refurbishment.
 
David Coates.
Commodore.

Dear All, Apologies if you are awaiting a response to recent emails, I have been away for the last 2 weeks & though back, have some immediate demands on my time. I will endeavour to deal with the respective issues at my earliest opportunity.
Unfortunately I'm guilty too of relying on recent newsletter information regarding the above; to permit moves to vacant slots that are perhaps more convenient for members.
Attached below is the essential information again, I will also place a notice on the board asap & if possible include a notice within the boat sticker collection case so there are plenty of reference points. Should the system be successful over the rest of the year, I trust we will be able to add it to the "Year Book" information too.
I'm sure previous berthing secretaries will confirm the dinghy park is always "A work in progress"; as such one coordinator is essential.
Whilst I'm clear it has been entirely unintentional to circumvent the instructions, allocations I have made, have been blocked by independent placements.
I will work through the requests, as advised in strict date order & with goodwill trust this can be sorted out with the minimum of fuss. 
I suggest everyone sit's tight until I make further contact please.
WITH REGARD TO FURTHER MOVES - PLEASE DO NOT MOVE YOUR BOAT WITHOUT A CONFIRMATION OF ALLOCATION. 
Best wishes
Malcolm 

 

Would you be interested in becoming an RYA Sailing Dinghy Instructor? 
FOSSC has a regular cycle of sail training each year, covering both junior and adult courses. During the last few years it has become increasingly difficult to meet the training requirements of our members due to the availability of instructors.
Unfortunately, this year it has been difficult to find enough instructors to satisfy demand from both adults and junior members for sailing dinghy courses, so we would like to pursue a similar initiative as occurred 18 months ago, resulting in an additional six Power Boat instructors, amongst our adult members to increase the number of Sailing Dinghy instructors available to train the next generation of sailors, both adult and junior, at FOSSC.
If you are an experienced dinghy sailor and would like to consider the opportunity to become an RYA sailing dinghy instructor, then please email Tony Heming on tony@tonyheming.co.uk, who will collate a list of interested people. 
If the demand is there, we would sponsor an RYA Dinghy Instructors course here at the club, which would be taken by an independent trainer and assessed by the RYA.

 

 

For a full list of events at FOSSC please click the link below.
Sailing Programme
Training
Social

Kampa Oxwich 6 Tent.  
 
We purchased the tent and cooker in August 2016.  They have only been used for the family weekends and one weeks holiday in Cornwall. 
Only selling because we have upgraded to a caravan.
Asking price £100 (Current price new circa £250).

Kampa Cucina Double Gas Hob and Grill
Asking price £20 (Current price new circa £40).
 
Contact: Keith Hill
Home Tel:          01453 54557
Mobile:               07809408929
Email:                 kshill0013@gmail.com