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Commodore’s comment – February 2018

During January, FOSSC received planning permission to alter the launching area near the new boat house, primarily to make it easier to launch and retrieve the power boats. The slope angle will be approximately half that which we currently have to deal with. Creating this new launching area will involve us breaking up part of the current concrete slope and creating a new, more gentle slope that will end nearer the new boat shed.
Within the planning permission we are not allowed to lay new concrete below the water line, which would not have presented us with an issue had permission been granted last Autumn whilst the water level was low. As those who have been down to FOSSC recently will have noticed, the winter rain is having a positive effect on the water level with hopefully more rain to come in the next two months before the full sailing season gets underway. A decision will be made at the next committee meeting whether to undertake as much of the new launching area as possible now and complete it next Autumn when the water level drops again, or postpone the whole project until the Autumn.
I would like to thank Ian Cook and David Greenfield for the efforts they have made with various organisations in gaining approval for the new launching ramp.

In my January comment, I mentioned the importance of the working parties as one of the ways by which we keep membership costs down. At the time of writing this comment, we have had four of the planned work parties and I am very pleased both with the attendance rate and the level/quality of work that has been achieved, despite the weather. The work parties have been focused on both outdoor and indoor tasks and feedback from the work party leads is that everyone has enjoyed the challenge, even if they had ended up cold or covered in emulsion paint! When you do attend your working party, please ensure that you sign in for each of the half days, as it is intended to follow up on the non-attendees later in the year.

Malcolm Sheppard, our berthing secretary, has also started up a work party that will meet on Tuesdays, once a fortnight. His focus is to tidy up the berthing area and although there has only been one work party so far, the area at the far end of rows “D” and “E” is looking a lot different. Anything of possible use is being separated out and placed at the end of row “M”. Malcolm will be contacting the membership to sell items off, the money raised going back into the club funds.

The current phase of the club house refurbishment continues and the disabled and ladies facilities are on schedule for completion this month. The new upstairs office/training area is also progressing well, having now been plastered and painting commenced. We anticipate the upstairs area being operational around the end of March which in turn will enable the “sign on” area in the wet bar and area adjacent to the bar upstairs to be tidied. As you can see, the completion of one job leads to another and because of this, it is intended to continue the Thursday working party on through the spring and summer. In the autumn, the plan is to move onto the refurbishment of the current ladies and gents changing facilities.
John Jordan and myself are continually looking for new members to come and join us on Thursdays, either for the day or just a few hours. You will be surprised at how your DiY skills will be improved after a few sessions!

It is still planned to have a formal opening/social occasion to mark the completion of this phase of clubhouse refurbishment. Given that Easter falls at the end of March we will plan this event for after the Easter holidays. Details regarding this are still to be confirmed, but please mark Saturday 14^th April at 12:00 on your calendars as the target date. There will be more information about this event in next month’s electronic newsletter.

A meeting was held at the end of January to further the plans for the new Junior club which we intend to start up in April of this year. I can now confirm that this new club will go ahead and the first meeting will be held on the afternoon of Saturday 14^th April. Further information will be included as part of the February and March electronic newsletters.

Saturday 3^rd March is the official start of the 2018 sailing season within FOSSC, though many have braved the rain, wind and cold to have continued enjoying the sport of sailing during the winter months.
The start of the season is marked by the “Fitting Out supper” which starts at 19:30 on the Saturday evening. The evening is open to both adults and children and full details can be found on the front page of the FOSSC website,

Happy sailing in 2018!

David Coates.
Commodore.

The Disability Awareness course (Flyer below) on the 10^th March is limited to 12 people and is open to any member of the club. If you want to be included on the course please register with David Greenfield his details are shown below. Placed are filling up quickly.

FOSSC Calendar Competition

Following the popularity of last year’s photo competition with the winning photos being collated into a calendar, we will run a similar competition this year. So, get your cameras out and start clicking! We will have a theme this year – ‘What makes FOSSC special?’ Entry details will be sent out later in the year.

Berthing Matters

Ensuring your boat is located in it's designated slot matters a lot! Unfortunately misplaced dinghy's create an escalating chain which can at times become complicated to unravel. I hope the information & planned actions below will assist us all in avoiding this confusion.
Red pennant flags
Over coming weeks I will be placing pennants, as pictured, in UNALLOCATED berth positions & this will be highlighted in the club's berthing records.
Why? Overall the idea has multiple objectives :-

If you see an empty space WITHOUT A BOAT & WITHOUT A FLAG, it signals it is already allocated. - The owner must have his boat temporarily off site – Please don't trespass!
If you see an empty slot WITH A FLAG, it is free & unallocated. Essentially, should you wish to move to that berth, DO NOT REMOVE THE FLAG, please email me on myfosscpost@gmail.com to apply for that move.

All applications will be dealt with in strict date order. Equally I will continue the policy of giving regular sailors & heavier boats priority when moving closer to the water.

If a berth contains an unauthorised dinghy(or a flag has been removed) IT RUNS THE RISK OF BEING IMPOUNDED. Such a craft would only be released on payment of the full berth fee PLUS a PENALTY determined by the main committee. This would disrupt sailing plans but is intended to deter the odd maverick who chooses to ignore the rules! PLEASE ,IF IT AIN'T ALLOCATED TO YOU – DON'T GO THERE!? It is easy enough to book a legitimate space, just email me myfosscpost@gmail.com
If a flag appears by YOUR boat, Either the records are incorrect or we need to address something? – please email, myfosscpost@gmail.com & we can sort it out.
A significant effort is underway to dispose of abandoned kit that has accumulated in the park.

“Red flagging” fresh “suspected imposters”, hopefully, will deter dumping but for anything recently left, tracking down the owner should be easier.

Berth Markers – to refresh the memory -
Marker posts are in place on all rows EXCEPT, K & L. where numbered slabs are located.
Posts are situated at the back left of the berth as you view from the walkway, on the basis of 1 in 5 slots. ie 1,6, 11 etc.
Slabs on K & L are deployed on the same basis but positioned centrally at the front of the berthed boat.
Some boats in the park have strayed from their designated location & if you have any doubts do get in touch.
If I may ask, whilst the walkways are mowed regularly, if you have a marker slab in front of your boat, please be watchful it does not get overgrown. A small trimming exercise would be appreciated if necessary? Thanks.
2018 Boat stickers
Our usual supplier does not appear to be in business any longer which unfortunately may cause some delay in their issue plus in a change of design. We are on the case so please bear with us.
As the Year Book & Newsletter distribution have gone on line, I propose to create a collection point, possibly by the computer in the upstairs bar, rather than incur postage costs. Should anyone have concerns regarding this, I would be grateful to hear from them please?
I will notify members of their availability at my earliest opportunity.
Provision of boat stickers has been a relatively expensive item for the club so cutting costs would bring a worthwhile saving.
Nonetheless I must stress; when available, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ensure they are fixed to your dinghy ASAP?
Thank you to the large majority who do so, but I know as a club we could do that little bit better & it would make inspections so much easier!

Please remember to be a good neighbour & don't intrude on other peoples goodwill!

Finally (for now!)
I am trying to trace the owners of the item pictured:-
& a trailer, left @ E22; early advice appreciated.

Kind regards
Malcolm

MARKING ITEMS STORED IN BOAT STORE

Members storage racks in the boat store have become a bit crowded and probably contain abandoned equipment, but since not all equipment has been marked with owner/ sail number, it is difficult to determine what is abandoned. To help with improving storage can I request that Members make an effort to mark ALL their SAIL BAGS, MASTS, BOOM, CENTREBOARDS and RUDDERS left in the boat store with their NAME, SAIL NUMBER or POST CODE. Mark masts near the base so that they can be seen without having to take the item off the rack and unwrap sail or remove from bag to identify it. If you have equipment you no longer use consider scrapping or donating for club use or auctioning. The intention is to remove items not marked later this year as abandoned item for possible auction.

At a recent work party the topper mast/sail storage racks were checked, most had either a name or sail number marked on the foot of the mast. Of those not marked, if the sail number could be identified in the year book they were duly marked up, but the owners of the following topper masts with sails numbers 22956,29710,29974 & 33984 could not be identified. If you are the owner please contact the Bosun (malcolm_payton@yahoo.co.uk) to claim these and have them marked up.

Malcolm Payton - Bosun

Cruising with Frampton

Last year we set up a group to cover the interest of members of Frampton on Severn Sailing Club in Big Boat Sailing. Over this winter many members have been coming to the Club on Cold Winter nights to learn the theory the RYA Courses of Day Skipper and Yachtmaster/Coastal Skipper. Now the time is coming to put this information into practical use. It is hoped that groups will get together to arrange cruises over weekends or for weeks at a time. In order to help this we have set up the following channels of information:
1/  We have set up a Google Group called FOSSC Cruising Group:-                                           fossc-cruising@googlegroups.com It has been set up as a “Web Forum” so that there can be discussions within the group as well as contact by email to the whole group. If any club member is interested in joining the group, please contact the group or myself.
2/ On the Club website on the “Message Board” there is section called “Cruising” where members can be contacted.
3/  There is also a “Cruising” Notice Board. This can be used for members suggesting cruises or for members looking crews. The Club Facebook Page can also be a good method of communication.
Let’s keep the momentum of the winter courses going with more big boat sailing during 2018.
Ken Elsey         ken.elsey@gmail.com   01452 412467 or 07971 961531

Above 2 of last year's Day Skipper Theory Course doing the Day Skipper Practical Course at Falmouth. John Jordan sailing from Peel of of the Isle of Man and the other boat from ours during the U3A Croatia trip 2017.

Sailing Matters

If, like me, you've been thing its been too cold/wet/windy, its time to start thinking about the start of the season proper, at the beginning of March.

Behind the scenes there has been much going on, and here are a few notes to bring things more up to date. The sailing programme has been completed, although there have been a few ammendments since I last wrote. So please have a re-check of your duties, just on the off-chance that yours has been updated. This is most likely to apply to some late renewals, but they are few.

It's also time to start thinking how the sailing side of our activities are brought about. This is normally handled by the sailing committee, but you will notice that we are short on numbers this year. We have no class captains for Moth, Mirror, Optimist, and Topper classes. As an interim I will cover the first 2 as they are classes I sail, but we do really need each class to come forward with a class captain. The absence has already meant that we have no opens scheduled for Toppers or Oppis this year.

The duties of captains are not onerous, but are necessary as the link between the club and class associations, so please get together and fill all these gaps.

The Handicaps and pursuit numbers will be produced as soon as the RYA publish their figures, and will be applied immediately. This will mean the Spring Class should use the new numbers, and will be re-calculated if necessary, if not available on the day. Spring Pursuit will sail to the club number available on the day, as the places will then sort themselves. The current Wednesday afternoon informal series, will again use the numbers available when sailed.

So lets all start thinking about being ready to make the most of the new season – from the start!

Tony Latham

Sailing Sec.

2018 FOSSC Calendars – Sale

Is there a gap on your kitchen wall? Do you need a calendar to brighten up your small room? We can help! There are just a handful of FOSSC calendars left and they can be purchased from the bar for half price – that’s only £4!

Your Duties & The Sailing Programme

The sailing, training,and social programme of events including your duties have been uploaded to the website. Please take the time to check when your duties are and if necessary make any swaps. Please see the brief video below for more details about how this is done.

A Brief video outlining describing the process of viewing and swapping duties.
If you have any queries or questions please email me.
henrywlbeck@gmail.com

Junior Club - Introduction

Comments have been made by family members in the past that whilst junior members of the club are well catered for with respect to sail training and social activities between May and August each year, there is currently nothing to stimulate their on-going interests during the remainder of the year.

The Junior Club is an attempt by a group of FOSSC members to address this shortfall, but to do it in a way where the junior members themselves will use it to make new friendships and develop their sailing knowledge and skills within a peer group. The Junior Club is not another course, but should be seen as an extension to what has been formally learned and an opportunity to expand their skills.

The Junior club does not replace any of the current facilities open to junior members (junior sail training, junior week, social sailing, Coot club) and will aim to meet eleven times a year (not June due to junior sail training) on Saturday afternoons. The planned activities will be adjusted dependent on time of year (more on water activity in summer months than winter). There will be no charge (other than being a current FOSSC member) to participate in this club but parents will be expected to attend and support activities.

The club will not be providing formal RYA approved training and therefore the minimum entry requirements to the club will be:

School year 6 or higher
Hold a valid YSS level 2 certificate.

During water based activities, safety boat facilities will always be provided.

The meetings will all take place on a Saturday, commence at 12:30 and finish at 16:00. Dates for 2018 are as follows:
14 April
05 May
June (no meeting due to junior sail training)
14 July
11 August
08 September
13 October
10 November
08 December

The following is a non-exhaustive list of the type of topics that are intended to be covered over time:

Sail different boats
Become familiar with both dinghy and senior instructors
Learn basic navigation (tides, weather, passage planning)
Basic boat maintenance
Knots
How to rig and de-rig different boats
How to determine wind direction
Introduction to racing (to build on the initiative already in this year’s FOSSC programme)
Introduction to powerboats
Practice capsize drill

More information will be provided in the next monthly FOSSC electronic newsletter, but meanwhile, if you are interested in any of your family members participating in this club, or have any additional suggestions, please email either the junior club mailbox or one of the following people:

Junior club (fosscjuniors@gmail.com)
David Coates (coates_david@hotmail.com)
Tony Heming (tony@tonyheming.co.uk)
David Greenfield (david2greenfield@gmail.com)
David Benjamin (benjienterprises@msn.com)
Tamsin Ramm (Tamsin.mark@yahoo.com)

FOSSC Polo Shirts

There are 2 small adult polo shirts left from the 50^th anniversary celebrations in 2016. If anyone would like one, please take one from the bar and put a couple of £s in the charity box on the bar. The money will go towards Sailability.

Music

If anyone is getting rid of a not-too old music system please consider donating it to the club. The FOSSC midi system is around 25 years old (with a twin cassette deck!) and needs to be replaced. If you have a more modern music system (player and speakers) which is compact, from this century and you are considering getting rid of it, please consider donating it to the club. Contact Rhonwen at rhonwenbryce@yahoo.coo.uk with details.