SAILING NEWS 2008
Welcome to the 2008/09 sailing season at EDYC. Your sailing committee have been working hard over the closed season to ensure that you have an enjoyable and safe sailing experience during the coming months.
Maintenance work has been carried out on the training fleet, currently four toppers and two Optimists and to the rescue fleet consisting of the Humber and Osprey ribs. I will take this opportunity to remind all members using the training dinghies and ribs that it is important to leave them in good order and ready for next use and report immediately any missing or faulty items of equipment to the Sailing Captain.
The Darragh which was not entirely reliable during last season has now been replaced by a Chevy workboat, which is of similar size and recently fitted with a replacement engine.
It would be very useful for those of you who are listed for taxi duty to familiarise yourselves fully with the Chevy in advance of your duty. Please talk to the Sailing Captain if you have any problems.
Congratulations to those members who availed of Safety Boat and RYA Level II training and achieved certificates. They found the courses both valuable and rewarding and have gained confidence and experience in handling the Humber and Osprey ribs in a variety of circumstances. This will provide assurance to club members and I would encourage others to consider taking part in future rescue boat training courses.
For those of you who are listed for OOD duties, the instructions have been updated and copies are available in the sailing office and on the committee boat. These can be borrowed prior to your duty and please remember to return them for the benefit of others.
You will notice from the sailing calendar that the Saturday series has been reduced this year due to dates conflicting with other club regattas. As a consequence we will now run a Shortened September Series rather than a Late Saturday series.
This year we are hosting the Regional Final of the RYA Youth Rib Championships with an initial club heat. This is a great opportunity for our younger members and full details are available on the
EDYC Website . Assistance would be greatly appreciated in organising and supervising this event and anyone willing to help should forward their details to the Sailing Captain.
A new initiative introduced this year is the Sunday Strangford Lough Junior series involving five races hosted at five clubs namely SSC on
25th May, QYC on 15th June, EDYC on 6th July, KYC on 10th August and NSC on
14th September. This will provide additional challenges for our junior members with the opportunity to compete on a variety of courses around the
Lough. With this in mind race practise will run each Sunday, numbers permitting, from 16 March 2008 to 6 April 2008.
Thank you all again for your participation and help in supporting and assisting with the duties to allow the smooth running of the scheduled activities. Please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Sailing Committee if you have any problems or if you will not be available to carry out your duty.
Dermot
Sailing Captain
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