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March 2018

A Message from the Editor

Every month I’m terrified that I will not have the articles to fill Mainsheet, yet every month I seem to just scrape by. This month is no exception. I thought I’d have nothing and then a late flurry filled my inbox. There’s some great stuff from Jo West about the cadets (I’m always after more sto-ries from them) plus tales from travelling Fireball sailors, and information about forthcoming events like the Race to France and exciting social events. So dive-in and sign-up for events like the Bingo Night (I do like the intellectual challenge) on Friday 16th March, the Saturday night music night (31st March), and the Commissioning Supper (24th March). The last of these should be a great oppor-tunity for sailors (as well as others) to get together and prepare themselves for the rigours ahead.

This edition also contains a heart-felt tribute to John Cook.

The club’s AGM is coming-up on the 14th April and all the formal notices are included here. Don’t forget that those eligible to vote will need to have renewed their memberships well in time.

Now that Spring’s here (just keep telling yourself it’s true) we should have started sailing on the sea again by the time the next Mainsheet is out if the RIBs can clear the ice.

Richard Beal

Mainsheet Editor,

mainsheetnssc@nssc.org.uk

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Trouble On The Murmansk Convoys

The safety boats were being given a beating in the strong easterlies but by the time a group had assem-bled to rescue them the frost had settled in. The boats and moorings were encased in ice and the pon-toon had been lifted to a frightening angle. The pictures show the rescue of the rescue boats. Unfortu-nately the next users are going to have to drag them back into the pond.

Thanks to Ian Johnson, Terry Jones, Bill Giles, Jo & Bea West, and Chas Humphries for putting in the effort in less than ideal conditions.

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Preparing your boat for the 2018 Sailing Season

Hull. Strip down boat removing all ropes, pulleys and any easily removed fittings, inspect, clean and order re-placements items if need be. Check toes straps and fastenings.

Wash boat down to remove dirt and salt. Pay attention to fixed fitting such as bailers, mast step etc. With Lasers check the mast step for grit , if you have mast step wearite disc insert replace it, if you don't have one then order one.

Mask up scratches and indentations on decks and in cockpit. Rub down and fill with epoxy and/or gel-coat. Repeat if required.

Turn boat over, clean hull and repeat 3 above on hull.

Polish hull. This doesn't add much if anything to speed but it does protect the hull.

Check transom gudgeons/pintles and their fastenings

Check inside of dagger/centreboard case. There is often damage caused when the dagger hits some-thing. With Laser the bottom dagger hull plate can be damaged, inspect and replace if necessary. Also replace the dagger friction pad.

Foils. Remove rudder blade from stock. Wash foils and rudder stock.

Inspect tiller and extension paying particular attention to the rudder downhaul and universal joint and replace if necessary. If you don't have a spare U/J then order one.

Repair foils as 3 above.

Polish rudder but you may not want to polish the daggerboard as you may regret having a slippery dag-ger when you capsize and are trying to right the boat.

Spars. Wash down. Polish. Replace any PVC tape on rigging eyes etc. Taping up the eyes and ferrules reduces the chance of the spar anodized surface being damaged by them. Inspect the eyes carefully to ensure the eyelets are secure. Inspect rigging and ferrules. Often the wire corrodes just under the fer-rule. Inspect the spar fittings and the gooseneck and fastenings especially pop rivets to ensure they are still secure. Lasers may need heel plug replacing as they are very susceptible to wear, also check the spar where it rubs against the deck. You can buy anti chafe, low friction tapes now which are ideal to protect the mast in this area.

Sails. Wash and inspect. High wear areas are the head (especially the headboard rivets), tack and clew, also, the batten pockets. Get repaired if necessary. Replace damaged tell-tales. Lubricate bolt rope, tack and clew sliders and areas around tell-tales with a silicon type spray such as ‘Sailkote’. If you fold you sails don't, buy a plastic drain pipe and roll them.

Ropes. Wash and inspect. If they are damaged near the ends you may get away with just shortening them if you can't shorten or damaged anywhere else replace them.

Cover, foil & sail bags. Inspect and get any loose stitching repaired.

Trailer and Trolley. Ensure the trailer ball-hitch is working and well greased. Wheels on the trailers usu-ally need de-rusting then kurust or Jelonite applied and painting. (Hamerite is good).

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The frame is usually galvanized and good for many years but if some rust is showing de-rust, apply Ku-rust then grey undercoat and topcoat. Trolley frames can be treated the same. Replace wheel washers with stainless steel ones if rusting. If you have deflated trolley wheels you can have inner tubes fitted which is better than relying in a seal between tyre and wheel. Check lighting board is working.

Put all you fittings back on your boat and rig it to check that nothing is missing and that all is working well.

Don't forget the sailing gear you wear. Check the wetsuit especially the knees. Check your buoyancy aid, boots, knee pads and gloves. I usually replace my boots and gloves every year or two to ensure good grip. Lubricated all your zips on your buoyancy aid, wetsuits and boots.

Get a tool and spares box together.

Make sure you boat insurance is still valid.

Now your ready for the season and no excuses if things go wrong.

Happy Sailing,

Laurence.

John Cook

This is just a short piece for Cooky. For those of you who knew Cooky (John Cook) he was our windsurfing instructor for many years. He played a big part in the beginning of windsurfing over 30 years ago when Lawrence Venus took the decision to open one of the first Windsurfing Shops on the South Coast (Sunsports). We grew to a massive following and a new craze.

When I started at the age of 11 John was already there doing it in style. John was always there to help and to push the very up-and-coming sport. Within a short space of time we must of had up to 30 windsurfers. A lot never left the beach but looked good rigging up in the car park. Years later Cooky then became our windsurfing instructor and stayed for many years. If you knew Cooky he had a brilliant sense of humour and was a laugh to be with socially or on the water. So on behalf of NSSC we will always remember the time and effort and love for the sport and the club.

He was a great friend who will always be remembered for the good days we’ve had.

RIP COOKY.

Nick Blackburn

Rear Commodore, Piddinghoe

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Recorder’s Notes

The Elford Numbum series was well supported during February. On the 4th saw Jazz Turner and Lucy McCaig sailing the RS Feva to victory in both races. In the first race Tiger Cox sailing a Laser 4.7 was 2nd and Chris Foster Laser 3rd. In the second race Rupert Smith (Streaker) was 2nd and Michael Veale & Mike Rosier ( RS200) were 3rd .

On the 11th it was another gusty day. This time it was Jonty Freeman sailing a Radial who dominated, win-ning both races with Rupert (Streaker) 2nd and Duncan McDonald (Streaker) 3rd in the first race then in the second race Duncan was 2nd and Rupert 3rd.

On the 18th although initially cloudy it turned out to be a lovely warm sunny day with a F3 SE breeze. I won the first race sailing my Streaker with Duncan (Streaker) 2nd and Chris Foster (Laser) 3rd. In the sec-ond race Duncan (Streaker) won and Chris (Laser) 2nd and Alan Simmions (Streaker) 3rd.

What a contrast on the 25th when the last race and final race of the Elford Series was sailed. It was bitter-ly cold with a F5+ NE breeze. Consequently only seven brave souls (6 boats) took to the water. There were several capsizes but no retirements. Unfortunately only 4 boats sailed the correct course. 1st was Duncan (Streaker), close behind was Rupert (Streaker) in 2nd and 3rd was Michael Veale & Mike Rosier ( RS200).

The final results for the series were:-

1st Duncan McDonald

2nd Chris Foster

3rd Rupert Smith

Next Sunday (4th March) Zoe McCaig is organising a mini bus to go to the Dinghy Show. So much to see there and interesting talks to go to. Contact Zoe if you’re interested in going. The following Saturday (10th March) we have a work party at Piddinghoe but not on the Sunday so Penelope Duncan is organising some informal racing on the pond. On the 17th there is a work party at Seaford.

The new season kicks off on the sea on the 25th March, the Commodores Cup race starting at 11am, so hopefully your boats will be ready by then (see my ‘Preparing your boat for the 2018 Sailing Season’ notes elsewhere in this Mainsheet).

It will be great to be back on the sea again, lets hope it warms up.

I have the sad news that John Cook has passed away. I knew John from when I had my watersports shop ‘Sunsports’ back in the 80’s. John bought most of his wind-surfing kit from me and did some teaching for my windsurfing school on Piddinghoe pond. Later he ran the club’s windsurfing school. He introduced many windsurfers to the club. We remember those days fondly. John will be much missed.

Laurence Venus

Recorder

Thanks to Bett Simmons for the picture.

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Fireball Winter Sailing: Neil Arnott & James Cuxson

It was good to keep one’s hand in with a bit of Fireball sailing this winter by taking part in two of the popular seven handicap events of the GJW Direct, Sailjuice.com Winter Series, held at various inland reservoirs.

The first event of the series saw us travelling to Draycote Water SC, 18/19 November, for the Dray-cote Dash, 92 starters, four races back to back on the Saturday (trapezoid course) followed by a pur-suit race around the reservoir on the Sunday. Gen-erally light winds, especially on the Sunday, helped the medium predominately single-handed boats take most of the top positions but at least we had 9 FB’s competing with each other. We managed a 67th overall with a Phantom taking the top spot.

The second event we attended was at Rutland Water SC, 3/4 February, for the John Merrick’s Tiger Trophy, 114 starters and FB’s having the largest class with 15. The Saturday racing was cancelled due to lack of wind while on the Sun-day three races were held back to back (trapezoid course). Fortunately we had wind of up to 20kts from the NE, along with a wind chill of -5C which made one feel pretty cold after around four hours on the water! These condi-tions favoured the faster classes with a Fireball taking the top position. A 52nd overall for us.

PS - A Laser won the Series overall.

Neil Arnott

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The Pond

Duncan McDonald won the Elford Numbum Winter Series. Here’s a picture taken by Bett Simmons showing him being presented with his prize. Duncan kindly tells us of his experiences at NSSC:

I was driving back to the hospital (to work) after racing and the prize giving on Sunday and was thinking ‘i wish I had said some good stuff about the Pond and thanked NSSC’ but of course by then it was too late. To be fair I was not really sure what to say as the last time I had attended a club prize giving was as a child and I certainly did not know what to say then. So here are a few words about ‘the Pond’ – some of which I should have said:

We used to live in Piddinghoe in Dormer house (opposite the old post office) which apparently had views over the pond, but at the age of 5 I was never tall enough to see out over the window. The Pond was where my older broth-er, Neal, first sailed as I looked on with envy. He has now raced pro-fessionally for 30 years com-

peting in 7 circumnavigations and is currently coaching Mapfre in the Volvo Ocean race. In 1970 we moved to Warsash where I learnt to sail. I was fortunate enough to go on to win World championships in both dinghies and then keelboats, my dinghy sailing stopping about 20 years ago after a number of knee injuries.

Whenever my parents visit me in Brighton we always pop down to Piddinghoe as my Dad is a massive fan (and played some role in the Club many years ago). On one of these occasions, at the end of 2015, we asked at the club about the possibility of my daughter (Lorien) learning to sail and were very pleased to hear that cadet evenings were on Mondays, as this was the school day evening that Lorien was spending with me at that time.

We joined NSSC for 2016 and Lorien had a great time with the Monday evening sailing and the single most wonderful event in the year.....cadet week! For those who have not participated in this it is a com-bination of sailing, fun and camping with brilliant teaching, children and parents. It was during the ’capsize a grownup helper race’ when I had borrowed a Topper that I realised that I needed to sail a din-ghy again...after 20 years of ‘big boat’ sailing.

My on-call commitment to medicine and quality time spent with Lorien at weekends meant that I could

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no longer commit to racing keelboats with a team so I decided to buy a single handed dinghy. I chose a second hand Streaker in January 2017 and started to learn how to sail a small boat again. This time how-ever it was by myself – a single hander which was a pretty alien concept to me – you will often hear me talking around the course as I have always shared the experience (good or bad) with chums! At the time I was not aware that there were up to 5 Streakers racing at the club and this was a very pleasant surprise.

I have loved learning to sail a dinghy again on the Pond. I have enjoyed going for sail midweek when no-one else is around as much as the excitement of a good race. The pond really is an oasis of tranquillity and beauty in our modern industrialised world.

The racing this winter has been fantastic with very skilled sailors within the fleet. We have a light weath-er expert in the Streaker and a heavy weather expert (who finished 6th at the Streaker nationals last year). A young lady made a pretty good impression on her outing in Rupert’s boat (before it capsized her) and there are some skilled laser sailors with one particular laser radial very hard to beat. Perhaps the most exciting aspect to the sailing this winter on the pond is however the rapid and amazing develop-ment of the very skilled young sailors in particular in the Optimist and Topper. Nice work kids!

One of the other unique aspects to the pond is how welcoming and hard working the members are. I be-lieve the opportunity to have different memberships related to how busy much time you can commit to supporting the club is a wonderful idea. I have certainly suggested this to other clubs that I frequent. I am very appreciative of all the extremely hard work that many members put into allowing people like me to race and my daughter to undergo such good sailing tuition. I hope that this can be paid back at a later date when I have more time.

My favourite single day at the pond was Father’s Day last year. It was a beautiful day and 2 Anaesthetic friends and I turned up with our families (5 children, 5 grownups and my parents) with the campervan and a gazebo. We all went sailing, paddle boarding, kayaking etc and had a lovely BBQ. It was a fabulous 3 generation day that simply could not have been better.

I often suggest to anxious patients when I am inducing anaesthesia to think of their favourite place in or-der to relax them. Most consider a sandy island beach in some exotic country. I know where I would think of (as would 2 other members of my family) - good old Piddinghoe Pond! It really is a haven.

Thanks to all at NSSC for being so welcoming to Lorien and I. Thank you to Laurence and Rupert for your hard work and Alan for his ramblings. Thank you to the cadet teachers, particularly Zoe and Jo, and thank you to whoever created this wonderful gravel pit.

Cheers

Duncan McDonald

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NSSC Safeguarding Procedural Review 2018

Newhaven and Seaford Sailing Club (NSSC) continues to take the safety and the safeguarding of all of its members extremely seriously. The Directors of NSSC would therefore like to announce that Ian McCrae and Damien Jordan have been commissioned to carry out a Safeguarding Procedural Review. The aims of the Procedural Review are to ensure that:

Safeguarding procedures are robust The Board can be satisfied that safeguarding concerns are dealt with appropriately and effectively All members have the confidence to disclose safeguarding concerns All members are aware of the procedures and processes for dealing with safeguarding concerns The membership and relevant external agencies are confident that The Board have the capacity

to safeguard members, their guests and visitors. The findings and recommendations from this review will be made available to all club members. Whilst the length of this review cannot be determined at this point by us we have asked that some initial find-ings and recommendations can be made so that the Directors and members can begin to implement these at the earliest point. The Directors of NSSC are committed to implementing the findings and recommendations from this re-view and Ian and Damien will have the Directors’ full support. We hope that all members and would encourage all members to give them their full support also. Ian and Damien can be contacted via the clubs safeguarding e-mail safeguardingnssc@nssc.gov.uk. However they may be in contact with individual members to outline how anyone can contribute to this review and the formats and protocols that will need to be followed to achieve this. PEN PORTRAIT Ian McCrae and Damien Jordan are both sailing members of NSSC. They are also both parents of young-er members of the club and joined the club relatively recently. Ian and Damien have both worked as Headteachers in schools in challenging circumstances. They are both trained as Designated Safeguarding Leads as well as in Safer Recruitment. Ian is currently the Safeguarding lead for NSSC and Damien was a key member of the organisation team for Cadet Week 2017. Rupert Smith

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Sail Boat Project

There’s a worthy organisation based in Brighton and sailing from Chichester offering yacht training to groups of people not fitting the usual social profile of the yachting community. It’s called Sail Boat Pro-ject, it’s a Workers’ Cooperative and is currently looking for directors (yup, I know those two things don’t always go together). You might have seen in the press that they recently imported olive-oil from Portugal to Newhaven on a sail cargo ship. Their web-site is worth visiting.

A Fishy Story

Congratulations to Greg from Seaford anglers who managed to land this pike at the pond in March. He persevered in all the cold weather and puts his success down to the lure he made from an electric toothbrush. It took him over four hours to land the fish and it took two peo-ple to lift it out of the water.

Greg has returned the fish which he named Tre-vor, to the water.

Thanks to Phil Nokio from Seaford anglers for the picture and info.

Ian Johnson

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CATZ CHAT March 2018

2018 Sailing Season- yahoo!

We are back……….the Cats are rested and raring to go (almost), just as long as we all remember which bit of string goes where! My problem is usually finding where I very, very safely put all the parts needed to assemble for the new season. I have seen a number of Cats in the boat park still wrapped up, some have even had a good polish but all are rested.

This season should prove to be one of the best, as we have a friendly group, enthusiastic, keen, some are stupid (any weather will do), competitive. but most of all we have fun without taking it too serious-ly.

The plan this year is organise a “Try a Catamaran” on a Saturday for members and non-members to come out and see what fun can be had and what you have been missing all this time. So keep an eye for the details, all weather dependent of course, but I am sure we will see sunshine and nice winds some-time this year.

We have another Sprint15 joining us this year, so we will have the Grand Total of 6…….Mike, Terry, Chaz, Jason, Howard and now Paul

See you on the water soon.

Mike Godwin

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Course à la France le 7 Avril 2018 à l'étang. Lors du premier week-end en famille à l'étang, il y aura une course, dont l'objectif est de naviguer vers la France ou d'aller aussi loin que vous le pouvez avant que l'ennui, la fatigue ou le coucher du soleil se produi-sent. Le parcours sera une distance définie afin que nous puissions enregistrer votre progression ou l'absence de tours et la traduire à distance. Il y aura quelques règles mais des avantages supplémentaires peuvent être ob-tenus en portant des déguisements, en parlant français, en mangeant de l'ail, en portant un beret, en donnant au RO de copieuses quantités de bulles, etc. Comme pour la course d'endurance, c'est le bateau qui compte et vous pouvez avoir différents heaumes et équipages au cours de la course. Je ne sais pas à quelle heure il va commencer, alors faites attention aux bulle-tins ou aux notifications sur Facebook. Nous aurons be-soin de gens pour diriger et équiper un bateau de sécu-

rité et enregistrer les tours que je vais obtenir quelque chose sur Duelyman afin que ceux susceptibles d'être autour peuvent mettre leur nom. Peut être beaucoup de personnes différentes au cours de la journée. Il sera possible de parrainer des individus ou des équipes pour amasser des fonds pour les cadets. Ian Johnson

Dingbat

In February’s Mainsheet I got it all wrong about the Family Weekends in May. I tried to correct an error but made matters much, much worse. For the avoidance of all possible doubt, the Family Weekend on the 5th and 6th May will be at Seaford, while the Family Weekend for the 19th and 20th May will be at Piddinghoe.

The club calendar (http://www.nssc.org.uk/cms/index.php/calendar) is correct.

By the way, hunting for an image of a male hen on the internet is only for the brave or those with full parental controls on their PC.

Richard Beal

Mainsheet Editor

mainsheetnssc@nssc.org.uk

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Race to France 7th April 2018 at the pond

At the first family weekend at the pond there will be a race, the objective of which is to ei-ther sail to France or get as far as you can be-fore boredom, fatigue, or sunset occurs. The course will be a set distance so we can record your progress or lack of it in laps and then translate that to distance.

There will be some rules but additional ad-vantages can be gained by wearing fancy dress, speaking French, eating garlic, wearing a beret, giving the RO copious amounts of bubbly, etc As with the endurance race it is

the boat that counts and you can have different helms and crew over the course of the race.

Not sure what time it will start yet so watch out for bulletins or Facebook notifications. We will need people to helm and crew a safety boat and record the laps. I will get something on Dutyman so those likely to be around can put their names down. Can be lots of different people over the day. There will be an opportunity to sponsor individuals or teams to raise money for cadets.

Ian Johnson

Just Can’t Get Enough Sailing

For those of you who are likely to be suffering withdrawal symptoms now that the official racing at the pond has finished, don’t worry, help is at hand. Penelope Duncan is trying to organise three extra Sun-days at the pond (4th, 11th and 18th March). This is normally a time when we don’t race at all (sea racing starts on the 25th March). So, come along and join in. All are welcome. Anyone using this as an excuse to get out of the work parties at Piddinghoe (Saturday 11th March) and Seaford (Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th March) should think again.

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South East Optimist Zone Squad Report

Bea’s view, age 10:

Yo Peeps,

I have been in Zone Squad this winter and it’s been great. I have attended 3 weekends of training at Datchet, Queen Mary and Hayling Island. I also have 3 more to look forward to at, Datchet, Medway and Bewl.

The coaches email me before each weekend telling me the timetable and training plan for the weekend. I then have to get ready for the weekend on Friday after school, I pack my bag and load the car ready for an early start the next day. I have a special notebook and in the car on the way there I write my goals for the weekend and check the weather forecast to record in my training book. When I arrive at the venue I have to unpack and set up my boat and find the changing rooms (which can be really hard to find when it’s your first time at a sailing club!). You have to rig your boat for the right wind conditions but keep an eye on the time cause you get in trouble with the coach-es if you’re late for the 9.30am briefing. In the briefing we start with fitness and yoga and we talk about the day ahead. After the briefing we get changed and launch. I have found the sailing fun but when it’s windy it has been tough and a little bit freezing at times. After sailing we get changed and have a de-brief followed by cake. At the debrief we talk about the day, see videos of us sailing, review our goals and set new goals for the next day. There are 16 of us in zone squad and we are good friends and sup-port each other. Rachel is a new friend I have made, at Hayling Island we found a Nutella bar floating in the water and shared it, it was yummy. We also all have a Whatsapp group where we say hi to each other and share photos and stuff.

I’ve learnt lots about sailing, we do things called ‘rabbit runs’ to help us get good starts, I’ve learnt how to improve my hiking too and I’ve learnt the ‘squat’ and the ‘kiwi’. I really want to share what I have learnt with other cadets at NSSC and will be running some sessions especially for girls during some of the family weekends.

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Jo’s View, Mum:

When Bea got into Zone Squad I felt this was a perfect opportunity for her to have coaching from someone who was not her Mum or Grandad, and hoped it would give her the opportunity to listen a little more! I have to be honest it is quite a commitment from me supporting her through it. Prepar-ing and picking up the boat from the pond each weekend has to be fitted in around a full time job and as some of the venues are a quite a distance accommodation needs to be found and organised too. You then get a choice during the weekend find a way to pass 2 days watching your child sail (normally a dot on the horizon) or volunteer to be rib crew, which at Hayling Island was the coldest I have ever been since racing as a child in the winter. Mostly though I have gained new friends with the other parents and shared stories about how we might sort a camper van (the ultimate goal as an Opti-mist parent)!

The whole thing has been a real learning curve for me and I have gained a real insight into the British Youth Sailing team and the focus on developing these children and their support networks to help find future Olympic Champions. I don’t know where Bea’s sailing will take her I just hope it keeps her out of too much trouble as a teenager and gives her positive experiences throughout her life. However I know that zone squad has allowed us both to focus on the concept of a ‘Growth Mindset’ and that this is feeding into Bea’s SATS revision at school and helping develop my own classroom practice as a teacher, so that has to be a good thing for both of us.

If you think your child may be ready to experience an event beyond the club (need to be able to sail a triangle and understand what a start is), Bea did her first event at Papercourt Optimist Open aged 8. She then attended the Inlands at Grafham the following year. All Optimist events have a regatta fleet where they support new sailors. Have a look at www.optimist.org.uk or our cadet Facebook page for events this year.

Jo West

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