Ripon Sailing Club Notes to Members for the 2025 sailing season

Published 09:56 on 19 Feb 2025

Dear Member,

At the AGM held on 9th February, I announced some changes for the 2025 Sailing Programme in my report to the meeting. For those of you unable to attend, I would like to share those changes with you here to keep you up to date for the coming season.

We will be having our usual pre-season review of the racing rules, including the changes for 2025-28, on Saturday 15th March at 17.00 when we will also be having our traditional Fish & Chip supper. I'm delighted to say that Oscar Shilling has again agreed to give this presentation, which will be relevant for new sailors, juniors and old hands alike. I hope to see you there. You can see the new 2025-28 Rules on the club website here

The revised start times in 2024 did not generate the extra boats we were hoping for on Sundays and so we have reverted to traditional start times for 2025. This means 11.00 for the morning races and not before 13.00 for the afternoon. It is within the RO's discretion to wait a few minutes for late arrivals, but starts should not be unduly delayed.

One thing we are trying for 2025 at the request of members is Saturday racing, which will start on 3rd May at 13.00, with 2 races per afternoon. Duties will be run along the line of Wagalers and a WhatsApp Group has already been set up, so let me know if you wish to join in. Email sailing@ripon-sc.org.uk

In view of the declining numbers in the fast and slow fleets, we are making changes to the format of the Spring, Summer, Holiday and Autumn series races this year. Starts will be for Streaker, Main Fleet and Bronze fleet only as numbers in the Fast and Slow fleets don't justify their existence at the moment. Stepping Stones and Kick Starter series will start with the Bronze fleet. Race series where there are only single fleets or Fast and Slow Fleets will remain as they are for now, i.e. New Year's Day, Icicle, Frostbite. One day events such as Methuselah, Marabu and Champion of Champions will remain as they are. The RNLI pursuit is unchanged. Updated details will be found in the RO Manual for each series.

Details of all Race Series for 2025 are in the RO Manual in the Race Hut and also on the website here. Click on the relevant race series to view the briefing sheet.

Interest has been expressed by Aero sailors in having a fleet captain and I would support this. If you can consistently put 5 or more boats on the water this year over a series, we can look at class starts for 2026. We also have a number of Supernovas now and I would say the same thing for them.

Support for Bart's Bash has declined, raising very little money, so we will not be running it this year. We will, however, run the Dawn to Dusk Race again and hopefully add another boat as this was enjoyed by all who participated and requested again for 2025.

We will have an open day to attract new members, date has been set as Monday 5th May (Bank Holiday). If you are interested and willing to help with this important drive to recruit new members and introduce others to our sport, then please let Helen Voisey know on membership@ripon-sc.org.uk

Duty requirements will be extended to three per year.

By way of some compensation for this extra commitment, those completing a duty in a series in which they compete will have the OOD classification entered into their results in Sailwave, giving them average points for the series to reduce being penalised for a duty. This won't apply for one or two-day events. To have a result entered as OOD, complete the race results sheet with your name, sail number and write OOD in the lap record. The system will adjust your score as you sail the other races in the series to reflect your average, rather than the high points awarded for DNC. This applies for all those on duty, whether in the race hut or on safety boat. Wagalers, Saturday and Wednesday evening series are included in this.

We are starting a Saturday club for Juniors, although you may be able to think of a better name! James Wild has very kindly donated an old Mirror which is sound but needs refur-bishment. This will be ideal for junior members to come to the club and spend time working together to strip and repaint and varnish it, before putting it back together and having it to mess about in just go sailing. The idea is to build friendships, teach maintenance and hopefully instil the love of sailing without immediately having to go racing. Young members can join in and keep up with this on the Y&J WhatsApp Group. Contact Lucy Priest on junior@ripon-sc.org.uk to get involved.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has had a go at doing duties last year. Many of you are old hands, but newer members have also had a go and we have even had junior members ask to help out, which is great for them and they had fun doing so. I have also mentored various people and remain happy to do so this year. It's amazing how people actually enjoy it once they've had a go! We hope that the three-duty requirement, combined with OOD scoring will not prove too onerous and will relieve the pressure on those willing hands who have stepped up and done significantly more than their two duties last year.

Please take advantage of all the club has to offer, whether racing, training, leisure sailing, camping, social events and so on. We have a lot to offer and look forward to seeing you.

On behalf of the committee, I wish you all good sailing this year!

Graham Lamond
Sailing Secretary February 2025

Last updated 20:47 on 19 March 2025