Posts in category: News

The 2021 calendar is now live on the website and you can search by event type, series, or whatever you like. Lets hope that we can do all of it without any further lockdowns.

Following the Commodores announcement regarding the resumption of sailing at the club the Covid information page has been updated. Please make yourself familiar with it here before you attend the club at any point.

Covid-19 Restrictions

Dear Member
Further to my message earlier this month, I am now very pleased to send you the Club’s roadmap for returning to sailing after 29 March. This is based on the current guidance from the RYA, which is itself derived from instructions issued by the Government. Hopefully, HMG will not find it necessary to amend or delay the four steps to normality it published last month. The Club’s roadmap is a summary of key dates and the opening-up measures associated with them. More detailed information about the national return to sailing is accessible to all on the RYA’s website: https://www.rya.org.uk. I would strongly suggest that you keep up-to-date with that, so that you have a good understanding of the guidance provided by our organising body, since this underpins the Club’s plans and its measures to restrict the transmission of Covid-19.
From the roadmap, you will see that Sherborne School will actually start sailing on 20 March; this is because schools are a specific exception under the current rules. They intend to sail again on 27 March. Weekend club sailing will initially start on Sundays only, the first session being on 4 April. Saturday sailing will start soon after this on 17 April, when a number of travelling cruisers will be having a ‘shakedown’ event. Before that, many will be delighted to see that the Thursday Evening Series will begin on 8 April.
There is no specified limit on how many people can sail or be on the premises, but those on shore must not gather in group of more than six or two households. The removal of the limit on numbers is with the strong proviso that all must comply with the RYA’s guidance. You will not need to book to go sailing – as was the case before the current lockdown – but you must sign in and out, for track and trace purposes. Note that the RYA ‘s guidance on mixed household crews still applies. The OODs will have the authority to require those attending to observe the rules and to limit the total number present if they are concerned that discipline is breaking down. Please support them in this.
Sadly, we are not yet able to allow access to indoor facilities, other than toilets so, initially, please can you change at home or in your car. We hope to have limited use of the changing rooms from 12 April, when also some form of galley facility may be offered. Let us hope for a warm spring!
Can I remind you again that Dutyman is open for bookings and that we will retain the additional OOD C role until the end of April. We now expect all members to book duties as in ‘normal times’. Insufficient volunteers will mean no sailing.
I am really delighted that the lockdown and fantastic vaccination programme mean that we can get back on the water and I look forward to seeing you at the reservoir soon.

Merv Clark
Commodore

Please fill out the form on https://www.suttonbinghamsc.net/w/training-youth/ (scroll to the bottom of the page) and I can then process your booking for you. I will confirm your booking by email. 

We will be running a small number of courses at Whitsun – Stages 1, 2 and 3. We don’t intend to run any double handed courses for this week.

Summer courses will be Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4. We are running an older beginners course every other week for those aged 12+ on weeks YSS12/14/16. Start racing will run YSS13/15/17. We will also offer Sailing with Spinnakers and Intermediate racing courses, please enquire.

If you have any questions then please feel free to email Saffron at training@suttonbinghamsc.net and she will get back to you as soon as possible (please be aware she works full time so all contact is during the evenings or weekends).

We are really looking forward to welcoming all the youngsters back to the club for another year of fun on the water.

The Training Team

Dear Member,

With the February storms behind us and the encouragement of the wonderful weather of last weekend, many of us will have turned our thoughts to sailing this summer. Thanks to the success of the current lockdown, and the on-going vaccination program, it does look as though we will soon be able to return to sailing. However, the current advice is still to stay at home.

As we all know, last week the government has published its long-awaited roadmap out of lockdown. Based on that, the RYA has updated its advice to the boating community and compiled a new list of frequently asked questions as guidance to members and clubs. The advice and FAQs are accessible to non-members on the RYA’s website (www.rya.org.uk/).

For our Club, the current situation is unchanged, with the site being closed for all activities other than essential access and maintenance. Although it is possible for schools to go sailing at the reservoir, this would require self-contained infrastructure support and only one school is able to provide that. Regular checks are being made to ensure security and certain health and safety tasks are being undertaken.

The key date is 29th March, when outdoor sports facilities can re-open, and we are planning to start sailing again on the following weekend of 3/4 April, although it may not be on both days. Quite what facilities can be used and what restrictions will apply are yet to clarified; we expect further advice from the RYA soon. For the moment, we are working on the assumption that the basis of operations will be essentially the same as prior to the current lockdown, with organised racing on Sundays. We are hoping, however, that we may be able to make some use of our changing facilities, in addition to the toilets. However, currently the RYA advice is to keep changing rooms closed.

Step Two of the Government’s roadmap is 12 April, but this has little significance for sporting activities.

Assuming the Government’s test criteria are satisfied, Step Three will be implemented on 17 May, which may permit more use of the clubhouse and its facilities.

Again, if all goes to plan, Step Four will be on 21 June, when life is scheduled to return to near normal, although I suspect we may find social distancing and masks are still with us.

I will provide further updates as soon as further information specific to sailing is made available. The Club’s calendar of events is currently work-in-progress for the Sailing Committee and we expect to offer some great experiences, both on and off the water.

Dutyman will soon be open for bookings from 29 March and we really do need members to fill the slots so that we can get out on the water. We will start with a clean sheet, so those who – for whatever reason – did not do one or both duties last year will not be expected to do more this year.

As I mentioned earlier, I will provide more details once we are able to refine our plans, so keep an eye out for more messages.

Meanwhile, stay local, stay safe and – most important – check your sailing kit!

Merv Clark

Commodore

mailto:commodore@suttonbinghamsc.net

By now you should have received your invite to the 2020 AGM via email from the club Secretary. This is important because this AGM will be run virtually using Microsoft Teams. Don’t worry as there are full instructions in the email on how to access this facility. Please logon and join in the meeting.

Due to the revised Covid restrictions meaning the country is locked down we have no choice other than to cancel the 2021 Icicle Open. Hopefully it will return in 2022.