Welcome to CMYC...dinghy Sailing club in Sussex

Caroline and I popped into Hedgecourt on Sunday 14 April to see how the Comet Day was going, and were delighted to see lots of Comet sailors enjoying the lovely sunshine whilst brushing up their boat tuning and sailing techniques, at least in theory!  Yet again the weather was not entirely on the side of sailors – this time it was the fault of the wind which was rather too strong and gusty.   Never mind, a good time was obviously had by all, and well done and thank you to Andrew Keynes for organising this event.

The previous day was billed as the club’s de-hibernation day, and should have been a day for checking out our boats and getting advice where necessary in readiness for spring and summer sailing.  Yet again, the weather had rather too much influence on the day as it was very wet and windy putting off all but the most hardy souls.  The rest of us remained in hibernation! Many thanks to Jeff Smith and Stephen Bellamy for co-ordinating this event, and for offering power boat refresher training and support boat cover.

No opportunity for any hibernation in Chichester Harbour this weekend though, as it was our first junior weekend at Cobnor.  Diana and her team of helpers, altogether 22 people including the juniors, headed off  to the Cobnor Activity Centre and I understand that good sailing was enjoyed on both days.  Although only one person had registered for the Chichester Cruise by the Wednesday, several members were camping in the area and an unofficial cruise took place on the Saturday and had some interesting adventures in the Thorney Channel, involving a damaged prop and a Dry Suit that wasn’t!  (Operator error – lesson learned, close zip before entering water).

Whilst on the subject of the weather, and I am really sorry to keep going on about it, if you come to Hedgecourt, you can’t fail to notice that we still have lots of boggy areas in the dinghy park, particularly on the right hand side as you arrive.  We have been planning to install additional drainage to solve this problem, but really need the area to dry out a bit first.  It had been drying nicely when we had our first dry period of the year, but unfortunately on the Tuesday when we were expecting to start this work, the torrential rains returned and scuppered our plans.  The Tuesday Club will be getting down to this essential task again as soon as possible, weather permitting.

It’s not all bad news though.  An advantage of all the rain we have had this Spring is that the lake is lovely and full, however we do need to do a bit more sand bagging to the dam to make sure we keep our water where we want it.  Although the Tuesday Club has done a lot of this work already, we could do with some extra help to finish it off.  This could be the opportunity you have been waiting for.  It may not sound like a lot of fun, but take my word for it, it can be!  So, what we would like to do is gather together a list of volunteers who may be able to help at short notice to get this job done over a couple of Saturday or Sunday mornings.  We need to fill about 50 sandbags with a sand, ballast and cement mix, and then transport these to the dam in one of the flat bottomed green boats.  There are also some shrubs, bushes and small trees along the dam wall that need cutting back – they are also growing well in all the wet weather we’ve had, so if you fancy a bit of extreme gardening, or some stress relieving sandbagging, here’s your chance.  Get in touch with Allan Webber, he will be delighted to hear from you.

There’s lots of sailing to look forward to in the next few weeks.  The first coastal racing event will probably have taken place by the time you read this, and on 27 April we have our second Saturday Club of the season and a Chichester Cruise and Picnic for the cruising section.  On the May Bank Holiday, we have our Try a Boat Day at Hedgecourt.  This is an excellent opportunity to try out the boats that other members sail, and to find a good home for that bit of boat jumble cluttering up your garage.

It would be good to see a few more members at the Dry Meetings.  See Donal’s page for details of this month’s speaker.

Don’t forget, Crawley Mariners is your club, and if you are not happy with something we are doing, or indeed are not doing, I want to hear from you.

Adrian.