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Home / News / Commodore's Newsletter 13th January 2022
Home / News / Commodore's Newsletter 13th January 2022

Commodore's Newsletter 13th January 2022

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Published 14:03 on 13 Jan 2022

Firstly may I send you all best wishes for 2022. I hope that you had a peaceful and happy Christmas and that you are not being too ground down by a long and dreary January. The good news is that sailing has already restarted with 24 boats racing on New Year's Day and races 5 and 6 of the Icicle Series taking place last Sunday. Social sailing on Thursday has also restarted. If you have appropriate winter gear this is a great time to be sailing.

Team racing. Winter is the height of the team racing season and up to Easter the lake will be busy with Firefly dinghies practising for and taking part in team racing. Team racing is a major university and school sailing sport, and we are fortunate to have four University teams and several schools based at Spinnaker. At the end of January Southampton University ( Wessex Sailing Club) is hosting the annual Wessex Winter Warmer and in March Portsmouth University Sailing Club are hosting the British Universities Sailing Association Southern Qualifiers with support from Spinnaker. This is a very prestigious event and reflects well on Portsmouth and ourselves that we have been entrusted with the event.

Security. Most of you will be aware of the recent break in and theft of outboard motors. This was obviously very disappointing and we are currently looking at options for our powerboats as we recover from this theft. In the mean time the Club management will be planning how best to protect our assets. Generally it is vital that we continue to be vigilant about security ensuring that the site and clubhouse are secure and by not giving out the codes for the gates and clubhouse.

Membership. We pride ourselves on being a members club and we focus on being friendly and we aim to make sailing as accessible as possible. Much of this due to our excellent paid staff, especially James Oborne, Neil Franklin and Candace Surman. They all work very hard to make Spinnaker a nice club to belong to. I am very grateful to them as I am sure you all are. However the Club is also dependent on a veritable army of volunteers without whom Spinnaker would not function, and I would like to thank you all for what you have done for the Club in 2021 and what you will do this year.

Committees. This brings me to the subject of Committees! I am entering my third and last year as Commodore, and while I haven't been at the Club as much as I would have liked due to problems with my vision I believe that the Club has achieved much despite the ravages of Covid. This is very much down to the Cub's staff but also to input from the Main and Sailing Committees. Thanks to major changes in the Club's management structures, several years of increasing financial losses have been stemmed and now any profits made by the Club are being ploughed back into new craft and infrastructure. The Club estate is looking much better and the Club is being well administered. I am hopeful that at the AGM in December 2022 I will be able to hand the reins of a vibrant, happy and successful Club to my successor. This means that we need new blood on the committees a soon as possible to bring in new insights, enthusiasm and knowledge. Please do consider joining one of the committees. We pride ourselves on being a family friendly club and on being a great place to learn sailing. You don't need to be gnarled old sea dog just someone with enthusiasm and ideas. Since our restructuring much of the spade work is done by the professional staff so what is needed is people to guide and support the Club over the next few years as it grows and changes to meet the needs and wants of its members. Please consider joining us and do not hesitate to contact me or James Oborne if you want to chat things over.

Best wishes and happy sailing.

Hywel

H J Morris Commodore

Last updated 09:41 on 20 December 2023

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