Trimpleys first solo trohpy Dates for your Diary Contact Us: AGM: 28th February Easter Pennants: 1st April Dinner dance: 20th April Solo Open: 29th June Discover Sailing: 27th April Bank Holiday Pursuits: 6th & 27th General enquiries: info@trimpleysailingclub.co.uk Commodore: commodore@trimpleysailingclub.co.uk Membership secutary: membership@trimpleysailingclub.co.uk
Racing rules night Held by the rule’s expert Steve Watson in our very own clubhouse on the 18th of October in the Freshly painted clubhouse that up until that moment some members hadn’t seen. Despite the cold Steve was given a warm welcome by all of you who attended the fish and chip supper, and the rules talk. Steve shared with us his wisdom and his insight over his long sailing career and took us through a race scenario to explain and help us to understand the rules and pitfalls of certain rules. This was a very useful chat that helped many of our novice sailors and Experienced sailors brush up on the way of the game. When I joined the club, racing was described like watching Sunday afternoons cricket match but The following games were a lot more competitive! from the galley Greetings from the Galley I am the “pop and crisps stocker” and coordinate our catered events. Isabelle, Kat Parnell, Citra, Heather Budden and Pat and Linda regularly make up the team. We are always looking to add to our crew of helpers so please contact me if you would like to help with catering. Hope everyone is enjoying the drinks and snacks on offer. Just a reminder, we have resisted increasing prices in the galley, but costs have gone up, so please make sure all IOUs are paid as timely as possible so we can continue to keep prices down. I have added a selection of frozen items including Sausage Rolls, Cheese and Onion, and Chicken Bakes and Pizza Pockets. If you are sailing - ask the flag officer to pop one in the oven ready for your lunch ! Don’t forget the Tassimo Coffee Machine- Easy to use and a selection of Coffees and Hot chocolate are available. We’re hoping to put on some spontaneous sail and picnic evening socials as weather permits – so look out for those as the weather warms up. Jo Jones
Wintertime! Is your vision of this sitting indoors in the warm reading the papers, watching TV, playing on the xBox? Or is it donning the wetsuit or drysuit? Well for a number of us, Simon Y, Jacob, Andy B, Allison, Robyn, Mike, Eddie, Ben S, Ian D and others its been the latter, out on the water at Trimpley in a range of conditions have fun! If your weren’t there, then you have missed out. As we move into Spring let’s get out there for some great boat for boat ILCA racing. If you want to benefit from some group coaching, join Jacob, he has a number of dates planned (see elsewhere in this newsletter). If you want coaching with setting up an ILCA, I can help. TOP TIP – placing of Tell Tales and how to sail with them – 2 per side of your sail….Measure from the foot of the sail, and all the way at the front of the luff sleeve. TOP TIP – placing of Tell Tales and how to sail with them – 2 per side of your sail.... Measure from the foot of the sail, and all the way at the front of the luff sleeve. ILCA 7 / Full Rig: 31” up, 23” in. & 60” up, 17” in. ILCA 6 / Radial Rig: 31” up, 20” in. & 53” up, 20” in. ILCA 4 / 4.7 Rig: 27” up, 19” in. & 47” up, 15” in. Upwind Closehauled Angle Detail – Steer your ILCA boat to keep the telltales in the Yellow and Green sectors. This will be your best sailing angle. ILCA midland series events
Commodore, Vice Commodore, Secretary and, for a long period, as Harbour Master. When did you start sailing? I started at Trimpley 50 years ago in 1974 – six years after Trimpley Sailing Club was established. What attracted you to sailing? We went on holiday on the Norfolk Broads in a cruiser with a small trailing dinghy. I tried sailing the dinghy and liked it so much I decided to continue and learn to sail properly. Why did you come to Trimpley? Well, Trimpley was fairly local and a work colleague at Chance’s Glass sailed there. He took me out in a GP14 when it was quite windy and I found it very exciting so I joined the Club to do more of it. What types of boat have you sailed? I had a narrow boat for many years but I’ve mainly sailed GP’s as my favourite boat. I’ve also sailed a 420 but prefer the GP. Where’s the best place you’ve sailed and why? Without a doubt, Trimpley is the best place because everyone’s so friendly and helpful, but I also liked sailing at Newquay in Wales when on holiday. I’ve sailed a cruiser and a GP14 when I was a member at the Yacht Club there. The Club was very well organised and, like Trimpley, it was a very friendly and welcoming place to go to and to sail. Where’s the worst place you’ve sailed? Oh, that must be at Upton Warren when I sailed there a long time ago. I sailed when I had the flu and had to be rescued when I capsized and the mast got stuck in the mud. What’s your biggest sailing achievement? I think, probably, winning one of the Open races in a GP Open meeting at Oxford some years ago. I also enjoyed sailing in the GP14 World Championships at The Mumbles in 1985 when I capsized only once. That was when a Force 8, gusting Force 10 gale, swept through the fleet causing multiple capsizes, and I remember sitting on the upside-down hull of the boat seeing everyone around me sitting on their theirs too, and cheering as the wind flipped everyone over. What advice would you give to sailors at Trimpley? Trimpley is a great place to sail but look out for wind changes, even the small ones. It’s good for safe sailing and you can learn a lot from racing here – you don’t have to win, just take part and you’ll gain a lot of confidence. I’d also encourage people to experience sailing in other places, such as at Open meetings, where you will learn to sail better and enjoy watching others doing the same as you, everyone trying to sail better and improving their skills and techniques. gp14 update I hope all of you GP sailors are looking forward to a new season! Following our planning meeting in the King and Castle on 25th January I think we have a nice strong travelling fleet for the coming events, with a range of teams from novice through to experienced. Anyone wishing to join us it’s not too late, just give me a shout and I’ll give you a rundown of the events on the cards this year. As a Trimpley GP team, we can travel to opens, support each other and keep Trimpley on the Midland Bell map It’s a world championship year, with the event running 10th – 16th August in Pwllheli on the Llyn peninsular, North Wales. Keith and I can’t make it this year, but we would encourage any of you to give it a go – the most exciting sailing you’ll ever do, in a 100-boat-plus fleet, on the sea whilst surrounded by powerboats that can fish you out if you get into difficulties. It is truly an event to experience, and even if you end up way down in the rankings, the learning curve you rocket through in those few days will stand you in good stead for years of events still to come. As is becoming traditional, we will be running a few coaching sessions in the lead-up to the first event of the season, to either remind those who’ve done it before on the process of sailing at opens or to give any novice sailors some hints and tips to get them on their way. So far, we will have sessions covering boat set-up and tuning and, launching/ flying/recovering the spinnaker. Help is also available for those who need help breaking down their boat for towing. I’ll announce these sessions on the Trimpley Travellers WhatsApp group (and on the General Noticeboard), so keep your eyes peeled for further news! Ben Roberts
Winter will soon be over and time to prepare for next season will have also run out! While the temperatures are still cold it would be a good time to service road trailers and other equipment that you may need if you’re going to be attending some of the midland circuit this season! The solo open at Trimpley on the 29th of June, so get that date in your diary! You will not have to join the solo class if you’re just doing the open at Trimpley. To qualify for the series, you only need to attend four events usually so this year including our open you’ll only need to travel three times. The dates and venues have been published on the solo class website. The solo trophy that was won by Ben Roberts will be presented at the dinner dance. The solo trophy day was very successful seeing a record number of solos out on the water! In the end we had 5 solos take to the water including our club solo ‘reservoir dog’ which will gradually be getting some newer parts to help it function over the next year, but it is a good boat getting 2nd in the first solo trophy race with Jacob at the helm. Next year the solo trophy will return aiming for September to make the most of what will be left of the summer sun with the trophy being presented on the day along with a nice social event. Merlin rockets inlands An unusual item for the Trimpley newsletter, some of you may be asking who has a merlin? Well as some of you may know that Robyn and David have been sailing a merlin rocket on Wednesday afternoons at Bartley sc. The Inland championships were re-organised as a sprint day after there was no wind in Llangorse back in August. Which gave them some more time to get to grips with their new Boat. On the weekend itself we were racing against the bronze fleet (consisting of amateurs like ourselves) there were also many other sailors of higher calibre including former Olympians and sailors who hold multiple national and world titles who quickly left us and the other bronze and silver fleet sailors in the dust. The wind was quite light in the morning but was raining quite heavily meaning that we had to bail out between and even during races. Halfway through the day there was a shift in wind direction and with it came a moment of sunshine before the squalls moved in… Quickly we found ourselves having to rake back on the water and doing what we could to de power the boat. The first time we raked back so far that the boom was resting on the metal mainsheet hoarse. During the 4th race we nearly capsized multiple times and got so far behind that when the boat in front retired, we didn’t know where we were going! We decided to call it quits after we were finished on the water and went in forfeiting our discard but still qualified. Overall, we came 21st or Fourth in the bronze fleet which won us a couple of Allen T-shirts. We had a great day and we’re looking forward to doing more events in the future representing Trimpley not just in the merlin but also solo and Robyn in the laser. Solo racing next year, I’ll be attempting to get more of us out on the water at the weekends and I’ll be trying to organise a day every month or so to get al the boats out on the water. Let me know what you would like to see us doing! This year I will once again try and take boat to the Himley Hall 6-hour race, and I will send out a message closer to the time to put a solo team together! I’ll keep you posted. Hope to see you all soon out on the water! David L 3407 solo midland series events Photo by Debbie Degg
The brave Trimpley sailors that took on the beast this year have represented the club well braving some testing conditions and on the first weekend surprisingly enjoyed champagne sailing conditions. I don’t think the beast was ready to wake up this winter! This year Keith and Ben came 17th, David and Robyn came 26th and Lesley and Nick came 32nd well done! The Bartley beast is a great event if you’re thinking about traveling and gives you an excuse to practice packing and unpacking your boat for an event. It’s a popular one for singlehanded classes as well as other doublehanded boats. Keep your eye on that WhatsApp groups next year and see if you can come along and crew for someone if you don’t want to commit to bringing your boat! Photo by Debbie Degg
I started sailing at Trimpley about 15 years ago, after my two sons learnt to sail at Upton Warren as part of after school activities at Comberton Primary School. Having been brought on a “Council Estate” up on the Isle of Wight I never had the opportunity there due to the elitist nature of sea sailing. After watching my sons learn I thought that I should give it a go. Heather, my wife, had been on a taste of sailing at Trimpley a few years earlier so I knew where to go. My taster was in a GP14 on a very windy weekend, I was ably trained by John Cookson. It was wild, fast and wet – John taught me my first capsize. But great fun. Mike Dalziel was also on the training course and we decided to buddy up and give it a go for real. We began joining the Saturday GP14 races using a club boat - with the ambition of getting round the course and not being lapped. After a few months of practice I took the plunge and bought and old wooden bright yellow GP14 - Nearly Cinq 12341 from a club member. Mike and I raced for a couple of years at Trimpley alternating helm and crew, buying sailing kit and increasing our ambition from not being lapped to not coming last! Occasionally and after much practice we started to improve …. and not always come last. I joined the GP 14 Association and benefited from the guidance on the website and access to Association training. It really is worth the £36 a year fee. With my teenage son, Henry, we participated in a sea training event at Llandudno – which was quite an experience – so easy to fly the spinnaker with a constant wind …. but waves and tides to contend with. Simon Fletcher and John Cookson encouraged Mike and me to start travelling and compete in the Midland Bell GP14 series. This is where I really learnt to sail. Mike and I would also swap helm and crew to help improve our skills. Which is not allowed. It wasn’t an issue until we started beating people and I took over helming full time! I think this persuaded Mike that sailing a single hander was a good idea and he began travelling with his laser. I was then on the hunt for another crew and eventually persuaded Ben to sail with me! I also upgraded to a Series 2 GP14 with underfloor buoyancy making it quicker to drain after a capsize. Ben Roberts I got into sailing originally as a kid; a fortunate combination of having read the Swallows and Amazons books and a teacher at school announcing he was starting a sailing club. I spent a few evenings at Upton Warren messing about in boats and thoroughly enjoyed it. I then discovered beer, amongst other things, and despite spending 3 years in Portsmouth at Uni never went anywhere near a dinghy until I had kids of my own, and we were looking for something to do as a family. WW A Taste of Sailing course at Trimpley in around 2007 got us on the water and I bought GP12311 for us to sail, and for a couple of years we had a few adventures – the Trimpley camping trips to Bala being a particular highlight. But after a while the rest of the family slipped away to other hobbies and the only involvement I had with Trimpley was turning up for duty and attending the occasional trip such as Plas Menai. On the Plas Menai trip in 2016, Keith gave me a lift home and whilst we were driving, he suggested we sail together and do a few opens. After some warm-ups at Trimpley over the autumn / winter, we hit the Midlands Bell circuit in the spring of 2017. Our aims were to have fun, not come last and not get lapped. Sometimes we achieved all three! After a season of opens and a re-visit to Plas Menai, we somehow persuaded ourselves that we should enter the World Championship in Mounts Bay in 2018. I think Keith had mentioned it as a joke, and when I told my wife Vanessa she laughed and said “you must be kidding, you’re always coming last!”, so I took the insult as permission! Ben was keen to race at Trimpley and on the Midland club circuit – we have been sailing together now for about eight years and have competed in various events including two GP14 World Championships at Mounts Bay in 2018 and Skerries in 2022. During Covid I bought a Solo and learnt to sail it a Bartley SC on Wednesday afternoons. Seems a long time ago getting changed in a carpark! I think the best place I have sailed is Mounts Bay in Cornwall – the first race of the World’s was quite a baptism – 2m swell, wind over tide (so a bit choppy) and we had never raced on the sea before. All going well until we could see the finish line and trying to surf the swell, centre board up for extra speed (no one told us that you don’t do that downwind in the sea with big waves). So, we slide off the wave and had our first capsize a mile or so out to sea. Managed to get the boat up right and race to the finish. We completed all nine races at the World’s – many boats didn’t – and won the prize for the last boat that had completed all races. So, I think this was the worst performance (119th) and yet best in many ways – we learnt so much and had great fun. Sailing by the seat of our pants. We did much better in Skerries finishing 74th out of 104 boats. You cant beat sailing in a fleet of over 100 boats! My top tip if you are just starting out is to get racing as soon as possible. It gives a sense of purpose to sailing at Trimpley and as soon as you are confident, and not getting lapped, then start travelling and compete in the Midlands Open Series. By sailing at other clubs you will gain new skills, meet new people and have more fun! That first Worlds at Mounts Bay remains the stand-out event for me over the years of sailing. Such an adventure, and a steep learning curve, but with camaraderie, friendship and support galore off the water. Storm Darren (or some such) had blown through on the Saturday night/Sunday Morning and we sheltered in the clubhouse watching the windows flex under the wind gusts at the time we should have been starting the first race. On the Monday, the 2m swell, still gusting winds, the hour’s sailing to just get to the start, 3 races back-to-back and an hour sail back to shore was an absolute baptism of fire. Whilst sailing as a crew and learning with Keith was fulfilling, I wanted to have the opportunity to helm as well. I figured the more experience I had helming, the more I’d understand about sail control and what Keith was trying to tell me about tactics while we were on the water. I spotted that Bartley Sailing club had a decent Solo fleet, would be on my way home from work and had a lively mid-week scene during the summer months. I’d also placed an outrageous bid on an old Solo on Ebay which somehow had won, so I joined Bartley as a midweek sailor in the Solo fleet in the summer of 2017. I remain a member at Bartley for the midweek sailing (whilst remaining at Trimpley as my ‘home’ club) and have improved through sailing there, I think as both helm of a Solo and Crew of the GP. I spent almost 10 years as a boat owner at Trimpley with little advance in my skills from the day I completed the Taste of Sailing course. It was only due to Keith dragging me out to the GP Opens that my skills began to develop, and I think this should be a key lesson for all new sailors looking to improve: Sail competitively and you learn quickly, pootle around and you stagnate. Funnily enough, as my skills improved, I enjoyed myself more, a virtuous circle! New sailors at Trimpley are fortunate indeed - we are a welcoming club where new racing members are helped and coached along. But as your confidence grows, the place to go is the Open circuit as by sailing at other clubs you get to know all aspects of sailing – boat break-down and set-up, reading the wind patterns and the likely ‘lift’ areas given the lay of the land, how your set-up affects boat speed, and finally the tactics of racing in a fleet.
You may have noticed the questions and feedback box that was situated in the entrance foyer towards the end of last year (2023). In case you were wondering what that was all about, well it was to gather some up to date feedback about the club from members, which will be used to inform our Club Development Plan, which is currently ongoing. The Club Development Plan is a means by which we can look at general membership trends which constantly evolve over the years. This helps with forward planning, identifying what we do well, and where we need to improve as a club. Members feedback is invaluable for gauging where we are now as a club, and also to guide us in identifying and prioritising future projects. Our members are our most valuable asset. The club is here because you enjoy the activities that we can provide and your continuing membership and regular attendance ensures our survival. However change is constant in our lives, and new faces will we hope, arrive to replace those who move on to other opportunities. We cannot stand still as a club either, we must change and adapt our provision of on and off water activities to encourage new members to join us and existing members to stay. That is what the Club Development Plan is about. Providing a clear vision of what sort of club we want to be in future years, and identifying the steps we need to start taking now to get there. For more information and details of club profiling there will be a short presentation after the AGM on February 28th in the clubhouse. We would like to hear from any members who may be interested in helping with this process which we anticipate would be complete in the Spring. Please contact Allison Blakeway or Lesley Freeman for more information. boat maintanence There has been lots of work done to keep the club fleet in good working order! So far Robyn and David have restored an old topper to replace Topper two which was suffering severe delamination causing it to take on water. The hull that replaces it has been given a new lease of life now the original colour has been restored with two Days’ work with all parts transferred from the old hull. Another topper will be restored and pressed into service before the start of the season. The lottery funded GP14s will soon have their new HD sails put on them in the spring, the old ones will remain in place for the winter so we can keep the new sails dry in the clubhouse! When these sails go on the boats please look after them and put them away properly as you find them.
News from the Toppers On 10th February, we were offered the opportunity to run Round 6 of the ITCA Midlands Traveller series due to an unforeseen diary clash at Staunton Harold. Club members rallied together to assist the day (for which ITCA was grateful), and we hosted 15 young sailors. In typical Trimpley fashion, we started the day with mist and a very light and patchy breeze, which built throughout the morning and into the afternoon. We saw Trimpley sailors Jacob lead the first two races, and Isobel achieving 5th and 7th respectively. In the afternoon, current series lead, Oscar, stepped up to lead the third and fourth races, with Jacob achieving third in both. Isobel repeated her scores from the morning. Isobel, entering her first Traveller, achieved sixth place overall, whilst Jacob took his first ever Traveller event win. Both did really well, so massive congratulations to them both. £15 vouchers for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were provided through Club Sponsors, the Sailing Chandlery. Our thanks to them for their support. The 2023-24 Topper Traveller series has run since September, is due to end at Draycote in April. Trimpley’s representative throughout the series, Jacob, has ding-donged with the current lead, Oscar (from Draycote Sailing Club), with just one point separating them throughout the whole series. It’s all to play for, so good luck from Trimpley Jacob, we’re all behind you.
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