I am Michael Austin and I have been elected to the ESC
Committee as the “Sailing Member”.The
Committee has asked me to produce a programme for the coming year and they have
expressed interest in organized sailing instruction and racing.If you are interested in taking part in the
racing or instruction programmes outlined below, please try to come to an
informal get-together to discuss the way ahead at
The Clubhouse on
Sunday 21st June at 1500 hrs (3pm).
The annual visit of
the Kaazi Club is scheduled for the weekend of 12th to 14th June, although
as of today (25th May) they have not finally confirmed this.They will be organizing a programme of Laser
races over the 13th and 14th and I understand it will be open to ESC members to
enter.I hope we will have one or two
Club Lasers available if you do not have your own boat.Even if you do not wish to race, please come
along to watch the racing, which I am sure will be keenly contested and
exciting.The Committee will also
organize a party on the Saturday evening, to which all members are invited.
ESC Racing If you
are interested in taking part in our own racing programme, whether you have
raced before or not, please contact me, either by email michaelkayizi@yahoo.co.uk or by
putting your name and contact details on one of my notices at the Club.I cannot be certain how these will be run
until I know what response there is from the membership.Races for Lasers using only Club boats may
have to be organized as a series of short match races ie. two boats at a time,
and the same could be done for children (or suitably small adults) using the
two Club Optimists.If there is
sufficient interest, longer, multi-boat Laser races could be held.As this is very much in the nature of an
experiment, trying to bring racing back to the ESC, it will all be very
informal and nothing to scare you, even if you have not raced before.I will be happy to give some preliminary instruction
and organize trial or beginners’ races if there is a need.Please try to come to the get-together on
21st June.
Sailing Instruction,
I must preface this section by making it clear that I have no formal
qualification as a sailing instructor but in the past I have been successful in
teaching beginners to sail. I hope to have my own small cabin sailboat in the
near future and this will make a suitable base for practical instruction for
Beginners and also for what I might call “Improvers”, who can also use the Club
Lasers, when available.In addition to
actual sailing, I suggest that occasional sessions on dry land can be a useful
backup, covering such things as, theory of sailing, rules of the road, knots
and splices. If you are interested in the instruction programme, please contact
me, either by email michaelkayizi@yahoo.co.uk
or by putting your name and contact details on one of my notices at the Club.
Please try to come to the get-together on 21st June.
Club Boats - Having
recently done a survey of the Club Lasers I am very aware that there is quite a
lot to do to bring the fleet of five boats up to a seaworthy standard.In particular, a number of the spars are
missing.The Committee wishes to improve
this situation as soon as possible.