Great news - all children with previous sailing experience have had the chance to attend a Friday session during the Easter holidays, and will continue to be able to attend training fortnightly. The extra session on the Wednesday after Easter was a great success and our extra precautions and administration due to COVID are proving to be up to the job.

Teaching Groups will be quite fluid as those who haven’t been able to get on the water must remember what they learnt almost 18 months ago. The instructors will assess each student and those who are confident will be moved up, and those who aren’t quite as confident as they thought they were will be put in a group which is more supportive for them. The most important thing that we can teach is have fun on the water and enjoy sailing at whatever level you sail at.

It’s been lovely to see Juniors participating in the free sailing and club racing too (both as helms and as crews). Special mentions are needed for the Easter Racing, where Henry Reed was 6th and Harriet Paley won - many congratulations!

The beginners will be added to the training rota from Friday 23rd April for weekly sessions with components on and off the water. We can’t wait to get you all started on your sailing adventure! We will be contacting parents by email to confirm their child’s sessions, and once at the Club we will show you where to find things, and how to help the instructors ensure the sessions run smoothly.

Our plan is to revert to full strength weekly sessions as Stage 3 of the regulations come into force, from 17th May- watch this space.

Please can all parents join Slack- this will be our main communication method- you should have received a link to sign up.

   SYC JUNIOR REGATTA 14th-17th AUGUST   

   FREE FOR ALL SYC JUNIOR SAILORS   

The first Club working party of the 2021 season will be next Saturday morning, 24 April.

SYC working parties offer an opportunity for members to make a voluntary hands-on contribution to keeping our Club pleasant and tidy for all, whilst getting to know others whom you have not met before. Work normally starts at 10am and continues until lunchtime.

Three working parties are planned for the 2021 season. On the grounds that you might like to meet other members with similar sailing interests, we suggest that Day Sailors (including Dinghy Cruisers) join us on 24 April, Junior families on 17 July and Racers on 25 September - but any member is welcome to join any working party or even all three! Many hands make light work.

The main agenda for next Saturday is to treat the benches on the Clubhouse decking with wood preservative, and - as ever - to clear the foreshore of shingle and rubble washed up in the winter storms.

• Please remember to observe Covid-19 rules on this occasion, as for all SYC events.

With the increased number of boats participating in recent races the OOD team need to be quick at scrolling to keep up - particularly when boats are lapping quickly. The raceManager has an alternate display for dealing with this - but it is not a well known feature. You might want to try this next time you are OOD (I almost always use this screen for lap timing).

Figure 1 - EasyTimer Screen
click to expand

To access the alternate view - on the Timer Page click the EasyTimer button. A display will pop up with the boats organised by sail number (instead of fleet) as shown in Figure 1. The first column has boats with sailnumbers starting with "1", second column with "2" and so on. You can see that you can access all the boats without scrolling - this screen shows the 51 entries from last weekend.

During April we will be making a couple of small changes to the course board to hopefully resolve a couple of issues that we have been living with for some time.  The diagram below illustrates the changes.

Click image to get full size diagram

The white FLEET boards on the left hand side of the board have been introduced to make it absolutely clear which course each fleet is sailing.  Those of us have been racing at SYC for some years have become used to the implied course indicated by the lap boards, but we hope the new approach of explicitly labelling the fleet using a course will make it easier for new members and existing members just starting to race.  As well as the fleet boards shown in the diagram there are additional boards that can be used for trophy races, junior fleets and pursuit race fleets.  

The other change is the blue board at the top left of the course board.  When this is in place it means that the OOD considers the course to be "set", and any changes will be subject to a Flag C signal to indicate the course has been changed.  If the blue board is not in place this indicates that the OOD is still deliberating on the final course(s) to use and you should be aware that the it may change without a Flag C signal.  The intent of course is that OOD will set the blue board as soon as they are happy with the course.

I will place a poster describing the use of the course board in the race box and next to the course board itself.

Unfortunately these changes will not stop me sailing the wrong course!

Your Junior Committee have been meeting and planning how to return safely to the Friday training sessions taking into account RYA and Government guidance. We have decided the best way will be to start with smaller groups, then as we find out what works and what doesn’t we will be able to accommodate more children, helped by evenings lengthening out and the weather warming up.  So the plan for the restart is as follows . . .

Friday 26th March 1800hrs via Zoom
This meeting has been recorded as we understand the link wasn't sent to everyone. The recording will now be emailed to everyone.

Friday 2nd April (Good Friday) from 1030hrs.
We need help from parents to prepare Safety Boat equipment and accessories and check that everything is good to go. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are available to help. A great way to meet 5 other people who haven’t heard all your jokes before!

Saturday 3rd April (Easter Saturday)
Club free sailing. Juniors welcome too!

Friday 9th April 1500-1800hrs
First coaching session- limited to the more experienced children. You will be notified if your child is in this session. Help from parents readying the club boats for the beginners to use.

We will keep you updated as we are able to get more of your children on the water. Any questions please contact Jane Hill on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS
A Starcross Junior Regatta will run this year from Saturday 14th - Tuesday 17th August. FREE ENTRY to all Juniors enrolled on the Starcross Junior Training. More details will be following soon.  Save the date!

At SYC we have approximately 400 end-of-life tyres supporting our watercraft in one way or another. The advantage has been that they are normally free to anyone who wants them. The problem is disposing of the tyres after this usage. It is a costly process, especially for perished tyres, as their composite materials do not easily lend themselves to shredding or chipping. 400 tyres will weigh about 3200 kg and that does not include the stagnant rainwater contained in their hollow interiors.

(See updated Starcross YC COVID-19 Secure Policy)

I'm not sure what I have done to deserve the penance of trying to make sense of the government's COVID regulations and the RYA's COVID guidelines, but that seems to be my life at the moment. Changes made by both organisations mean that we need to make some changes to our COVID procedures if we want to remain on the right side of the law. Please read the following carefully as it applies to ALL members.

The club is required to keep contact details of EVERY visitor to the club premises. For participants in the racing we can use the sign on details you give us through the online system when you enter the race. For free sailors and those who leisure sail during the week we have introduced a similar online system that allows you to register your visits. For members doing club duties (OOD, safety boat, galley) we can use the dutyman records. These systems will cover the majority of visits to the club but there is still a significant minority of visits not covered - for example, family members watching the racing or freesailing, boat bimblers, contractors etc. For these visits we offer a couple of options for you - either complete one of the paper slips that are available from the Members' Room porch and post it in the box provided, OR if you have downloaded the government's contact tracing app, scan the club's QR code which you can find displayed at various points on the club premises.

We are legally required to keep a record of all visitors to the SYC site. (See also Starcross YC COVID-19 Secure Policy.)
If you haven't signed on for racing, Free Sailing or individual sailing, or entered your name in the sign-on book (see end of article), you can register your presence using the NHS App instead.

• Download and install the correct App
  (Android or iOS) 

• At SYC, open the App and select 'Venue check-in'

• Point your phone at the poster (several placed around the Club) from about 2 ft away. Within seconds…